Old Attitudes May Prevent The Sale of Your Home in Today’s Market
Last week, I had a client in from the States. She’s moving back to Toronto, and looking for a home in the million-dollar range. Since she could only be here for the week-end, I phoned six real estate offices to set up Saturday-morning showings.
But all of my calls hit brick walls.
One agent required appointments be within a half-hour period, a challenge when showing several houses. Another said the home could only be shown during certain hours. Yet another request I made to show a home, advertised as “land value only” was refused because the property could only be viewed while the seller’s agent was present!
So, if you are selling your home now, why would your agent make the buyer’s agent jump through hoops to show your home?
When I finally succeeded in making a single appointment, both my client and I had to rearrange our entire schedules to accomodate the sellers.
Hello! Hello! — am I the only one who knows the real estate market has changed, and that sellers no longer have the luxury of dictating when their home can be shown? In order to get your home sold today, it must be made available all day, every day (including weekends), at short notice, and with or without your agent present.
You should be aware that a home for sale in today’s market has a lot more competition than it did even a few months ago. In some Toronto neighborhoods, listings have increased 50%!
Buyers – not sellers – are now in the driver’s seat, and if you want to sell your home, buyers must be accommodated as much as humanly possible.
If you’re not flexible in making your home available, it will be dropped from the list of homes to be shown.
Hi Rosalyn, why would these agents obstruct the sale of a home. Is this common practice in the area. I am thinking of selling my home but this makes me very nervous. What would you do instead..Samuel
Hi Samuel,
Excellent comment.
I have responded to you privately.
Rosalin