Hi folks,

Things I have seen over the years in Real Estate that shouldn’t still come as a surprise but do, number 10,344…..I was in conversation with a colleague last week when one topic we chatted about was how some vendors are reluctant to hand over the marketing of their home to an agent. They feel as anxious as parents teaching their teenagers to drive. Will the agents remember to leave the top lock when they unlock the front door? Will they leave a window open or shut the cat inside? Vendors since time immemorial have anxiously checked and cross checked every detail of the marketing with their agent, and I have to say that it is always good to check, especially if this provides the reassurance they need. But there is a time for vendors to stand back.

Vendors who stick close to prospective purchasers inspecting their home do so with the best of intentions, thinking their knowledge and input are essential. After all, no one knows the home like they do. But their subjective, detailed commentary often has the opposite effect to what it was intended to have. In most cases, direct contact between vendor and purchaser results in lost opportunities, especially when purchasers are put off the property by too much information too soon.

It is not uncommon for vendors to anticipate and answer objections before they are voiced and in so doing highlight negatives purchasers have not even thought of.

For example, vendors conscious of the fact that their home is near a school might say: “We hardly ever hear the children. They’re only outside for half an hour before school, during recess and an hour at lunchtime. It’s nothing.” The purchasers, in reality, might not have paid much attention to the school’s proximity, especially since it is not recess or lunchtime at that moment and because they are still at the stage of picking up a more general impression of the house itself. Their attention is drawn from the general to the specific before their emotional connection with the property is fully established. They are asked to concentrate on features -negative ones at that -at a time when they are still in the initial stages of embracing or rejecting the “feel” of the property. Even if they noticed the school in passing, they may not have thought about the specifics of how that might affect them. And in spite of the school, the house might still be the right home for them, just as it was for the current owner, but if they don’t “connect” with the home and imagine themselves living there before facing the practicalities, they are unlikely to move on to the next stage. Any excitement the house might be generating is lost in the prosaic detail of day-to-day living.

Vendors who hover during inspections can also make buyers uncomfortable. It is harder for them to ask the agent for the very details they do want to know. They are less able to make themselves at home and their attention is sometimes on small talk rather than on the property. And it is much harder to imagine themselves as proud owners while the real owner is busy being proprietorial. Of course it is important for home sellers to be connected with the selling process and even more important that they can see that their agent is doing the right thing on their behalf. The best way to stay involved is to choose an agent they can trust to show their house to the best advantage and one they know will communicate with them every step of the way. Professional agents report that vendors who are kept up-to-date with the details of inspections, experience less stress and better sales outcomes