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Sellers may ask real estate agents to be present during showings to potential buyers. Is this a good practice? Most Agents, when faced with such a request by sellers, tend to discourage the seller from attending the showings. I don’t blame them. Having the sellers present during the showing is almost never a good idea for many reasons:

Sellers are emotionally attached to their properties

In majority of cases, sellers have lived in the property they are selling for a while and hence they are normally emotionally attached to their property. They tend to defend their choice of style, paint color and lighting fixtures – all of which are items which are highly personal and tend to vary greatly from person to another. Potential Buyers viewing the property may have different style opinions which may offend the sellers and put them in a defensive mode. As a matter of fact, one of the Real Estate agent role is to understand buyers need and style and help them visualize how they can turn the space they are viewing into their ideal kind of property. A Real Estate agent should not be put in the situation of massaging the feelings of the seller present during the showing while explaining to buyers how they can totally transform the property into the style of their dream

Buyers tend to throw verbal offers to sellers to check their reaction

Every property has a listing price, and every buyer knows that negotiation can play a role in determining the final closing price of any deal. When sellers are present during a showing, buyers tend to throw verbal offers to test the waters. Those verbal offers are not indicative at all of the seriousness of the buyer about this specific property or about the price they are suggesting. Sellers tend to answer positively or negatively those verbal offers remarks which can put the whole potential deal into jeopardy. If you ask any real estate agent, he would never give you any answer regarding any verbal offer. A real estate agent would almost always ask you to come to the office and put a written offer with deposit check. He would never burn steps and he would never feel entitled to answer verbal offers.

Sellers are not expert Real Estate Agents

Sellers are not expert real estate agents and this is why they commissioned a real estate agent to list their property and sell it for them. While attending the showing, sellers almost always have opinion about how the real estate agent should have handled the showing. Real Estate agents find themselves subject to numerous questions and suggestions following each and every showing. Real Estate agent focus during & after the showing should be on the potential buyers and how to handle their objections. It should not be about handling the objections of the sellers about the ability of the real estate agent to handle the showing.

When to introduce Sellers to buyers?

Real Estate agents tend to start the offer process without introducing buyers to sellers yet. In majority of cases, sellers and buyers are introduced in the last stages of reaching an agreement when fine details are still being discussed. Having sellers and buyers meet in that late stage may fasten the process. Many agents however prefer the buyers and sellers meet way after that – at the stage where contract has been discussed and finalized. Many real estate agents prefer to make the introduction almost closer to the closure date than anytime earlier.