When your Pittsburg home is listed for sale, you’ll be getting showing
requests, either from your listing agent or from a showing service
that your agent has employed.
What should you do if a potential buyer knocks on your door, wanting
to see the house without an appointment?
You may be sorely tempted to let them in, but don’t. For your own
safety, tell them to call their agent and have that agent arrange for
a showing. If they have no agent, give them your listing agent’s
card.
What should you do if someone knocks on your door, says he or she is
an agent,and wants to see the house? What if that person has other
people along and identifies them as potential buyers?
The advice is the same. Hand them your listing agent’s business card
and tell them to arrange for a showing through your agent.
Why should you turn people away when they might have the desire and
means to purchase your home?
Because they might not be potential buyers. They might be petty
crooks, there to see if you have valuables worth stealing. And they
could be something even worse. As for the agent – anyone at all can
have business cards printed that will identify them as a real estate
agent.
Legitimate agents have some safeguards in place to protect you and
your possessions from those with ulterior motives. At the very least,
they know who people are before they bring them to your home. At the
very best, they’ve seen a lender’s pre-approval letter showing
that the potential buyers have the means to make the purchase.
Legitimate agents don’t knock on the door of a home with another
agent’s sign out front. They make appointments through the listing
agent or his/her service.
Yes, you want to sell your Pittsburg home, but don’t risk your personal
safety. If those potential buyers or that agent are really interested
in your home, they will contact your agent and make arrangements the
right way.
If you have children who are at home when you are not, do pass along
this advice. They may think it’s their duty to be polite to anyone
who wants to come in, but it’s not. It’s dangerous. Tell them not
to open the door to strangers.