I am going to RE school later this year. But, 17 years ago we bought our first house. I had a Realtor. She is excellant at what she does. Only thing, she had not made appointments with many of the houses she showed me.
I was really scared to even walk into a few. She knocked or rang the doorbell, no answer, she let us in.
This was in Oklahoma and alot of people have guns in their homes. I was thinking maybe someone was just in their backyard!
Most of the houses we visited were not at all picked up. Some were very messy. I do understand the concept of keeping your house viewable, but, I also understand people letting things go until they get the call from the Realtor to show their house.
What do you do when you show a house and it is a huge mess?
I have to ask this...it is a concern of mine.
I own a Cleaning Company and seeing a house like this makes me cringe!

Also, I have a friend that has had many houses sold using the same Realtor. Before the Realtor would put the house on the market, he would hire the same cleaners to get the house to sparkle! He paid out of his pocket, but he felt good about showing the house. He would also fix any little this or that or even touch-up paint a spot that needed it. He would try to make the house as much eye pleasing as possible, just by doing little things. He makes an enormous amount of money selling in the Seattle area.
My sister-in-law Stages homes for a Realtor lady she is friends with. They take out all of the very dated furniture and bring in nicer things.
We have staged houses after we have cleaned them.
I love anything to do with houses!

What do you do when you show a house and it is a huge mess?

I assume that is the question in there.

Unfortunately, agents don't counsel their sellers about condition of house for showing and/or making sure the house is in showing condition before listing it.

If I had the time, I would preview the house first to prepare the buyers. After I showed it, I would send a note over to the listing agent that my buyers were not interested because of the condition of the property, house had odor etc.

Obvously you know how a house should look for a showing, The key is getting the seller on board & not taking a listing that is in terrible condition (unless it is priced for that condition)

that is one of my concerns when I start this business is working with sellers who dont keep a neat house....especially when they are selling it...with they cooperate when you counsel them on how to have their house look like it is almost not lived in......

My experience has been taking my Seller clients out to show them properties that are in competition with them. Ask them to put on the Buyer's cap on. See if there's anything they want to do to their house to make it easier for buyers to want their house over the competition.

They get to work!

I like what you did fatmaxxv...I had a client like that last year. The family was a nightmare. They didn't want to do a damn thing! They had two kids in a Jr. 4 - so it was bad to begin with - but they just complained that they were "overworked" and had no "time" to do anything more. I couldn't get it through their heads that toys all over the entry way were not acceptable to buyers! They said their children would be fussy without their toys. There were dishes in the sink. Books everywhere, tons of high-tech gadgetry - the place was always a disaster.

I tried to coax them into doing the right thing. They got mad at me. I wasn't doing MY job if the place couldn't be sold without their lifting a finger. In the end, they had to move out in order for the place to sell!

Although - doing two jobs right now - I'm looking around my place and its really a mess too! Gotta go and clean!

Good idea!

This is one of the things that I wonder about too. It seems that the "norm" for some houses seems to be "Dilapitated Chic". I guess a lot of sellers expect buyers to buy their houses at "market value" as if their house were in perfect condition inside and out, and of course, the buyer will be the one to "fix it up."

This mentality bugs me. I do like the idea of taking the sellers out to see their competition.

Re: clutter inside - I had a picture that a realtor took of a very tiny kitchen in a house for sale, made extremely more tiny by all the crap on the counter. I played around with the picture and showed how it would look if the counters were clean and showed it to the agent. She said she tried to explain to the sellers about the effect of clutter and junk laying arund (especially when a house is dated to begin with and has that strike against it...) but they said "This is how we live."

:rolleyes:

I know someone in my office turned down a 1.2 Million dollar listing because it was so bad. The potential client was an area doctor, but supposedly the house had stuff piled everywhere. The doc and his wife didnt want to do anything with it, so the agent refused the listing. The sellers asked, "don't you want our business?". Agent says "yes", but "not like this".
He said it was a year ago, another agent took the listing, and the house still hasnt sold.

When I take a listing I go around the house and tell them what it should look like when it is shown: get rid of EVERYTHING on this shelf except ONE knickknack, for example. In the kitchen I tell them go to WalMart and buy a big plastic tub. ALL pictures and magnets OFF the fridge. When I call to show the house put EVERYTHING on the counter: pill bottles, bills, whatever--into the tub and put it under the bed. When I leave you can dump it all back out. Same in the bedroom. Put EVERYTHING in OUT OF SIGHT ESPECIALLY JEWELRY! Stuff it in a drawer, I just don't want to see it. And take everything off the dresser and leave one or two things. Start packing to move. Most sellers are pretty good about it, especially the tub thing.