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If your house won’t sell but you feel the house is priced right, in good condition, in a good location, and your agent is easy to work with, the marketing plan is probably the problem. Gone are the days when all the agent had to do was put a sign in your yard, place your house on the multiple listing service, run an ad, and wait for the offers to come in.

Today’s agent must have an aggressive written marketing plan that is made as an addendum to your listing agreement, allowing you to cancel should the agent fail to perform as promised. Your agent must make effective use of the latest technologies and must be attuned to the new information age. A good agent will spend thousands of dollars marketing their listings.

Lock-Box & Ease of Showing

That brings us to ease of showing. If you don’t allow your agent to put a lock box on your door you will miss out on a huge part of the showing market. Let me explain why and a step-by-step process of a typical showing agent.

Here’s how that agents works: when an agent has a couple coming in from out of town to buy a house, the agent will prepare a list of possible properties to show the couple. The properties are based on a previous in-depth interview to determine the couple’s needs. After searching the MLS computer, the agent will print a list of possible properties.

The first thing a highly organized agent will do is check out the showing instructions, separating the possible showings into two piles: properties with lock boxes and properties for which the agent must make an appointment or pick up a key. Because most agents and buyers are on a very tight schedule, the agent will place all the easy-to-show properties on the "A" List with a showing schedule in 30- to 45-minute increments.

Your House May Be on the "B" List

If the agent must make an appointment to show your house, you’re going to miss the first few rounds of showings because your house is going to be placed on the "B" pile. If the buyers don’t find a house that meets their needs in the first few days, the agent goes back to the second pile of properties and starts showing the ones without lock boxes or houses whose instructions demand an appointment by calling the listing agent.

Suppose this couple falls in love with a house on the first few rounds of showings. Even if you have the best house in the city in the best condition -- you’ve lost that sale. So for every showing you do get, just think of how many you’ve missed. Allow your agent to put a lock box on your house and never require an appointment to show. You’ll get much better traffic and a quicker sale that way.

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