Guilty Until Proven Innocent?

How do you know a would-be home seller has just suffered a rash of cancellations and no-shows?

Their agent (known as the listing agent) grills the next couple Buyer’s agents trying to show the property.

no-showThat can be by email, voicemail, text or even by requiring a “chaperoned showing”:  that is, the listing agent must be present for all showings (time-intensive and potentially intrusive, but makes Buyers’ agents much more accountable).

“Chaperoned Showings”

While a rash of “no shows” is frustrating and disappointing for all Sellers, they can be especially demoralizing for upper bracket home owners.

I see two reasons for that:

One. Financial hurdle.

Showings for upper bracket homes are automatically fewer and further between to begin with.

At least in the Twin Cities, the air is a lot thinner north of $1.5 million than it is under $300k.

That translates into longer market time, and fewer — albeit financially very strong — suitors.

Fewer Suitors

Reason #2 is logistics.

Specifically, it takes more work to prep an upper bracket home for showings, because they’re bigger and often have lots of extra features (note:  that also makes them more fun to market and sell!).

As an agent hosting a Broker open or (public) Sunday open house, I know that just getting the lights on in a +6,000 square foot home can take 10-15 minutes (step #1:  finding them all).

Properly cleaning such a home can easily be a day-long project for a cleaning service.

Ergo, that’s a lot of time and money — and Seller emotion — to flush when the Buyer inexplicably decides to cancel, last minute.

Rude Realtors?  Maybe Not.

Having been on both sides of the “no show” coin many times, I know that while sometimes the explanation is simple rudeness, other times it can (legitimately) be a client’s work oathemergency, sick kid, nightmare traffic, or a delayed plane home from a business trip.

Of course, it can also be that the Buyer simply changed their mind(s), decided to buy another home, or 17 other reasons.

Whatever the explanation, the best policy for Buyer’s agents caught in the middle is to communicate any change in plans as expeditiously as possible to the listing agent, coupled with a sincere apology to both the owner and listing agent (especially important if they intend to reschedule).

Meanwhile, aggrieved listing agents — once they’ve calmed themselves and their Seller down, in that order — should chill, and presume that future Buyers’ agents are innocent until proven guilty.

P.S.:  I handled one sale this Summer where the listing agent’s email automatically tacked on this clause at the end:  “please acknowledge that you’ve received this email.”

That was the case even for emails they sent simply saying “thanks” or “sounds good.”

After about half a dozen of those, I simply ignored the request . . .

See also, “16-Second Showing?  I’ve Had a Couple of Those . . . “; “Bell Curves, Home Showings, and the Odds of Getting an Offer: Why Home Sellers Shouldn’t Get Too Excited About a 1st Showing.

About the author

Ross Kaplan has 19+ years experience selling real estate all over the Twin Cities. He is also a 12-time consecutive "Super Real Estate Agent," as determined by Mpls. - St. Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business Magazine. Prior to becoming a Realtor, Ross was an attorney (corporate law), CPA, and entrepreneur. He holds an economics degree from Stanford.

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