Why Your Home Isn’t Getting Shown As Much As You Think It Should

Picture having your house for sale, and you feel like it isn’t being shown enough. Or maybe it isn’t really being shown at all.

You expected lots of buyers coming through. Ideally, you even expected an offer (or multiple offers!) to come in pretty quickly.

But instead, not that many people seem to even know your house is for sale. Otherwise, they’d come out and see it. If people would come and see it, the house would practically sell itself, because it’s so nice.

You’re discouraged, frustrated, and angry…

You wonder if your real estate agent is doing his/her job.

Isn’t your agent supposed to be showing the house to their own buyers? That doesn’t seem to be happening.

Aren’t the other agents in your agent’s office supposed to be showing the house to their buyers?
Not one agent from his office has shown it yet.

Isn’t your agent supposed to be spreading the word to other real estate agents at other companies, and getting them to show the house to their buyers? Again…not happening. At least not as much as you anticipated.

And, isn’t your agent supposed to market your home, so that buyers that neither he, she, or any other agent even knows about, will come out and see your house?

Your agent probably isn’t doing anything wrong.

While it’s natural to be frustrated, it won’t do you much good. It will do you less good to be angry, or disappointed with your real estate agent.

You’ve probably expressed your frustration, and all your agent seems to be doing is making excuses. Or pushing you to do something you don’t want to do…like lower your price. Your frustration, and pushing to see more showing activity, may very well be forcing your agent to react that way, when in fact all you need is some perspective.

What may help you most in this situation is some third-party, objective thoughts. So, here goes.

First, here are some basic things many homeowners do not know.

• There are only so many buyers in the market at any given time.
• Not all of the buyers are even ready, willing, and able to even buy your house right away.
• Some buyers are just getting started looking, and much of that begins online.
• Most of the buyers who are truly ready, willing, and able to buy are the only ones you need to care about.
• And most of them are represented by, and working with a real estate agent.
• Maybe an appropriate, ready, willing, and able buyer is working with your listing agent…but, most likely not.
• And, there’s a good chance that the most appropriate buyer isn’t even working with another agent within your listing agent’s office.

OK, with that under your belt, let’s get into a few more thoughts.

• Not that many years ago, people had to call the listing agent or their office for even the most basic information about your house…like the price, or address. Or at least have a buyer’s agent who represented them to get them the information.
• If they saw a picture of a home for sale, it was likely just that…a picture. Of the outside of the house.
• Both of the above caused buyers who were at even the earliest stages of buying to come out and see a house for sale. It was the only way to rule out a house. It was the only way to get their feet wet and get a handle on what they could afford.
• None of that is necessary anymore, now that the Internet has allowed so much information to be available to buyers at all stages of the process to see from the comfort of their own home.

The Internet has cut down on showings.

Buyers at all stages of the process (just beginning, all the way to needing to make a decision immediately) see a house that goes for sale immediately, in real time, as it pops up on the market. Pictures and all.

They can even see maps of the location, aerial views, street views, videos, etc. They can literally see inside the property, with all of the pictures made available nowadays!

There’s virtually no need to go out and physically see a property…unless it’s of actual interest to them. Before, they had to go out just to rule out houses. So, almost every house on the market would get more showings back in the day. Every buyer, at every stage of looking, would come out just to get a peek. Now they do it remotely.

This cuts down on how many buyers come out to see your home.

And only the most interested, most serious, ready, willing, and able buyers are coming out to see your home.

This is a good thing…it’s efficient.

So why isn’t your house being shown?

It’s natural for an owner to want more showings. But, be careful what you wish for.

Just creating traffic through your house isn’t entirely beneficial. You should only want serious, ready, willing and able buyers coming through. And remember, there aren’t endless amounts of them in the market.

What’s the use of harassing your agent to create traffic and showings if the buyers have no ability or intention of actually buying the house? You are tasking your agent with creating a bit of a dog and pony show for you.

Instead, sit down or hop on the phone with your agent and get down to what the real root of the problem is. The most sensible thing to do is for you and your agent to analyze what the cause is, and hopefully generate more showings.

Go over things like the following:

• Is it the overall market? Are there not that many buyers actually buying in your area and price range? If so, maybe just be patient.
• Are the buyers who have seen your house buying other homes? Then, maybe your house is overpriced, or not as appealing as other choices in the area and price range.
• Is your house not being shown at all? Good chance that it’s either your price is too high, or there are no buyers in the market. Again, look to see if there are other houses comparable to yours selling.

More often than not, the reason a house isn’t getting shown is due to either the market being a bit slow, or the price being too high. It’s that simple.

Pricing appropriately within the market should get your house shown and sold quickly to the ready, willing, and able buyers in the market…as long as there is at least a buyer who is ready, willing and able in the market.

So, just take a moment to truly understand that creating more showings won’t solve the problem of getting your home sold. You can have showings every hour of every day, but there are only so many true buyers in the market, and they are aware of every house on the market the minute it comes on.

If nobody is coming, and / or nobody is buying it…it’s either price, or a lack of buyers altogether.