The first thing that makes a house worth showing is that it meets the clients stated and desired requirements. The most common complaint from home buyers is that USHUD real estate agents don’t show them what they want to buy but instead show them homes that are listed in their office or by the agent themselves. This is done for several reasons. First the agent wants to be able to tell their listings that they showed their home to someone. Second they are taught from their very first day in USHUD real estate to show their own listings in order to double their potential income on a listing. Then they are pushed by their broker to show their brokerages properties as if every agent were to do this the entire company benefits.
This showing practice is rather outdated as the internet has made experts out of all homebuyers.
What makes a house worth showing is not the listing agent or brokerage. It is the desires of the buyer. If they want to see a home that has four beds and three baths we better show them those homes even if the home is out of their desired price range. This education process is part of our jobs and we had better do it or we will fall into the trap of showing properties that the buyer doesn’t really want to see and creating a feeling that we don’t listen to them. We need to allow the buyer time to educate themselves through our guidance and patience.
Buyers know little to nothing of USHUD real estate even with the internet. Many times they believe that if the market is soft that the seller is going to be very flexible. What is not in the equation and what most people fail to consider is that there is more often than not a mortgage on the home and that needs to be paid off in order to allow the seller move.
There are short sales but that is a battle that few have the stomach for and the price difference between a traditional resale and a short sale if broken down into monthly payments can often be less than the cost of lunch.
Another important requirement is that the home is on the market now. Future listings are dangerous as people generally want what they cannot have. If the seller were to change their minds of some other outside of our control force comes up, there is a 95% chance that the buyer will decide that is the house they wanted. This leaves us scrambling to find the same house or a similar house to the one that never came on the market. Vest pocket listings or insider knowledge is great but we need to use it wisely and not get too far ahead of the game.