The Open House – one of the pillars of most listing strategies, and one of the concepts the general public is most familiar with, no matter how green or how experienced an individual is with real estate.
And open houses make sense, and it makes sense for all stakeholders. For the seller, it’s an invaluable opportunity to market their property to many in a short period of time, and to do so with their selling agent having direct oversight of the process. For agents, it’s a chance to market the property, while also an opportunity to meet prospective buyers and sellers in the area, and demonstrate their value. Finally, it’s a great opportunity for the general public, to either educate themselves, or navigate their buying or selling process in a low-pressure way, on their own time.
Speaking of the public though, I am always surprised by some of the questions I receive when hosting these open houses. There’s a ton of questions that make a lot of sense to ask, “when does your seller want to close” is one that comes to mind that I get multiple times every open house, and it’s something I’d encourage everyone to ask. With that said, while they say there is no such thing as a stupid question (and I’m inclined to agree, if there’s something you don’t understand, I’m always an advocate of asking – knowledge is power), there are always questions that surprise me, whether because I never considered them myself, I took for granted what some people may not know, or how brazen they are.
Here are the three most interesting questions from my most recent open house, a freehold townhouse in Scarborough, and why these questions surprised me.
- Are there going to be new appliances installed? If not, what appliances will we have?
Let’s start with the second part of the question first. What appliances will we as the buyers of this house have? It’s a fair question, more commonly phrased as “what are the inclusions”? As a rule of thumb, the most common inclusions in any sale are all the existing appliances, all the existing window coverings, and all the existing electric light fixtures. For the visual learners, if you cut a roof in the top of the house and turned the house upside down, everything that stayed attached the roof, walls or floors, and all appliances, are typically included. If an item that fits this description is going to be taken with the sellers, it would be noted as an exclusion.
As for the first part of the question, this was one I had never heard before. Perhaps this question came from someone who had experience purchasing new-builds, or perhaps they had rented in the past in a unit that just happened to have new appliances installed. With that said, appliances are almost always going to be sold with the house as they are, and unless otherwise noted they are going to be done so in a “working order”. Now, defining working order is a question to explore at another time…
- Why are the owners selling?
Call me a curmudgeon, but this one always bothers me.
Firstly, I don’t really think it’s the business of anyone why someone is choosing to sell the house. You don’t go into the grocery store and asked why they just restocked apples.
Secondly, I don’t really know how I’m expected to answer this question. As listing agents, we are hired to protect the best interests of the sellers, and divulging information like this will almost do nothing to benefit those interests. Frankly, the honest answer is always “to liquify the financial value of this house, and in doing so maximize said financial value”, and the underlying motivation for that is really irrelevant. However, answering that way likely puts off more potential buyers than attracts them, so that doesn’t achieve the goal of working in the sellers best interest either, does it? What do they say? You catch more flies with honey than vinegar…
And thirdly, in my experience nearly everyone who asks this question is hoping to get an answer to the effect of “the sellers are flat broke, desperate to sell, and will happily do so with the first offer they get regardless of the price”. Not only can I nor would I ever answer like that because of the second point I highlighted above, we’re not operating in McAllen, Texas, where according to one article properties take on average 58 days to sell. The Toronto market is both too efficient, too competitive, and too fast moving for these potential “fire sales” to exist, making this question both off-putting to the seller, and without a clear possible upside.
- My agent is here with me, is it ok if I come in?
I want to address this question in three different ways.
One – I’d like to explain how I’d answer the question. And it would be a simple” “of course it is, come on in!”. As we’ve highlighted, my job at these open houses is to market the property and maximize the potential selling price, and turning people away would be quite counter-intuitive, don’t you think? Not to mention, I’m a pretty social guy. The more people I get to chat with, the happier I’ll be.
The second thing I’d like to address is an apology to anyone who feels the need to ask this question. Our industry is unfortunately filled with unpleasant or much more often than I’d like to admit incompetent agents, and whatever experience you’ve had in the past with an agent that led you to feel the need to ask this question, I’d like to apologize to you for that experience, on behalf of my colleagues and or industry.
Finally, I’d like to wonder aloud, why would any agent not want to accompany their client to viewing a property? Why would any agent not want to see the property for themselves, offer their (hopefully) valuable insights on the property? Why would any agent, and I apologize if I’m putting this bluntly, not do their job? I understand that on occasion timing doesn’t work out, but I’d suggest 90% of the time it’s laziness or apathy by the agent, which is inexcusable, or it’s purchaser clients afraid of “wasting the time” of their agent, to which I say “that’s our job”. I do not, and will not, ever understand why an agent thinks it’s appropriate or would be ok with sending their clients to open houses without them, and it disappoints me that there are members of the public out there who don’t see that as a failure on the part of their agent.
So there you have it! Three questions that I encountered on my last open house that caught me off-guard. I hope you found those thought-provoking and insightful, and if you have any thoughts on these questions, have any questions you’ve asked at an open house before you’d like to discuss, or a question that you’ve always wanted to ask but never have, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We love chatting real estate, love meeting new people, and are always available to further educate, inform, and hopefully entertain!
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