Last Saturday afternoon I attempted to schedule 7 appointments to show homes in Clermont, Florida on Sunday. Our MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is equipped with an automated showing button that allows you to register and receive showing instructions online. Being the e-PRO agent that I am, I love this feature, the only problem was... none of the agents had enabled the feature, so when I clicked on the link I was told no showing information was available at this time. Very disapointing! I picked up my phone and started dialing with the following results.
SATURDAY -
- 3 Agents answered their cell phones and gave me showing instructions. Yeah!
- I talked to 1 agent who said that I would have to come to her office to pick up the key because there was no lock box and she was not available to open the house for us - it was a pain, but I did it.
- I left messages (on every phone number provided in the MLS) for 3 agents who did not call me back that day. 1 of those agents was out of the country and gave another number to call in the UK to leave a message for him, and he was the broker of his own company with a voicemail at his office too.
SUNDAY - Called the 3 remaining agents several times starting at 9am:
- 1 told me that the house had been leased, they were offering a lease option and he would get it removed from the MLS this week.
- 1 told me that she didn't receive the previous 3 messages I had left, and called the sellers who had to frantically get ready for a showing at noon.
- Yes, There was still no response from the agent in the UK, did I mention the house has been on the market almost a year. He did call me back on Monday afternoon and I told him that we had written a contract on one of the homes we had seen the day before. I'm sorry, but I couldn't wait to hear from him, the house was vacant and there was no lock box on the front door. No wonder it's been on the market forever almost a year... I tried!
How do you prefer to handle showings?
Do you make it as easy as possible for buyers to see your listings?
Debbie Summers, REALTOR®, ALHS, e-PRO, 407-758-1020 or Debbie@CasAndDebbie.com
Please contact Cas and Debbie for all of your real estate needs in Seminole County, Lake Mary, Sanford, Longwood, Altamonte Springs, Casselberry, Winter Springs, Oviedo, Winter Park, Apopka and Orlando.
Debbie,
I try to attend every viewing I can, and get my seller out of the house. I don't want the buyer to get away if it is a good fit. You never know how good the other agent is at showing property either.
Hi Debbie,
We do everything we can to be available for showings or instructions. We leave office numbers as well as cell numbers to reach us. When an agent leaves a message, we call back asap! How else can we get a property sold if we're not available. I guess some agents just don't get that. Have a nice day. Michael A. Caruso
Hi Debbie,
We do everything we can to be available for showings or instructions. We leave office numbers as well as cell numbers to reach us. When an agent leaves a message, we call back asap! How else can we get a property sold if we're not available. I guess some agents just don't get that. Have a nice day. Michael A. Caruso
I had a call at about 540 on Thursday, from another agent that wanted to show the home at 630-700, I called my sellers who were on thier way home, got permission to have it shown ( they needed a little time to straighten up) and called the other agent right back. The home was shown at 7, I try to get work to get my homes sold.
Our MLS has showing instructions in the listing (only viewable by agents). Maybe you can get your MLS to REQUIRE that field be filled in? Many agents are turning to the Centralized Showing Service http://www.showings.com/ - so the agent doesn't have to answer the phone (they schedule everything and gather feedback follow up) you might encourage this for listing agents.
As a listing agent, if the house is not vacant, then I have them call the seller directly to leave a message and go. I tell my sellers that's pretty much what they have to do - and for the most part they do it. If it's vacant, the listing says so and says "just go, show and sell".
I'm so glad that in my corner of the world most showings are arranged directly between sellers and the showing agents. When I have to contact an agent first the chances of showing that house decrease dramatically. I work with a lot of relo buyers who are out for a short window of time. We change courses often and it cannot alway be planned out days in advance.
Wait till the listing #3 expires. Maybe you can get the listing. Does not look it will be sold anytime soon. Get the listing. In the meantime hope you find your buyers a nice house.
For starters, every listing has a lockbox. Plus we have a receptionist in the office to schedule appointments daily. Also we have Saturday and Sunday hours in my office. So if by some slim chance, you can't reach the receptionist, then my cell number is listed on the MLS and I DO answer my phone and call to schedule the appt.
I love the idea of a Show Instructions button on the MLS, we do not have that yet. Agents now have to type it in. We are getting a new MLS system this month and hopefully that will be a feature. But it sounds like the feature is only as good as the information the agents put in. Some will do it and some are 'too busy'.
I've heard of people using showing services- I'm not aware if we have them here but they sound like a service I would check into.