Sellers and Tenants, Please find something to do for an hour!
August 15th, 2008 Categories: Boulder Subdivisions and Neighborhoods, Focus on Boulder, Real Estate Tales, Selling Thoughts
I have been selling real estate in Boulder, CO and Denver since 2001. I have shown thousands of homes to potential buyers, and in an area that is highly 
student populated, you never know what kind of mess you might walk into. Not only do tenants and sellers leave their homes in shambles for showings, but they also sometimes feel the need to reveal a little too much about what goes on in those homes that we, the Realtors, need to try to help sell. And why can they just not find a park to hang out in or coffee shop to read at during showings? Especially in Boulder and Denver. There are tons of parks and coffe shops all over the place!
You never know what types of surprises you will get when showing a property. I always knock, even when it is supposedly vacant; and then I call out that I am a Realtor once I open the door. You never know. 1. I don’t want to get shot and 2. I don’t want to walk in on anything that might offend my clients. Me, personally, I’m not easily offended, but some people are more sensitive than others.
I once was showing a property, a triplex in the University Hill neighborhood of Boulder. I first showed the unit upstairs in the front. We walked in to a cloud of smoke and 5 kids on the couch taking turns with a 6 foot bong and passing around a joint. my clients and I walked and sat down to join the party. Just kidding! No, my clients and I walked in and were instantly a little more mellow than we were at the last house we had seen. I guess it was a good thing we had a chance to chill out, for the next two units had surprises waiting for us as well.
We walked into the second unit after a quick in and out of the stoner session in the upstairs unit, and what do you know, why were the kids upstairs not hangin out with these kids? Another bong. And, a keg they were still trying to polish off from the night before. The house smelled like old tacos and stale keg beer, with a hint of stale bong-water. Mmmmmmm! just makes me want to throw a full price cash offer on that place.
And then behind door number 3, we walk in, everything seems fine. Yes, it was a dingy basement apartment, but still no signs of anything too devious going on, or am I mistaken?
I call out, “Realtor!!!!”, NO Answer. Okay, the coast is clear. So we get through the living room, kitchen, back down the hall and into a bedroom and then we open the door to the bathroom and, woops!!!! Two people doing naughty things in the shower!! Well, we were all a bit embarrassed by that point and we quickly got out of there. After that, my clients decided they weren’t too sure they wanted to buy an investment property on the University Hill. They decided to purchase a little further east, to stay out of the heavily populated student area. It was pretty funny for all of us and gave us something to laugh about, 
which years later still comes up in random conversations, but it doesn’t help get the house sold.
Then, recently I was in the Highland neighborhood of Denver showing some properties to my first-time buyers and we had a few instances that really turned them off on a few houses. We went into a few houses one day, where the seller was hanging out. Then, they proceed to follow us around and spend way too much of our time, telling every little detail about every light fixture, the closet doors, the special linoleum they laid themselves. All the while, we are all thinking the same thing; “GET ME OUT OF THIS PIECE OF CRAP!!” It’s great when a seller takes pride in the ownership of their home, but put it on a damn sticky note and stay away while we are trying to sell your home! Please!
So home sellers, if you are occupying the property, you and your pets, find something to do for an hour. If you have a tenant, especially in Boulder, near campus, offer them a discount in rent to get them to cooperate with the real estate office. You want to get your house sold, right? Well, consider yourself to be the potential home buyer, and how would you want the place to look? How would you want to enter your potential new home? And, do you really want some seller following you around breathing down your neck, like some desperate fool? I think not! So, don’t do it to your potential buyers, please!
Great article, great laugh (for me) and soooo true. It is amazing what someone will leave around the house for potential buyers to see. Please tell me that you didn’t walk in on the kids, that was too funny. I thought this article was exactly what Seller’s need to hear. I look forward to sharing this article with others. David