I’m not one to take it personally, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying.
We are in the process of selling a home for the second time in less than two years (yes, I am partial to frittering away equity on real estate commissions, thanks for asking), which means a stream of people have been traipsing through our bedrooms and closets and all those places that guests generally tend not to visit. We must keep the place in show home-like condition, which, although we’re not slobs, isn’t exactly how we live on a daily basis, so that can be a pain, call it a necessary evil, but that’s not the aforementioned annoying part.
It's the feedback.
After potential buyers have a look, they typically tell their realtor what they like and don’t like, sentiments that are often passed onto the listing realtor and eventually make their way down to the homeowners. I’m not one of those people who gets attached to a home, so if a would-be buyer doesn’t like it for whatever reason, I’m not offended, but what can often cause me to chafe is the explanation for that indifference.
“They were really looking for a white kitchen,” the realtor will say. When I hear things like that, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to respond. Give me a couple of cans of spray paint and 30 minutes and I’ll see what I can do!
If you have your heart set on a white kitchen, and we don’t have a white kitchen, then why the heck are you looking at our place? Perhaps the more pertinent question from my perspective might be: Do you know how long it took to get the dog spit off the floor and switch out the everyday towels in all four bathrooms for the nice ones we’re not allowed to use?
“They’d really rather have a two-storey than a bungalow,” the realtor relayed. Again, not sure how to respond, other than to state the obvious: that’ll almost certainly be more than a half-hour job.
I realize there can be value in seeing something you think might not be suitable, just in case it grabs you in such a way that it upends your priority list, but given you can visit, frame by frame, any house on the market via multiple websites, I figure there shouldn’t be too many surprises when it comes to crucial details like kitchen colour or a missing second floor.
We learned our lesson from the previous sale, so this time around we told the realtor we were quite happy not to hear from him, beyond setting up showings, until he was able to utter those four magic words that sellers yearn to hear: “We’ve got an offer.”
He was taken aback, but also relieved in a way, when we told him there was absolutely no value to us to learn that a potential buyer thought the eating area was too small or the fixtures weren’t grand enough or the shed didn’t have power. Six showings later, he was able to make that call. Our place had ticked all the boxes, or at least enough of them, for a buyer to make an offer.
I’m not sure what the other five thought, but as you probably gathered by now, I don’t really care.
