I have been working on a listing for a few months now. The sellers called me a while back - well before their listing expired with their last agent. The listing expired just a few days ago and we are meeting this weekend. Now, this is a great listing - good price, excellent upscale gated community, yet it had been on the market over a year! Upon picking the listing apart - I found the problems. Among them, very high starting price with many reductions down to the current price, bad pictures (angles were odd, etc.), the virtual tour was not actually a virtual tour but a photo gallery, no agent web site featuring the property (that I could find), and last but not least - NO lock box! I double checked - yup, it said, NO lock box - call listing agent. Now, I thought - this is odd. Why would the previous agent not use a lock box? In my market - we have many, many vacant properties because we are a second, third and so on home market. The norm is to put on a lock box if possible. This house is vacant with little personal belongings. When I spoke to the home owners again I asked why no lock box and they said their previous agent said they should not use a lock box but really offered no explanation why! They told me they were not against one. I explained the main benefit of using one : to get the buyers and their agents into the home quickly with little hassle. At least in my market, agents are much more likely to show a home that is on a lock box as opposed to getting the key in the listing office or waiting for the listing agent to show up and let them in. There is simply way too much to pick from - the homes that get shown are easy to get into. So, please sellers, agree to use a lock box! It is perfectly safe and I can guarantee your home will be shown more.
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