Apathetic Sellers will waste your time!

I had a gentleman call me the other day; the first thing he said was that he was looking for a realtor to sell his crappy house! (His words not mine).  My response was to ask why his house is crappy.  His answer was: well I really don’t care if it sells or not, I am going to be foreclosed on in the next couple of months and I just want to know if this selling short thing really works!

Now as a Buyer agent I have written a couple of contracts with other agents that have had sellers that really don’t know what it takes on both sides to get a deal on a short sale.  I would not waste the time of my buyer customers to even show such a home.  Most are not this blatant when they tell you that I am going to waste your time as this gentleman was, but you can also get a hint by asking a couple of questions from the start:

1.       Are you willing to gather all of the documentation such as tax returns bank accounts etc.?

2.       Will you allow agents to show the house under normal circumstances?

If they balk at either of these two questions then I can’t help them.  This of course was one of those times when I told him no, and that I don’t have a referral to anyone else.