House hunting pet peeves: inconvenient open houses, missing pictures and more
Posted by Annalisa Burgos | May 29, 2009
I’ve been looking for a place to buy in Manhattan for about three months now. Today, my real estate agent tells me that during the summer, open houses shift from the weekends to weeknights. Or you have to set up an appointment to see the place during a weekday.
What?! That means I have to dash from the office to a property crosstown or wherever during my lunch hour (which I don’t normally take). What a major inconvenience.
According to rule #57 in the home seller’s handbook, sellers should make their homes as accessible as possible to attract as many buyers as possible, especially in a buyer’s market. Okay, there’s no handbook per se, but think about all the foot traffic you’ll miss out on. Don’t sellers want to sell their properties quickly? Manhattan is so weird.
In addition to inconvenient open houses, here are a few more pet peeves I’ve had during the house hunting process (and things sellers and agents should keep in mind when marketing their properties):
1) Not posting pictures of the inside of your home online. I’m one of the more than 80 percent of buyers who search for homes for sale online and if you don’t have pictures, I move on to the next listing that does have pictures. These days, your agent should be insisting you include pictures with your listing. If he/she doesn’t, ditch the agent.
2) Posting blurry pictures or ones that are so small you need a magnifying glass to see anything. That’s almost as bad as not having pictures at all, so take clear, appealing pictures. And get rid of the clutter so buyers can see the space, not your stuff.
3) Exaggerating what your home has. One listing I saw read “HUGE terrace.” Since outdoor space is something I want in my new home, I set up an appointment to see the place. To my dismay, the “HUGE terrace” was neither huge nor a terrace! It was a railing that ran along the outside of the bedroom with barely enough room to fit one person! I refused to deal with that listing agent again.
4) Not being prepared for the home tour. I’ve toured properties where the agent doing the showing had no idea what the house or building offered. It was a case of the blind leading the blind. Each time I would ask a question, the agent would give me a blank look and say “I’m not sure about that. I’ll look into it and get back to you.”
What are your biggest pet peeves with the house hunting process? Post your comments below and share your stories with us!
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Patrick Healy
June 1st, 2009 at 1:52 pm
I agree with you on the pictures thing. In a perfect world you should have at least 10 good shots of the inside of the home. Really, 20 would be better. You are trying to make me hungry for this home, show me something. Oh, and the blurry pics, lose those. They are sometimes intentional. I saw a house this weekend that had blurry pics online and I found out why as we walked into the home. It was awful. We walked right now. Didn’t even give the home a chance once we got there. If you can’t take a decent picture then you shouldn’t be in real estate.
In terms of other things that are big turnoffs, landscape your yard – please. Nothing is worse than having to wade through grass while looking at the back yard. Also, don’t be afraid of doing a little touch-up masonry. Potholes in the driveway are not that hard to fix and they really go a long way.
We saw one home this weekend that was done so well. The driveway was so new that they blocked it off to keep people from parking in it. The entire home was just in beautiful condition. It wasn’t the right fit for us since we need a 4BR and it was a 3 but my wife definitely is still thinking about it and she brought it up twice since Saturday. You don’t have to get a professional stager if you don’t want to but you have to stage the house. When a buyer walks in there and your home is messy, look for a low bid – if any at all…..
-PH