Avoid scenarios that are unsafe or a waste of the seller’s time

Key Takeaways

• Use an abundance of caution when showing homes alone or in unsafe areas.
• Narrow the list of homes to show according to your client’s needs. Cancel showings that know won’t work for them.
• Showing homes that aren’t ready results in frustrated buyers and low offers.

There are indeed times when you should not show a home.

It’s tempting when someone is looking at a real estate yard sign and phoning you to show the home right then. You can say yes, but before you do, ask enough questions to make yourself comfortable. Not only do you want to protect your safety, but you want to make sure you’re not wasting your time — or the seller’s.

Safety First

Be wary of showing vacant or foreclosure homes, and avoid questionable areas at the wrong time of day or night. Use common sense and an abundance of caution, and don’t put yourself in a compromising situation.

Trouble can find you even in a good neighborhood. Many of the female agents in my office will not show the basement of a home. It’s about knowing your comfort zone and taking extra precautions. You can say your broker requires you to operate that way, if needed.

Narrow the List

Don’t show 20 or 30 homes in a day. When I see an agent show a client that many homes in a day, it proves to me they didn’t ask enough questions or learn enough about their client’s needs.

Instead, schedule a batch of showings first and pick homes that are significantly different from each other. During that first outing, you can identify what criteria is a no-go for your client.

Use that information to narrow the list the client has given you. For example, if the clients decide they don’t prefer homes with the master bedroom upstairs, that tells you what other homes you can cross off their list. Call ahead and cancel those showings.

Never Show a Home until It’s Ready

Excluding foreclosures and other distressed properties, if the home doesn’t show its best, it’s rarely worth having a buyer see it.

In most cases, I’ve found it’s a mistake to show a home when it’s not spruced up, clean, with the lights on, etc., because even if the buyers are interested, the offer they write will not be as strong as it could have been. Therefore, the odds of getting to an agreeable price with the seller are low.  

Let’s say buyers have a short window of availability, and they tell you at the last minute there’s a home they’d like to see before they leave town. You call the seller to schedule a showing, and they say they’ve got something torn up or the house is a mess.

Agents often go ahead and allow the showing and warn their client the house doesn’t look great. Even when the buyers say they understand, it’s almost always an unwise decision to show that house. If you show a buyer a house that is not show-ready and not in its best condition, it could backfire on you.

It’s really important that you understand this point: Buyers have so little imagination (even though they think they have an open mind). If the house is not clean, or it’s dark and the blinds are shut, that will have an impact on them. It’s rare that a buyer will look past a house that smells or doesn’t show well. They won’t have a positive emotional experience with that house.

If they had seen it in its best condition, they might have fallen in love with it.