Buying a home can be very exciting for a lot of people and sometimes when excitement takes over patience can disappear, so when a new listing hits the market or they find a home they really like they want to see it “right now.” However being able to see a home in ten minutes or even 10 hours isn’t always possible. Looking at a home sounds simple, you just need an agent to open the door for you, but oftentimes it’s a lot more complicated than that because there are many intricacies to scheduling appointments to view homes.
Availability
First and foremost a majority of real estate agents aren’t sitting around waiting for a buyer to call them to go look at homes. In fact, many real estate agents have their day or even week already planned out, so the odds of an agent being able to jump in their car to show homes is unlikely. Now if the agent is working floor duty, which is when they sit at their brokerage’s front desk answering phones trying to pick up new clients it may be possible, but even if an agent is available seeing homes “right now” may not be possible due to reason #2; Jumping Through Hoops.
Jumping Through Hoops
Obtaining showing instructions to view a home isn’t always easy and sometimes it can take hours or days to schedule an appointment, even when the house for sale is vacant. Every listing agent handles showing instructions differently; sometimes the buyer’s agent needs to contact them for access and other times they’ll need to call an office that handles the showings or schedule online.
If the listing agent needs to be contacted they themselves might be busy and may not respond immediately to any showing requests. If the listing office or a showing company needs to be called they’ll have offices hours, which they aren’t open 24-7. Then the third option that might be available, scheduling online, can also take time to receive a response.
Once the buyer’s agent is able to connect with the person who’s in charge of scheduling appointments then there is the obstacle of viewing the property. Does the seller or tenant require 24-48 hour notice? Does the listing agent have to accompany? If so, now multiple peoples schedules need to align. Some sellers also have pets or kids that need to be removed from the home, so last minute appointments aren’t even an option.
Planning
Then there is the planning, if a buyer wants to view more than one home it can become a juggling act. One home may only allow showings from noon to 1:00pm while another home requires the agent to accompany and they aren’t available until 2:00pm. So the first step a buyers agent needs to take is looking at the showing instructions for each property and try to determine if a home can be easily shown or if there are restrictions, like 24-hour notice or agent accompany.
Then the agent has to map everything out, figure out what order they are going to view homes, approximately what time they will be arriving, guesstimate how long the buyer will take to look at the property and then calculate travel time to the next property. Why? Because a majority of owner-occupied properties only allow a 15-60 minute window to view their home, we can’t show up whenever we want. So if your agent miscalculates their time you may not be able to see one or more of the properties. Throw in agent accompany showings and the entire schedule may need to be completely readjusted around the listing agents’ availability.
In addition to getting every showing scheduled most agents will then have to go back and pinpoint exactly where each home is. Yes, a majority of agents will know where the street is, but do they know if the home is the 5th one on the left or 10th one on the right? In most cases they won’t know, so they’ll need to map it out ahead of time.
Some agents will memorize the location of the property on the MLS map, which is hopefully accurate and others will enter all of the addresses in their GPS, which once again requires time to do so. Then some agents may forgo taking this step altogether. However, when you’re on a tight schedule you can’t afford to get lost, so it’s important your agent knows where they’re going.
Qualifications
Lastly, will the house even work for you? Can you afford it? Are you pre-approved? Some home buyers want a home with at least 2,400 square feet and the home they want to view has 1,300. So to avoid wasting your time or anyone else’s time you should establish a relationship with a top Realtor so they can guide you through the entire buying process.
Final Thoughts
Viewing a home or homes isn’t as easy as opening a door, a majority of the time there is quite a bit of work an agent needs to do in order to show homes. With that being said a buyer will have a better chance of being the first in the door to see a new listing or a home they’re really interested in if they hire one Realtor. Yes, find one agent you feel is a good match and stick with that one agent. When you find something you like online send it to your agent, don’t contact another agent to ask questions or view homes, that’s what your agent is for.
If you think this article, 4 Reasons Home Buyers Can’t See Homes RIGHT NOW, was an interesting read and helpful, please share it across your social media platforms!
Looking at homes sounds simple, you just need an agent to open the door for you, but it’s not that easy and this article explains why. via @WellingtonHomez #realestate https://t.co/dedc2cST3w pic.twitter.com/ZQogLpjk3x
— Michelle Gibson (@WellingtonHomez) April 4, 2018
Additional Resources
- Why Every Home Buyer Needs A Mortgage Pre-Approval by Paul Sian
- Why Buyers Should Use a Realtor by Anita Clark
- Why Do Real Estate Agents Ask For A Pre-Approval? by Kyle Hiscock
- 10 Rules to Follow When Shopping for a Home by Sharon Paxson
- 7 Habits of Highly Effective Home Buyers by Bill Gassett
About the Author
The above real estate article “4 Reasons Home Buyers Can’t See Homes RIGHT NOW” was written by Michelle Gibson of Wellington Florida Real Estate. Specializing in residential real estate since 2001 Michelle Gibson is experienced in assisting buyer’s, seller’s, landlord’s, tenant’s and would love to share her knowledge and expertise and guide you through the entire real estate process.
We service the following areas; Wellington, Lake Worth, Royal Palm Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, Greenacres and more. If you are considering selling your home, we welcome the opportunity to work with you and list your home with a top Wellington FL Realtor
4 Reasons Home Buyers Can’t See Homes RIGHT NOW
Straight to the point, I hope most buyers understand the planning that must go on.
Michelle, this article is spot on! and really helps buyers better understand that showing properties is much more than simply unlocking doors. Thank you for sharing this well-written article that explains clearly the “juggling act” that is often required to show properties!