I have been doing agent pre-showings this past week. These are sometimes called "agent previews," but agent previews can also be events where agents come to see a listing before or right after it goes on the market. This kind of agent preview usually involves food to encourage agents to come preview the house.
My agent pre-showings this week have been on behalf of a buyer. I have a buyer family that is out of town. They come to Grand Junction when they can to look at houses, but they can’t come every weekend. Their house is already under contract & they need to transfer here for work. For those reasons, we need to narrow down their choices & make their time here well-spent. When I schedule an agent pre-showing, I let the showing desk know. Sometimes the showing desk people at the real estate office need to record the showing appointment differently. Sometimes they put the information in using the same way, but they will make a note. They also let the seller know that it is an agent pre-showing. Most times, that means that the sellers don’t worry so much about the condition of the house, because it’s not the buyer, just the agent.
For me, agent pre-showings are when I go to the property & try to capture what the buyer needs to know. It is helpful to see the views up and down the street, and the neighboring houses. I will take lots of photos. Photos that aren’t on the MLS presentation. Cracked tiles in the bathroom—I’ve got them. Discoloration on the carpet—it’s photographed. Foggy windows—yes, I got them too. I usually get all the non-attractive photos & send them to the buyer with captions.
Stains on carpet, captured for the buyer's consideration
I will also take photos of the space between buildings, hot water heaters, & furnaces. What would the buyer see looking out each door? And, then after seeing those photos, the buyer usually knows whether that house is worth seeing during the next house-hunting trip.
The view down the street
