Showing your home leads to offers. I think that it goes without saying, that in most cases, the more showings you receive on your home the more likely you are to receive an offer.
With that said, I write this post out of a little frustration. Last Saturday, I tried to schedule 7 showings in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It was like pulling teeth to schedule the showings. I had to contact the listing agents directly on 5 of the homes and 2 I had to contact the agency. The 2 agency showings went relatively smoothly, where the other showings that had to be arranged directly with the listing agents went miserably. It took multiple phone calls and lots of my time. I ended up not hearing from one agent and one showing didn’t happen because it was an accompanied showing and the agent couldn’t accommodate us. Guess what?
My clients purchased a home out of the 5 houses we saw!! Maybe the two we missed would have been a better fit.
Showing your home= offers. Don’t let your agent hinder any showings.
How do you think the sellers felt about about missing a showing on their home? To be honest with you they probably never knew. There is no need to miss a showing on your home. I know it is difficult enough to coordinate my hectic schedule and try to receive a phone call, write down all of the clients information than make at least one phone call to the seller to confirm or notify of the appointment, than make a confirmation phone call to the buyer’s agent, all in a timely manner. I made a business decision many years ago to use a company called MA-PASS to handle all of my showings. MAPASS is a company which schedules showings of your home for listing agents, that is all they do. I spent over $700 last year to provide this service to my home sellers. Why have I made this costly decision?
- As a listing agent, I do not want to get in the way of showings happening at your home, because I am on an appointment or otherwise tied up.
- It allows me time to work directly with clients and not be tied up with time consuming administrative issues
- They have extended hours to handle calls for agents wanting a showing on your home. Their hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 8pm, Saturday, Sunday & Holidays 8:30am to 6pm.
- They will follow a strict showing procedure of how to get the showings scheduled.
- All phone calls inquiring about showing are immediately logged making it completely transparent to the homeowner.
- They are automated to handle showing notifications through, phone calls, emails and texts.
- They offer a secure home owner account.
- They have a record of who and when your home was showed, all tracked by your on-line account.
- They have an excellent feedback follow up tool to obtain and track comments for showings on your home..
I had a long conversation today with Walid Saba the owner of MA-PASS. He mentioned that while running statistics he found MA-PASS handled homes had a 20% higher closing rate than homes that were not handled by MA-PASS. I believe this statistic. I find when I am working with a buyer client showing homes and I call MA-PASS for a showing, I very rarely have to follow up with a phone call to confirm the appointment. As the showing agent, the appointment is confirmed by email, text and phone, leaving me no opportunity to miss the confirmation of a showing.
Whether your a homeowner here in Massachusetts or elsewhere in the country, find out how showings for your homes are handled. Some great questions to ask a listing agent is:
- Is there an agent or administrator always on call? Large brokerages have the staff and resources to cover the calls. Smaller offices tend not to cover the calls as well as a larger office.
- What hours is someone available to arrange showings?
- Do you schedule the showings yourself? Quite frankly I would avoid that situation all together.
- Do you use a 3rd party showing service?
- An agent using a good showing service can increase the odds of your home being sold by making sure everyone who wants to see your home has the opportunity to do so.
