Home sellers, not the listing agents, decide whether a home is shown by appointment vs. lockbox.
At first glance, most people would say, "Hey, let my agent show the home." That's because agents are handsomely rewarded to market and sell real estate. Sellers also say the listing agent is the person most informed about the home, and the agent has intimate knowledge, which can be passed directly to the buyer or the buyer's agent if the listing agent is present.
Moreover, lockboxes can be a nuisance, are sometimes envisioned as an invasion of privacy, and security issues can sometimes arise. Thieves have been known to cut off lockboxes and steal the keys, although breaking into a lockbox is generally a rare and isolated circumstance.
On the other hand, some studies have shown that homes without lockboxes take longer to sell, sometimes twice as long. And whether a seller incorporates a lockbox into the marketing plan is often contingent on local custom. In buyer's markets that are flooded with inventory, buyer's agents often pass on homes without lockboxes and favor those homes that are easier to show . . . read more about Appointments vs. Lockboxes.
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©Elizabeth Weintraub
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At the time of writing, Elizabeth Weintraub, DRE # 00697006, is a Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate in Sacramento, California.
Comments
Agents are just lazy, plain & simple when it comes to making appointments to show. How hard is it to pick of the phone & give a time frame? Most home owners don’t need an exact time. They either want to be home when the agent comes so they know who is in their house, or they want to be gone to give the clients privacy.
For whatever reason, sellers who require an appointment lose out on some buyers because there are agents who won’t pick up the phone.