OP...Your landscaping is very pretty. Personally, I don't like houses where the first thing you see is the garage. Our garage is under our house, and I really like it.

terrig, your garage is UNDER your house? How does that work?! LOL!

I know, I'm not real big on the 'all garage' look either. But, pretty much all the houses in our neighbourhood are built like that... so at least we're in good comapny, heh.

Posting chelle69's house photo directly into a message, just for simplicity's sake:

{{gwi:2048083}}

"Paying realtor fees is all part of the expense of moving, just like the inconvenience factor is part of the deal in selling your home."

Well, no it isn't really. It is part of the packaging of a lot of things in life these days. If someone cares to take on the tasks that a realtor does, and take on the risk of not having a realtor-network audience (though w/internet evolution I doubt realtors can keep the exclusivity of MLS etc much longer)...then s/he is rewarded by not having to pay someone else to do it.

There is no law that says selling a house requires a realtor. Heresy I know to some but it is a fact. To me it is like saying that hiring a lawn service or a house cleaner is just part of the cost of having a home. Anyone can cut their own grass and scrub their own toilets, it is a personal choice. Some people would rather expend the time, others the money.

You are trying to sell a product.

It comes with a certain amount of inconvenience.

Should the RE agent force her customers to adhere to the 'appointments'?

"We cannot stop at this house since there is an appointment already scheduled."

NOT the impression you (or the agent) want to make when you are trying to sell something.

I routinely refuse to even look at house when sellers have excessive demands at the showing stage.
I do not want to find out what they will be like at the negotiation stage over price, repairs, or the many other things that must be agreed to for a contract, let alone getting to settlement.

I routinely refuse to even look at house when sellers have excessive demands at the showing stage.

And when did it become an excessive demand to expect you to do what you said you were going to do, which in this case was show up for the appointment which you, the buyer's agent arranged?????

I do not want to find out what they will be like at the negotiation stage over price, repairs, or the many other things that must be agreed to for a contract, let alone getting to settlement.

The same could be said on either side. That's why we have a general understanding in life that when someone says they are going to do something - like show up for an appointment - they follow through. It is called many things: civility, propriety, politeness, manners, and, oh, professionalism.

Should the RE agent force her customers to adhere to the 'appointments'?

Absolutely. You made the damn appointment - honor it. Unless I have a blinging sign in my front yard that says "Open House", I am showing my home (and that's what it is - a home. Not a car, or a couch, or a cow) by appointment only.

"We cannot stop at this house since there is an appointment already scheduled."

That would be the appropriate response, yes.

I routinely refuse to even look at house when sellers have excessive demands at the showing stage.

Expecting someone to honor an appointment time (that THEY made) is hardly an excessive demand.

I do not want to find out what they will be like at the negotiation stage over price, repairs, or the many other things that must be agreed to for a contract, let alone getting to settlement.

Likewise, I wouldn't even want to enter a negotiation process with someone who can't even tell time. IMO, this is the same kind of person who is going to come in with a ridiculously lowball offer and want everything under the sun included because they have an unrealistic sense of entitlement.

I wouldn't worry about a cat wandering in the house when buyers are looking. They usually are sleeping or hiding aren't they?

I looked at a house where they had two parrots and wow they made a lot of racket at the intrusion of strangers.
Now that would have been great to not have them there in order to look at the house in peace. We ended up buying the house and I know that the neighbors were very happy to have those birds be re located. You could hear them out on the street!

Good luck Chell, nice house. We just took ours off the market, just didn't have the time before the closing of our new house so we are renting our home instead. Now I have a few rants about my agent @#$@$#$%%!!! Selling houses in a soft market is the pitts!!!!

2 cats, 2 dogs. I take the one cat out for showings, because she thinks everyone was put on the earth to love on her, and would be in everyone's face. The other cat I just leave because he's tweaky and just hides when someone comes in. The two dogs have to be taken out, that's a given.

We have another showing tomorrow morning at 10am, so the dogs are just coming to work with me, LOL. I'm lucky that I have some flexibility in my job to do that.

But another question/concern that's come up is my cleaning lady - who comes every Friday morning from 9:00 - 12:00. When our agent office called today to set up tomorrow morning's appt, I told her my cleaning lady would be there during that time. She said that was no problem, they'd just look past her. I'm taking her word for it, but is that really okay? I called my cleaning lady today and told her that some people would be coming through the house tomorrow and not to be alarmed, lol... just to go about her business.

Any experience with that??

I have viewed homes in the past where a cleaning lady was present.....it didn't stop us from viewing a home or inhibit our conversation about the home at all. I think it's good to warn both the realtor and the cleaning lady so there are no surprises, but shouldn't be an issue showing the home while the cleaning lady is there.

Think of the cleaning lady as part of the staging. "Someone else cleans this house." Much better than a glass of wine and lit candles by the full bathtub. :)

Yeah, I think the cleaning lady's a good thing! It says you care about your house and spend money to maintain it...

I think the problem with realtors not showing up when they say they will is because there's no benefit to them to show up on time, and no real punishment if they don't. The seller has to sit there and fume (and post here where she gets lots of sympathy because we've all been through it LOL), but the realtor just goes about her merry way, never realizing (or caring) about what she put the sellers through...

I think there are ways realtors can manage buyers to get them to the listings on time, epecially the ones that have special instructions about time frames. The realtors I've used were good at managing my rampaging impulsiveness-like, "I like that FSBO as well, let's check it out after we've seen this one on my list so we can compare it and the sellers can get on with their lives" sorta thing...

But another question/concern that's come up is my cleaning lady - who comes every Friday morning from 9:00 - 12:00. When our agent office called today to set up tomorrow morning's appt, I told her my cleaning lady would be there during that time. She said that was no problem, they'd just look past her. I'm taking her word for it, but is that really okay? I called my cleaning lady today and told her that some people would be coming through the house tomorrow and not to be alarmed, lol... just to go about her business.

Any experience with that??

I met my hubby when I used to clean for him years ago when he had his house for sale. I used to know there was a showing coming up and clean the day before or morning of, never at the same time.

It would have bothered me to have people there while I was cleaning, so talk to your cleaning lady to make sure she's ok with it.

Absolutely. You made the damn appointment - honor it. Unless I have a blinging sign in my front yard that says "Open House", I am showing my home (and that's what it is - a home. Not a car, or a couch, or a cow) by appointment only.

Some buyers as I mentioned have no clue what the seller does to get ready and if someone stays home during the day. One morning I was going out with my agent & my daughter called from school, she forgot something & I needed to bring it by. Of course she called as I was walking out the door, so I swung by the school, called my agent saying I'b be 10 minutes late. I did not know we had a 15 minute window on one house & ended up being late by 5 minutes. The owner took off. My agent called the listing agent who said tough, she waited, you were late, she left; reschedule. We didn't. There were so many houses on the market & hers was nothing special. I actually ran into it twice, no lock box so we couldn't get in. With one, it was a family emergency, we killed an hour waiting for her to get back, she wanted to reschedule after that. We told her agent thanks, I was actually done with that area. I might have gone back as it was a model I loved with a bump out but I ended up finding out the town wasn't so great and stopped looking there, so it worked out for us. I probably would have made an offer on her house. Too bad.

Some times things happen. A buyer might not even know a set appointment was made, I had no clue that day. It was my 1st time going out.

As long as your cleaning lady doesn't mind people letting themselves in while she's working, it should be fine. I don't think that buyers will feel constrained from commenting on the house around a cleaning person as they would around the owner. In fact, it could be a plus for you since your cleaning lady can make sure that the house is left locked up and everything is okay. I've lost count of the number of times we've found a back or side door left unlocked, or in a few cases even left open. That upsets me far more than early/late arrivals or no-shows.

Good luck!

So, chelle, where do you put the litter box for the one cat that stays behind? This is a concern of mine that no one has mentioned yet. Everyone now says, "oh, it's okay - just leave the cats in the house for showings" but at the same time they say "hide or take the litter box with you."

Well, sometimes, like today, I have showings for hours - like 3 overlapping ones today from 2 - 5 pm. I worry that if I take the litterbox, the cats would need to use it while I'm gone and may go somewhere else. And if I hide it (where?), what if they poo while the people are here and it smells? Or if I put it in a closet and the people close the door? Hence, my dilemma of needing to haul the cats away every time...

What do you do Chelle?

Well, I haven't had any showings more than 1 hour at a time, and no overlapping ones.. but what I've been doing the last couple days is I take the crate I use for the puppy and haul it out to the garage, then I put the cat in there. It's less traumatic for her that way, she really hates being in the car and screams the whole time.

The litter box I keep downstairs in the laundry room, tucked behind the furnace. It's not completely visible when you walk in the room, and isn't really in the way if someone felt compelled to look behind the furnace. I have one of those "Booda Boxes", it's a covered dome kind, so the litter isn't exposed, and I make sure to scoop it one last time right before a showing in case they've left a stink bomb. I also sprinkle the litter with baking soda. You don't smell anything.

Maybe not the best way to do things, but that's all I can manage while keeping my sanity. The litter box is clean, there's a restrained cat in the garage, and another one hiding somewhere in the house. I figure if anyone gets bent out of shape over that, so be it.

I'm at work right now and both dogs are sleeping under my desk, LOL.

We never heard anything back from our 2nd showing last night :(

I couldn't even make it through this entire thread! Girl, you need to get over yourself. You're selling a house in a tough market, and you're going to get upset over a showing inconveniencing your day? Yeah, it's a hassle, but seriously...tons of people would love to be so inconvenienced! You had the choice to turn them away and reschedule but you didn't. I'd probably complain for a couple of minutes to a girlfriend, but after that...would realize it's part of selling a house.

As to your comments about your neighbor and their decision to sell FSBO...are you even serious?!!!

dixiedoodle, we've already covered all that, but thanks for your input. Had you read the entire thread, you'd see I'm not the only one who feels this way. Apparently expecting a little common courtesy is entirely more than people can handle these days.

Also, the market isn't quite as bad here in Canada as it is in the US. My husband is actually American, and he has friends and relatives who are either going through, or have gone through the hell a lot of you have. It's definitely softening, but we're not where you are (yet).

"Paying realtor fees is all part of the expense of moving, just like the inconvenience factor is part of the deal in selling your home."
Well, no it isn't really. It is part of the packaging of a lot of things in life these days. If someone cares to take on the tasks that a realtor does, and take on the risk of not having a realtor-network audience (though w/internet evolution I doubt realtors can keep the exclusivity of MLS etc much longer)...then s/he is rewarded by not having to pay someone else to do it.
There is no law that says selling a house requires a realtor. Heresy I know to some but it is a fact. To me it is like saying that hiring a lawn service or a house cleaner is just part of the cost of having a home. Anyone can cut their own grass and scrub their own toilets, it is a personal choice. Some people would rather expend the time, others the money.

VERY well said!

My experience is that there is a lot of "ish" in showing timing. Sometimes they're early, sometimes they're late, sometimes they don't come at all. Sometimes they give the requested 24-hour notice, sometimes they give less, sometimes they just show up. They may-- as happened to you-- decide to see a house they hadn't planned to see and lose track of time. House-hunting is a process with a lot of variables. The person who ultimately bought my last place was brought 10 minutes before the appointment window and then came back (without calling) about 4 hours after the window closed.

You're going to feel what you feel, but I personally think that you'd be better off not getting all up in arms about it. Instead of looking for justification for being irate, it's going to be easier for you if you look for reasons to think, "well, that's life," about it. I figure that things are going to happen when people are looking a houses-- they might get lost, have a hard time finding a house number, spend more time or less time than anticipated at previous houses, have trouble (or less trouble than expected) with traffic. They may be late getting to the agent, the agent may be late. It's human. You can get upset about it, but getting upset isn't going to change things. So why encourage it in yourself? Personally, I don't like feeling the angry emotions enough to go looking for reasons to feel them. Up to you, of course, but that's my point of view.

I hope you sell your house soon because this same scenario is going to happen over and over again. You need to focus on the reality of the situation and not on how it ought to be.

Also, your attitude towards FSBO is mind boggling. You are basically saying that people should not sell their own homes themselves because it's rude and not fair to everyone that uses an RE agent?

As a suggestion, it would be better if you are not home when prospective buyers come view your home. When looking for homes, I am extremely uncomfortable if the owner is there. You are hindering a possible sale by being present.

I also suggest you relax your rule of 4 hours notice before selling. I realize the Canadian market is not like it is in the US (I'm from Canada, have bought and sold there and now live in the US where I have bought and sold in both sellers and buyers markets), but you may be limiting possible showings by having inflexible notice time prior to a showing. Instead of 4 hours, 1 hour might be beneficial.

Inconvenience comes with selling a home. Flexibility is key. Having strict requirements with respect to showings, notice, etc., is going to bite you in the bum.

Late showings comes with the territory. I agree the realtor was rude to show the FSBO before your home which had a legit appointment.

chello69,
I wish you luck trying to sell, but you are going to have a rough time of it.
I am glad you have apparently never been late for anything in your life, especially when it involved other people affecting the timing.

If the buyers spend extra time at a previous place the later appointments slip.

You are selling a product, your house.
You have to accommodate the buyers.

I have spent many hours waiting for folks to look over properties, inspect properties, and even show for settlement (one was over an hour late after a serious accident on the beltway around Washington, DC).

In those somewhat famous words 'S**t happens'.

S**t happens

You guys still don't get it. S**t happening is a tie-up on the highway or someone gets sick or a flat tire. This S**t happened because the so-called professional real estate agent decided to detour to a house three doors down instead of going to this appointment. I don't understand the ease at which you excuse this obviously unprofessional behavior.

As a suggestion, it would be better if you are not home when prospective buyers come view your home. When looking for homes, I am extremely uncomfortable if the owner is there. You are hindering a possible sale by being present.

Um, this entire post is about me being OUT of the house during a showing, what the heck are you talking about? Let's not turn it into something it's not. The only reason I was home that day was because the realtor was an HOUR and 15 minutes late. I was bringing the animals back home at a time she should have been long gone.

I also suggest you relax your rule of 4 hours notice before selling. I realize the Canadian market is not like it is in the US (I'm from Canada, have bought and sold there and now live in the US where I have bought and sold in both sellers and buyers markets), but you may be limiting possible showings by having inflexible notice time prior to a showing. Instead of 4 hours, 1 hour might be beneficial.

In a perfect world, but unfortunately, not everyone is able to leave work at the drop of a hat. I'm not, nor is my husband. He's a Director, and I'm a VP, we have very demanding schedules. If I had my druthers, I'd only have showings in the evening, but I realize that is unrealistic. I guess we should quit our jobs so we can be available to get our pets out on 1 hour's notice. Yeah, that would work!

My only real gripe here was a realtor being an hour and 15 minutes late for an appointment because she chose to show the FSBO home first. Period. I've also said that my issue is more with the realtor than my neighbours, who probably didn't realize they were en route to my house and got sidetracked. Despite my opinion of FSBO sales in a multiple MLS listing neighbourhood, I don't dislike my neighbours. In fact, they're actually nice people. And for the record, they DO have an offer in on their house, which is why they were having a home inspection yesterday.

The only reason I was home that day was because the realtor was an HOUR and 15 minutes late. I was bringing the animals back home at a time she should have been long gone.

I should also add.. actually, reiterate - I did not turn her away when she knocked on my door asking if they could still view the house. In fact, I packed the animals back in my car, and drove around for another half hour. I'd say I suitably accommodated them.

I can't believe I'm having to defend myself over this.

Well chelle, I happen to think you have every right to feel the way you do over what happened. The FSBO detour was a bad choice on the agents part.

It was her choice that caused you great incovenience. A choice. Not an accident, not an emergenecy, not some kind of sh1t happening.

The way I work is I schedule appointments and meet people on location. The worse thing that has come from cell phones is people thinking that all they have to do is call you to tell you that they are going to be 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes late. Sometimes longer than 30 minutes.

I can tell they expect me to say that it's okay and thanks for calling to let me know. Sometimes I can wait and move things. Sometimes I can't because I'm not going to leave someone waiting on me because I chose to wait for a prior appointment who is running late. It is truly amazing to me how startled some people react when I say we'll just have to reschedule.

Manners, being professional, whatever you want to call honoring set appointment times is taken far too casually by far too many people these days. It's rude and poor manners and it's really that simple.

Wow. I just read this entire thread.

I think people are forgetting the title includes the word "Rant". To me, that's a clue that the OP may say things usually left unsaid (and now Chelle knows why). I don't think anyone who has sold a house has NOT ranted about late appointments or no-shows - well, except for people who moved before selling (there are other issues that call for ranting).

That said, sometimes letting go is the best solution. Yeah, people are rude - they show up late, they don't show up at all, they stick FSBO signs in their front yards, whatever (what I think is rude may not be what you think is rude - not for me to judge). Can't change them so accepting their existence (this is not the same as excusing their behavior) and ranting on-line seems reasonable to me.

Chelle, I hope your house sells soon. You did exactly the right thing - letting the people see the house. What you felt is what you felt. It isn't easy to sell a house no matter what the market. Marketing and selling your home IS a pain and it does force you to live in a unnatural manner.

Chelle...here is an idea for future appointments. Just add another 30-45 minutes to the end of the 'window' timeframe for when the appts are scheduled - but don't tell the other party. This will allow for any slightly late folks to be done.

For example, if they say they'll be there between 11:00 and 11:30...then just tell yourself that it is safe to go back around 12:00-12:15. (add 30-45 minutes to the back end.)

Also - in the US, normally if an agent comes through to show a house, the agent will leave their card on the kitchen counter. This tells you they already came. If they don't do this in Canada, then maybe you can ask that they do this as a courtesy so you know they came and went.

Then as soon as you walk in the door, you go check for the agent's card.

Possibly you could do another trick that will tell if they were there or not, like leave a certain interior door open slightly and likely this door will change position once folks walk through.

I bet your house sells fast - seems to be getting lots of traffic and hopefully you want have to be dealing with this much longer. You're working almost as hard as a FSBO as far as dealing with appointments.

Thanks guys!

sweet tea, yep - they leave cards here too. At least they're supposed to. I usually give an extra half hour before I bring the animals home, to allow for delays. On this particular day, the appointment was from 1:00-2:00. I had brought them back at 2:15, only because I had a business meeting at 2:30 (that I missed anyway!), it was a tight schedule for me that day.

When I got home, I just had the feeling nobody had been there. The lights were still on, and there was no card on the table. My first thought was that they just didn't show up. But, I had to run for my meeting, so I brought the animals back in the house, and that's when the agent knocked on the door.

I was really ticked that day (hence this post), but other than 1 no-show and a few 10-15 minutes late/earlies, it hasn't really been that bad. Juggling the logistics of it all is just all down to good planning. As long as everyone else does their part, I'm good! :D

Thanks again for the good wishes! Another showing this afternoon *fingers crossed*

You are right about the rant part, and Chelle has done well at getting past her anger at the agent - which I think was justified. I can see how it happened, though. By showing the FSBO unscheduled, she made every appointment after that late. These house hunters were on a tight schedule, and I bet the whole day was booked with tight time frames. From the agent's point of view, it was a matter of WHO to make late, you and everybody after you, or just everybody after you. With such a disruption in the schedule, I bet the distinction that she could choose to not make you late went right over her head.

I bought a house (not FSBO) that we had not been able to schedule ahead of time. We told the realtor on Thursday night that we wanted to see four houses in this 2 mile area on Saturday. She was able to schedule two, but one never got back to her and one seller was being wishy-washy about whether she even wanted to sell. The did-no-get-back house was between the two houses that did schedule with us, so we drove by. We did not want to be conspicuous or unnerve the owner if they were home, so started by parking on the side street next to this corner house and looking at it from the backyard.

Holy Cow! A backyard perfect for our dogs! There was a hedge between the yard and the fence bordering the yard that would make it hard/impossible for the dogs to jump up at passersby. Being a corner lot, it had an extra 30 ft of side yard, lots more room for them to run. There was a line of trees that concealed the house behind the backyard, and a line of evergreens that made it impossible for the dogs to even see out of the backyard to the front lawn. Essentially, it was like having only one neighbor, only one fence line to worry about the dogs barking at, only one side where we may border another dog (or kids) that might make ours bark.

We HAD to see this house!

Our Realtor saw this in our eyes and knocked on the door. The owner was home caulking the tub and would be able to show the house in a half hour or so. We went ahead to the second appointment and came back. Inside, the house was in nice condition, had a great layout for us, and the price was lower than others we had seen. We sat at their kitchen table and wrote an offer on the spot. It turns out that their realtor had been at the state realtor's convention and had not answered her calls.

Meanwhile, our old house was not even up for sale. Due to our circumstances, it was too hard to put it up until after we moved. I did FSBO for six months before signing with a realtor. Every Sunday I put out 6 open house signs leading to our house. Every Sunday I was perched in the house to show it, cookies baking, signs and flags out front. I removed the flags and all of the signs in the neighborhood every Sunday evening. I bought ads advertising my FSBO open houses. I made color fliers and kept my box filled. I hired an appraiser and had the appraisal report (along with other marketing info) on the table for everyone to see. I bought a custom sign for the lawn with info about the house. Just before we went FSBO I even got custom open house signs with info on the house to put out in the neighborhood each Sunday.

Meanwhile, my neighbor across the street got transferred out of state. He paid me to make up his fliers and he sold right away. That three car mechanics garage with the illegal urinal and the illegal furnace were real draws for a certain segment of the market. I was thrilled for him.

A year after signing with an agent we got a Rent-to-Own person in our house, for 15% less than the house across the street sold for. We had a third more square footage and a huge, new custom kitchen. In our market, that mechanic's garage was the better draw!

Corner lot or not, we like our new house. Mowing and shoveling twice as much is worth it to us. We even are paying for the double cost of sidewalk replacement this year without too much squalking. Sometimes it just takes the right person at the right time to find the perfect home.

I personally like corner lots (some of them at least), while my hubby dislikes them.....funny thing though, when my in-laws had their home built back in 1954 in Michigan, the developer charged a premium for a corner lot. Apparently back then a corner lot was desirable. All I can say is there's a corner lot on every corner :) and somebody has to like them, because they do sell.

Nancy in mich, that's a great story! :) Except the part about not selling your house, but I'm glad you're happy with your new home. Having a good yard for the dogs is important :)

cordovamom, my husband also remembers a time in the US when corner lots were a premium. They may have been here too for all I know. He's from Chicago, and I can't imagine we get more snow here in Ontario than they did there. Our only conclusion is people have gotten lazier over the years. Nobody wants the maintenance of a larger lot.

I've really enjoyed our corner lot, I love the frontage. We would have opted for another corner lot in the development that we're building our new house, except the city came in with some new zoning rule after the lots had already been established that all the corner lots could only have a single driveway (even though the house has a double garage). Something about how many feet of green is required from the curb. Silly...

I'm not sure what you call them but I liked the "inverted" corner lot I had.
My favorite house was at the end of the leg of a U shaped dead end. I suppose my frontage could have been smaller than usual but was sort of normal, the lot was sort of wedge shaped and so my backyard was bigger, especially across the back. Of course what really made the place wonderful for me was it backed to 60 acres of unused school property which was like my own private savannah. I walked it with my dog everyday and knew where all the ground hog holes were, over the years I knew when the birds would arrive, where they were likely to nest. A few other dog owners found the place and I got to know several people fairly well from walking our dogs together, some would cruise my back fence at certain times to pick us up. I loved that place. A few years before I moved they put in a walking path and soccer fields which was a bummer for me and very much so for the wildlife (we had a fox!), although still better than a housing development.

The rant didn't bother me at all. It would have been an whole other issue if the agent couldn't help being late for the appointment. It's very typical here for a party who is buying a home to use the selling agent as their only agent, and not procuring a buyer's agent. So, if the agent working for me did it, I'd have been livid. But, I see this was a buyer's agent and there isn't much you could have done about it but rant after the fact. I don't think what that agent did was very professional.

The house I sold recently was unoccupied, thank God and I allowed a lockbox to be put on it. My agent was a gem. I have bought using her as an agent, and sold using her as an agent, and shall prolly use her again. So, no......all people don't suck. LOL.

Good luck with your sale. It's a lovely home, and regardless of taxes or snow shoveling, I like corner lots. It beats having a house close enough to spit on on both sides of you!

Am I the only one who is not shocked that the other homes in this neighbrhood (Including the FSBO or selling first?

Requiring 4 hour notice for appointments is a great way to succesfully avoid a transaction!!

Moral of the story: You MUST be more flexible. Rants about how "people suck" aren't going to get your house sold. Getting buyers in the door will. Being flexible gets more buyers in the door. END OF STORY.

;)

ncguy - thanks for your infinite wisdom ;)

Just an update on this, for what it's worth. I spoke with my FSBO neighbours today. They do not have an offer on their house. In fact, they've only had 2 showings since they put their sign up, and one of them was the one that started this post in the first place.

They had a conditional offer on a house (conditional on the sale of theirs), but have since firmed up due to another offer coming in on the house. Now they really have to sell quickly, so they're listing with an agent this week.

Requiring 4 hour notice for appointments is a great way to succesfully avoid a transaction!!

And for the record - my house has been on the market for 20 days, and I've had at least 18 showings (18-20, I've lost track). I seriously doubt my 4 hour time restriction is an issue.

"And for the record - my house has been on the market for 20 days, and I've had at least 18 showings (18-20, I've lost track). I seriously doubt my 4 hour time restriction is an issue."

Your right. If you have had 20 showings but not a single offer then PRICE is your issue. The 4 hour time restricition is just an added negative. ;)

Could be, and I'm willing to reduce, but my agent doesn't feel the price is out of whack at ALL. And he set the price, not us. We've had good feedback, including 2 second showings. The ONLY negative comments has been that it's a corner lot.

Anyway, we're only 3 weeks in and not in that big of a hurry. I wasn't here complaining about my house not selling yet. I was complaining about an agent being rude. It's just going to take a bit longer to find someone who actually likes a corner. If anything, we may throw in our 8.5 HP snowblower to sweeten the pot ;)

"terrig, your garage is UNDER your house? How does that work?! LOL!"

I should have wrote that it's under the main floor of our house. It's part of our walk-out basement. Our driveway is on the side of the house and slopes down to the garage. You can't see our garage from the street.

Um, this entire post is about me being OUT of the house during a showing, what the heck are you talking about? Let's not turn it into something it's not. The only reason I was home that day was because the realtor was an HOUR and 15 minutes late. I was bringing the animals back home at a time she should have been long gone.

Ummmmm considering you mentioned this in your OP:
Both my husband and I work full-time, and we have 2 dogs and a cat that have to be taken out of the house during showings. For that reason, we've been trying to schedule showings in the evening when we're both there, but for these people, I agreed to have them come this afternoon. -

It was perfectly legit for me to comment on the fact that you are home during showings since you, yourself mentioned it in your OP - that's what I'm talking about. It was fair game and if you didn't want advice on it, then you shouldn't have mentioned it. Moreover, I stand by my original statement - you could be hindering the sale of your home by being present when buyers come through and by having such restrictive notice for showings regardless of the reason for it.

In a perfect world, but unfortunately, not everyone is able to leave work at the drop of a hat. I'm not, nor is my husband. He's a Director, and I'm a VP, we have very demanding schedules. If I had my druthers, I'd only have showings in the evening, but I realize that is unrealistic. I guess we should quit our jobs so we can be available to get our pets out on 1 hour's notice. Yeah, that would work!

Why do you have to leave work? Do you have a lockbox? Can you crate your pets?

The fact does remain, you can very well be hindering the sale of your home by being present for showings and having unreasonable notice requirements. It can indicate to potential buyers that if the seller is not flexible in showings in terms of notice and having to be there when they view the home, they will wonder how inflexible the seller will be should they make and offer and go through the whole process to buy the home.

People are trying to give you honest advice and feedback. Responding rudely is not appreciated.

You're missing the point. I am NOT home for showings. I was home on this day because I was bringing the animals back AFTER the scheduled appointment time. That's hardly unreasonable. Even when they showed up late, I took the animals and went BACK out - again. Yes I have a lockbox and yes I can crate the pets, but I'd rather not have the large crates sitting in the middle of my livingroom with dogs who bark their heads off when someone comes in the door. I also choose not to leave them in the garage in 90 degree heat with no ventilation for over an hour either.

Rudeness is the appropriate response when one's intelligence is being insulted.

I did what I was supposed to do - the realtor did not. It's that simple. How everyone is trying to shift the blame is beyond me. I'm done with this.

No, wait, chelle, I have to add one last post:

NINETY RESPONSES!!!! Wow! Shazam!

Good luck with your house, glad you don't leave the dogs in the garage :)

I'd probably complain for a couple of minutes to a girlfriend, but after that...would realize it's part of selling a house.

Isn't that sort of what chelle is doing here? I mean, it's in the title of the thread, "Rant". Like this was her opportunity to get it off her chest and look for a little support and maybe a little advice.

In any case, after reading through the entire thread, I'm surprised no one suggested this possible scenario. What if the BUYERS insisted on seeing the other house first and getting to your appointment late? Or, maybe they called the FSBO house to make an appt and the FSBOers said now was good but 30 min from now wouldn't be? I mean, there is the possibility that the agent was not entirely at fault.

I'd be mad too, no question, because I tend to get upset at inconveniences like this in situations like this. But what chelle did was exactly right. She chose to grin and bear it, she got the pets out and let the buyers in, even though it was at a great inconvenience including missing her meeting, and she vented to her virtual friends.

In any case, after reading through the entire thread, I'm surprised no one suggested this possible scenario. What if the BUYERS insisted on seeing the other house first and getting to your appointment late? Or, maybe they called the FSBO house to make an appt and the FSBOers said now was good but 30 min from now wouldn't be? I mean, there is the possibility that the agent was not entirely at fault.

Thanks, lowspark. What happened was when the agent knocked on my door and apologized for being late, she said "We wanted to see the house across the street and saw a car in the driveway so thought we better stop there first". At first I thought she was talking about the guy the next street (MLS) over who also has a lockbox so I didn't understand what she meant, but I was so discombobulated I didn't really care at that point, lol. I had the door half open and the dogs trying to push past my legs to greet her, and I told her they were welcome to still view the house, but she'd need to give me a minute to get the pets back out as I'd just come home with them. She said she'd go sit in her car and when she saw me pull out, she'd bring her people in. When I came back home, I saw them walking up the driveway of the MLS guy the next street over, and I thought.. waitaminute, if they're just going there now, where were they before my house? Then I put it together. They stopped at the FSBO house first because there was a car in the driveway, they knew someone was home.

I'm not sure who's idea it was to view the other home, the agent or the buyers, but you'd still think the agent would know better.

Oh well....

Their agent is working for them - and the customer is always right. Even if she did "know better", she has to do what her clients want.

In all honesty, the people looking at your house probably don't care what you have to do to get ready for a showing. Unless it is an extreme seller's market with bidding wars over asking price, the ball is in the buyer's court. If they're on a buying trip from another province, it would seem all the more reason for them to view as many houses as they can - and those that can't accomodate them, even if they are late - won't be considered.

Carrie

Here's a funny story that happened to me about a realtor just "showing up" to show a house. My house was for sale, listed with a realtor, and my agent knew I was in the process of moving out. Someone wanted to look at it, and she left me a message to let me know, but before I had gotten the message she went ahead and told the other agent to show it because she (rightly) knew I wanted to sell and would rather have had it shown than not shown, even if it was an inconvenience.

Well, what she did not know was that I had just painted the utility room floor after moving my stuff out. So about two hours later I get a call from my agent and she says, "I have bad news -- the agent slipped on your freshly painted floor." I had horrifying visions of some high-heel clad, sharply-dressed realtor flopping around on the floor, unable to get up, covered in dark green paint, her clothes ruined, and her freshly-permed hair stained green...and, of course, the lawsuit that would soon follow.

Fortunately, the bad news was just that she had tracked paint into the other rooms, which was easy to clean up.

In general, though, when people have completely different priorities in a particular interaction with someone else, it's easy to step on toes. The realtor is primarily concerned with his/her buyers, and if they ask more questions, want to tour someplace again, or are just slow-moving for whatever reason, the agent is inclined to try to accommodate them, even if that means being late. A possible solution is to tell your agent about what you have to do (remove pets, etc.) when the house is shown, and request that other agents be advised of this so they can attempt to be on time. It may not always work, but it's about all you can do.

You need to re-adjust your attitude if you think you're going to sell your house. Get used to kissing a$$ if you really want to move. JMHO.

Sometimes. But some people also clamor for what seems better, more exclusive, or "harder to get." To someone with this mindset, if a seller is highly accommodating, they say, "What's wrong here; why are they so eager to sell?"

But it's true that for many people, other than maybe running a lemonade stand as a kid, selling a house is one of their few experiences as a seller in an open marketplace. I think it's the loss of control that makes them angry -- someone else is in the driver's seat, they know it, and they behave like they know it.

So, I guess we should all remember this the next time we're customers. But, most don't. They'll make a scene when the $6 an hour fast-food employee makes a mistake. We don't like things "lorded over" on us, but we're glad to do it to someone else.