Good Strategy for Seller’s to Remember (edit/delete)
It is a tough market for sellers right now. They aren’t sales people in most cases and are not used to all the rejection lately. My gosh, first of all, buyers and their agents really, call at the last minute and expect to get into a house that is perfectly staged and ready for their last minute arrival. Then the buyers quickly whiz through and leave. That makes the seller feel terrible inside. Wondering why they didn’t like their house. Here’s the good strategy part – for everyone involved this is a good strategy. “The seller needs to leave the house when the buyers come.”
How much heartache this could solve. There are many reasons…here are a few that come to mind.
1. Buyers are not comfortable walking into someone’s house – especially when it’s last minute. The feel a bit guilty and don’t actually want anyone to see who these last minute, non-planning people are.
2. Buyers won’t linger as long in a house they are uncomfortable in. They won’t open the closets or cupboards or the garage door or etc…. We want the buyers to look in these places – this means they are interested – or might get interested.
3. Sellers won’t be there to answer questions from the buyers – which typically shouldn’t be answered by sellers. Agents typically do the talking for fear the seller says the wrong thing to the buyer. A buyer’s agent knows what a buyer wants and what a buyer is looking for in a home and will ask the right questions and get the right answers to those questions. A seller may feel uncomfortable answering questions from buyers – why are you selling? where are you going? these may be personal questions better left unknown in some cases.
4. Sellers won’t feel as dejected when they are there and the buyer “whizzes through the house.” If they aren’t there they won’t know. Sometimes what we don’t know won’t hurt us.
5. A house starts to feel small if people are moving around and shuffling to get out of people’s way. Sellers – you want your house to feel and present itself as roomy as possible.
6. Most buyers’ agents don’t want the listing agent there either. This again makes people feel wary of why they have to be there. If I am asked to be there when a buyer and their agent are looking at a house, I usually wait outside and tell the agent to let me know if they have any questions. That I am there merely to answer any questions they might have about the house. Again…that makes the buyers’ agent not feel like they are doing their job. Like they are being watched if you will. No one wants to feel watched – it’s uncomfortable.
