Reasonable Showing Times

Here in the New York area, it is not uncommon for people who live in the suburbs and work in New York City to request showings on weeknights after 7pm. If you leave work at 5 or 5:30 and it takes an hour to get home and settled, 5:30 showings are a logistical impossibility. I have one such buyer, and this afternoon I got a phone call from a listing office denying our request to see their listing tomorrow at 7pm. 

I don’t believe that 7pm is unreasonably late for a weeknight showing, but I have 4 children and know better than to crab about it and then get informed that the seller takes home dialysis or some other understandable thing that would preclude a 7pm showing. However, a call to the listing agent revealed that it was just inconvenient to the seller. I have to say that in this market, that isn’t too bright. There are just too many choices for buyers, and those buyers are all too rare in this market to squander a showing request. 

Convenience is relative for a half million dollar property. If you can suck it up a few times on a weeknight that may not be ideal for catching Dancing with the Stars, but it beats another 90 days on the market  and a $25,000 price reduction. THAT’s what I’d call inconvenient.  

Search the MLS like an agent here. Read my short sale bog here. See the New York Photo blog here. J. Philip Serves Briarcliff Manor, Ossining, the River Towns, Westchester County, and the bedroom counties of New York City.