GREAT question however many realtors can work with a family who choice run very slow of touring a homes, or like a home determine cancel remaining homes schedule

Realtors may not consider canceling an appt. notify the home owner .

Recommend WHEN you see a car pull then vacate home other than that hang there a Realtor may not show up.

I understand frustrations.

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Lynn911

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No code of ethics concerning showing houses, not even a standard of practice.
I know that selling the home you're living in is stressful, but I ask my sellers to just make the best of it, prepare and act as if every visitor is THE ONE, and repeat until closing.

as a recent homebuyer, my perspective is slightly different. i never looked at a house that i wasn't qualified to bid on, but that's me. that said, i saw DOZENS of houses from the curb that just weren't right...but it took going to the curb to know it. the stats were good (lot size, bedrooms, garage, etc, etc), the price in the right range, even nice pictures on the agent's website, but seeing it at the curb told me everything that i needed to know: not even worth going in because i'd never bid, not even lowball.

i did a lot of homework on my own, so there were many "drive-bys" that i did without troubling an agent or the seller -- but this was also for my benefit, as i wasn't moving far from my last home and could evaluate a bunch of houses in a couple hours after work. for someone relying more heavily on an agent or moving from farther away, this isn't always possible or convenient.

for me, i knew what i wanted, but there were enough intangibles about it that it was difficult to articulate clearly. so many homes that seemed to fit the bill just didn't when i saw them. when i saw the house i ultimately bought, i knew right away. liked it from the curb, went through it on a friday evening, again on sunday and made a bid on monday.

there's a lot to selecting a place to call home and a big part of it isn't rational, so while there may be a number of folks out there who aren't really serious or qualified, it might just be that they don't see themselves living there for reasons that having nothing to do with seriousness or qualifications.

i think the pros here have made some excellent points about showing and price, but thought my buyer's perspective might be useful to you.

hang in there! good luck!

Unfortunately, the issue you're dealing with is one of professionalism and business sense, not ethics.

In the down economy, most anyone who is bored on a Sunday could call 10 agents and ask to see a multiple homes, and 8 of those agents wouldn't even ask your name. They're hungry for business and therefore will gladly play taxi cab for most anyone who calls with the hope that something might come from it.

I wish I could honestly tell you what you're experiencing is the exception rather than the rule, but I can't. You can't control what agents (other than your own) do or how they run their business which makes things very frustrating. Hopefully, your agent told you what I tell all my sellers. Selling a home is more often than not a royal pain in the rear because there are so many different people involved...buyers, buyer agent, inspector, lender, title company / attorney, etc., and one of them can cause a problem in a transaction.

It is a profesional courtesy to call the owner if the buyer's plans have changed and they decided not to look at a home that was already scheduled for a viewing. As you now know, one person's perception of professionalism differs vastly from another's.

Beth, lots of good thoughts and comments from others already. One question that went through my mind when you talked about all of your efforts in getting your home "ready to show". Is it easy to show your home? If I called from the curb could I expect that you might say "just give me 10 minutes to do a couple things" or would you say that you need a couple hours or a day before I could come in? Real Estate is a business where the "word" gets around about a "great house", "that house with the iguana", or "that house that's hard to show". Most of us understand that people are living in a home and on any given day it might not meet the sellers expectations for "showing". Sometimes a buyer buys a home where the beds aren't made and the dishes are in the sink.

I would also echo the questions about pricing. Ask your agent for information on the absorption rate in your area and price range. That will tell you how long it will take to sell all of the homes currently for sale and give you an idea of your time to sell. You might need to make some changes. Listen to your real estate professional and if you aren't getting good answers or ideas tell them they aren't meeting your expectations and see what they can do to make changes. Selling a home takes coordination and cooperation from seller and agent.

Hi Beth,

Definitely, your attention to detail should be commended as you are doing everything you possibly can to sell your house and help your listing agent, which is great! Seller cooperation is what every listing agent needs and wants. Keep in mind though, the most important thing about your house is the PRICE so i hope you are priced correctly and competitively since ultimately that is what will bring the buyers into your house and get them interested. I'm not in Philly but I'm sure there's alot of competition on the market. Your house should not only be the best looking in the price range, it should be the lowest priced home out of all the comps. And by lowest priced, i don't mean a few thousand dollars but something substantial to get buyers excited. For instance, if all the other houses similar to yours in age, size, and neighborhood average 350k...you should be a good 10k - 15k cheaper and the lowest comp. That will give you a competitive edge and get the buyers in the door. No one is going to pay you more money because you washed your windows....clean windows are great but you may be focusing on the wrong thing.

Also, try not to obsess or get completely anal about the showings. Keep your home nice and clean but if it looks a bit lived in, that's OK! And you have have to expect that some showings are just looky-loos, some may be not qualified, and some may not be even ready to buy but you still got to let them look if you want as mayny opportunities as possible to sell your home. That's just the way it is and you have to accept that. Think about it, if you owned a clothing store are you going to grill each and every person that walks through the door and demand to see their money or credit card balance? No, of course not! That would be ridiculous and after a while, no one would want to go near your store no matter what you had in there. Same thing goes with your house! I'm sure the showing agents try their best to qualify their buyers as they don't want to waste thier time either but you cannot alienate your client or come off demanding or else they are going to go elsewhere. It's a delicate balance.

My advice to you is to continue to cooperate with the showings and keep the house tidy but you don't have to go overboard like you have been! Stick the dog in the garage or for a walk but he doesn't have to go to doggie daycare...that's a bit crazy! Lighten up a bit, make sure your pricing is the lowest around, and you are bound to get some bites. And the bottom line is that no matter how low you think you have priced your house, if no one is making an offer....it's still not low enough!!!!!!

Beth,

Since the other responders addressed your showing concerns, I would like to address the issue of time on the market and lack of offers. From your description, appears your house has been on the market quite some time. You say the last buyer didn't appear to even enter the house.

When this is the case, it is usually because there is a strong disconnect between what the buyer thought he would be seeing and what actually is. Have you taken an objective look at your home from the outside? If you cannot be objective, ask a friend or family member to do it for you. If the outside appearance does not correlate to the asking price, buyers will balk at entering. While a realtor can "drag" a client inside, it is hard to overcome that first impression. If there are exterior issues beyond your control, i.e. unattractive neighborhood, your price has to reflect it. If the issues are within you control, fix them or adjust your price accordingly. It may actually take a combination of both to attract the qualified buyer.

Did your realtor give you feedback from buyers agents who showed the house? If not, make sure she does then heed what the buyers are saying.

Our office has a policy to only take out pre-approved buyers. If a buyer changes their mind before we go out, we try to call and cancel the appointment, but we don't always know in advance. Even with good, solid buyers, sometimes when they see a home there is something that they don't like and don't want to waste their time going through it. In particular, buyers who have not ever sold a home will do this since they really don't know all the work a seller puts into a home to make it "showable". If I think it might really be right for a buyer, I may try to convince them to go through it anyway since we're there but that doesn't always work. The bottom line is that Realtors, no matter how good they are, are dealing with other human beings. Some are thoughtful, some are not. Ask your Realtor to contact the buyer's agent and ask why they didn't go through your home. Maybe something is missing on your curb appeal, maybe the buyers had an emergency or maybe your home just wasn't right for them.

There is no code of ethics with regard to showing of homes. It will really depend on the "relationship" that the realtor has with his/her client as to whether or not they will follow through with the appointment. First of all, my process IS to try and pre-qualify my clients before we start viewing homes. This will allow us to actually see homes that they can make an offer on IMMEDIATELY if they like it e.g., meets their criteria. As the consultant for the client it is my job to make sure we do not "waste" anyone's time. That being said sometimes a house is priced in our range but it may not be "priced right" e.g., should be lower or higher so if we "drive by" we may decide to pass. Very infrequently we may run out of time and need to reschedule. This happens when we have seen a few homes that ARE of interest and more time is taken to view them. In that case, the agent to call to cancel the appointment. It's not really about code of ethics but it is the level of professionalism and courtesy that each of us should have for both buyer(s) and seller(s). Hope this helps...

In a nutshell, sometimes when we arrive at a home, the buyers reject it from the street. Even reputable realtors schedule first appointments with buyers who arrive and oops, forgot their preapproval or "don't worry, I can afford it". Not everyone does everything the way we want them to when we want them to. Selling a home is stressful, go with the flow and bear with it. If you haven't had a showing in 40 days I suggest you take a hard look at the price. If people are rejecting your house from the curb, take a REALLY hard look at your price.

You can specifiy 'purchaser must provide preapproval letter to listing agent prior to scheduling a showing'. Unfortunately, we often get 'preapproval' letters that aren't worth the paper they are on. For a while, the wording was 'preapproval from local lender' or something simliar. Sometimes, we make the appointment for the buyer and they tell us when we arrive to skip it for various reasons. they may not realize until after arriving that they don't like something about the positioning or location of the house but again, we don't know that until we arrive and would not want to risk judging the house for our buyers and telling them to not bother. Hope everyone is feeling better.