A home on the market for sale needs to be available for showings in order to get sold. Without a showing, there will be no offers.

On Wednesday, at 9:00 AM, I received an unexpected call from a client who had the day off due to the snow storm we had in New Jersey, and wanted to look at homes. There was 2 inches of snow on the roads, and the snow was now starting to turn to rain. It was truly nasty out at that time of the day, and the local roads were a mess. An appointment was set for 11:00 AM with the buyer.

After confirming the appointment with the buyer, I then went about searching the MLS. There were 5 properties I needed appointments for, all within the same neighborhood location,.I started calling the listing offices to set the appointments. Three were relatively easy to set. Two were vacant with a lock box, and on the other one I needed to call the listing agent on their cell phone as the listing office was closed. I did reach the agent who then had to call the owner and call me back for showing confirmation.

On the next one, the showing instructions were to call the seller direct to set the appointment.. I called the seller to arrange the appointment for 11:00 to 11:30. The seller said that they were about an hour from the home, but they would leave now to get there as soon as possible. Due to their situation, I asked them to call me on my cell phone when they got to the home, and I would then show their home next to help with their personal schedule. I received their call when they arrived at the home and I showed the home within 5 minutes.

The last appointment was a different story. It was a property listed three days earlier. When calling the listing office, I was told that they had to call the listing agent as there were no showing instructions, but they thought the home was vacant and it shouldn't be a problem showing.  I did get a call back and I was told that the listing agent would go to the home and put on a lock box, and it would be done before 12:00. I then set that one to be the last home I would show.

We got to the home, and no lock box. I called the listing agent on their cell phone, and was told that something came up and it would be another hour or so before it would be taken care of. Needless to say, we are standing out in the rain and the buyer is now annoyed.. The end result, we did not wait around to look at the home.

As it turned out, the home where the seller drove one hour to open the home was quite nice. So nice in fact that the buyer decided to submit a contract offer when we arrived back at my office. Two hours later, there was contract acceptance!

This buyer was anxious to buy a home, and they had an unexpected day off from work. Their current home was under contract, and the home they had a contract on did not work out after two weeks of negotiating.

Did the agent and owner of the vacant home without a lock box miss out on a sale? I don't know. I never got into the home. They did miss out on a showing though, and without a showing there is no chance for sale.

Did the buyer miss out by not seeing that last home? Apparently not! They chose to make an offer on one they did see, and one they liked!

It is very important for owners, and listing agents, to make it as easy as possible for agents to set appointments and gain access to homes for sale! You can never tell what showing will result in a contract offer and sale! Home buyers look when it is convenient for them! There is no such rule that says a buyer will come back to look at  a home when it is convenient for the owner or the listing agent!.