This past Sunday I covered for one of our agents and met up with some first time homebuyers for their very first home tour. We had a big day scheduled: 5 confirmed appointments, all of the homes looked good, and the clients were excited to get their dream home.
At the first appointment, I smirked a bit. It had snowed the night prior, and the driveway was covered with about 5″ of fresh snow. This is, at best, inconvenient. It’s also a safety issue. It’s not great for the house floor either. The house didn’t make the short list, so we went to the next showing.
The next driveway was also covered in snow. The driveway was longer than the prior one, and it had a bend in it. This was not optimal. The showing concluded, and my clients backed their car out of the driveway. I tried t follow in their exact tire tracks, but I felt my left rear tire go off pavement and on the lawn. I turned the wheel to course correct, and as my front left wheel turned, I felt the car slide further off the driveway. There was, right off the driveway, a slope. I attempted to pull forward to retry the whole operation, and the car slid further. Not realizing or appreciating how steep the grade was off the driveway- or where the pavement ended and the lawn began under all that snow- I felt my car slide completely off the driveway and down about 15 feet where a steep drop into a stream was. An hour later, a tow truck was pulling my car up the hill back to stability. It was a very stressful occurrence for several reasons, not the least of which was that these poor folks with me were having what should be a relaxed tour of homes devolve into a car rescue with AAA.
God bless the clients. We took their car to see the next two homes nearby to complete our tour, and when they dropped me back at my car the good folks from Candlewood Valley Motors were there and took a good half hour to delicately pull the car back up safely.
The moral of the story: That homeowner should have either plowed their drive way cancelled showings until conditions were safe. I am not exaggerating when I say my car could have ended up on it’s side in a stream. The liability the homeowner would have incurred was not insignificant, and it scares me to think of how things could have gone if my client’s car slid down that bank instead of mine.
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Sellers: Always Plow Your Driveway After it Snows
At the first appointment, I smirked a bit. It had snowed the night prior, and the driveway was covered with about 5″ of fresh snow. This is, at best, inconvenient. It’s also a safety issue. It’s not great for the house floor either. The house didn’t make the short list, so we went to the next showing.
The next driveway was also covered in snow. The driveway was longer than the prior one, and it had a bend in it. This was not optimal. The showing concluded, and my clients backed their car out of the driveway. I tried t follow in their exact tire tracks, but I felt my left rear tire go off pavement and on the lawn. I turned the wheel to course correct, and as my front left wheel turned, I felt the car slide further off the driveway. There was, right off the driveway, a slope. I attempted to pull forward to retry the whole operation, and the car slid further. Not realizing or appreciating how steep the grade was off the driveway- or where the pavement ended and the lawn began under all that snow- I felt my car slide completely off the driveway and down about 15 feet where a steep drop into a stream was. An hour later, a tow truck was pulling my car up the hill back to stability. It was a very stressful occurrence for several reasons, not the least of which was that these poor folks with me were having what should be a relaxed tour of homes devolve into a car rescue with AAA.
God bless the clients. We took their car to see the next two homes nearby to complete our tour, and when they dropped me back at my car the good folks from Candlewood Valley Motors were there and took a good half hour to delicately pull the car back up safely.
The moral of the story: That homeowner should have either plowed their drive way cancelled showings until conditions were safe. I am not exaggerating when I say my car could have ended up on it’s side in a stream. The liability the homeowner would have incurred was not insignificant, and it scares me to think of how things could have gone if my client’s car slid down that bank instead of mine.