The Seattle real estate market has been pretty interesting for the last few years – I guess it is always interesting, but this last year has been a ride! I spent a lot of time – more than usual – previewing Seattle homes over the last few days and although some sellers were gracious about letting me preview their beautiful Seattle homes, I ran into a whole host of third degree questions or showing constraints from listing agents or sellers that didn’t seem so interested in selling their homes….
One Seattle home had in it showing instructions to please give the seller and hour and a half notice. No problem – I made the phone call like a good girl and left a message with the time I wanted to preview. As I read further on, the agent only notes instructed me not to go show unless I got a call back. At appointment time I had not gotten a call back yet so I called the listing agent and asked if I could go take a peek. He told me no and that I needed to wait until she called me back. Guess what. I am still waiting. My buyers will pass on this one most likely since they can’t buy a home they can’t see.
One seller hesitated and said to call his agent. I thought okay – maybe with the strange Matrix software conversion in the MLS their house might be sold, but he could have told me that himself. I went ahead and called his agent as instructed to find out about previewing the home. Instead of telling me whether or not it was available to preview she began to interview me about who my perspective client is and how qualified they are. WOW.
Client info is privileged. My client confides in me and their information is PRIVATE. Your job is to tell me:
1. Is the home available or not?
2. Does the seller want to sell it or not?
Listing agents, it is none of your business who my client is or what their qualifications are. That is MY job. I don’t waste my time with nonqualified buyers or I would not be in business. You should be able to reasonably rely on my abilities and qualifications as a Realtor to screen my client. Maybe instead, you should focus on helping your seller make sure that their home is readily available for a buyer who is ready willing and able to buy their home. This is why sharing listing data (when it works) is so successful and is why we all share information in the NWMLS.
These are just a couple examples. Overall, I think there are two problems clogging up real estate in Seattle this Spring. The lending environment has opened up so I won’t blame lending on this issue. Brokers need to train their agents to make showing easier – greasy wheel and such, and those listing agents need to make sure that the sellers are allowing buyers and buyers agents to show these homes.
If your listing agent is doing some screening with prospective buyers as they try to make appointments to see your home, then you need another listing agent. There are of course rare circumstances – maybe you are Brad Pitt or in one case I represented an NFL star and all their expensive and sentimental football memorabilia was around the house. Those are outstanding cases, but overall your listing agent should not make it more difficult for a buyer’s agent to show your home!
Seller Tips for showing: If you as a seller are going to put your home on the market, then do everything in your power to make sure that every buyer interested in it can see it. You do not want them to go on to the next house and put an offer in that one because you wouldn’t let them see yours…I know putting your home on the market is stressful and difficult. I personally was a crazy woman the last time I had to go through it, but it is just part of the process and will pass eventually. There are some things you can do to make it easier – especially if you have kids or pets (I have both). I am happy to email you a set of tips I wrote up if you think it might help (courtney@cooperjacobs.com), but just hang in there! Your new house will be great and you have to get through this! You want every buyer possible to see your home in the best light!
End RantJ
