Lots of Showings But No Offers? Heres What Might Be Going Wrong

What If I Have Lots of Showings but No Offers?

Home offers tend to stall after buyers detect a mismatch between the price of a home and:

• Presentation
• Process of selling
• Reputation of the seller
• Perceived value

Finding such a miss match as soon as possible is crucial so you can fix it immediately and prevent further delays.

If you notice that a location is receiving heavy foot traffic without bids coming in, it may well indicate that there is interest in the location, but that the perceived value after visitation is below the asking price. Some of the reasons for this may include:

• Hidden property flaws people only see during a showing
• Otherwise high-quality listings not being accurate
• Friction in the follow-up pipeline
• Agent-house mismatch

One of the problems that makes this more complicated is that, these days, people are more likely to better understand how they can shop around. Buyers will simply close the tab for the house they dislike and move on to the next one instead. So, you need to make the extra effort to make your own showing seamless to create a better experience both during and after visiting.

Other issues to be aware of include that mortgage rates have been relatively high for around three years. As such, people are less forgiving of issues they believe will cost them more money, such as if the home will require extra work to get to a state they appreciate.

An app for real estate agents, such as Instashow+, allows you to overcome many of these issues and course-correct in real-time, before a potential buyer’s momentum drops off. Having a streamlined viewing experience allows for a lot more forgiveness when there are minor issues in the home, as a potential buyer will be in a better mood the whole time. You can then pull people back into their forward movement and close the sale despite the real estate showing challenges.

Mispricing Kills Momentum

Many sellers have heard that listing their house anywhere around 5-10% above its actual value is good for businesses to “leave room” for people to negotiate down or catch those willing to pay that much. However, if buyers catch wind of this, such as if they can value the property themselves, they will read that as the seller either trying to trick people or as a lack of a serious wish to sell. They may then look elsewhere to avoid wasting their time.

So, ensure that you discuss a tiered reduction calendar with the seller, starting only two weeks into the listing. Doing this involves slowly reducing the price of the location as it remains on the market to catch people as they bid to be the first one to get the house at a reasonable price.

Make weekly analyses of other buildings in the area with similar styles and values to look out for situations where others are undercutting your asking price. You can then either go toe-to-toe with them or pull the listing temporarily to wait for them to sell first.

You can ensure a high-quality data-gathering response with InstaShow+’s capability to offer notifications of price drops to those watching the location, reviving interest, and potentially boosting real estate offers. Then, track inbound inquiries each time you drop the price to see if another reduction is necessary.

Also, investigate the absorption rate of homes that match the same description. If it turns out that the demand is especially low, then this may be the reason, rather than any internal factor.

Ignoring Local Market Demand

There are many reasons why the market’s supply and demand might have shifted over the past few years, as well as why it might drastically alter in the coming year. However, don’t pay too much attention to the national news, as the effects of your local area’s trends may have a much greater impact.

On top of all of that, work-from-home is still popular, and so many people still have a little extra time to do things like viewing. So, ensure you adapt to these changing habits to give yourself the best chance of making that sale. Be open to the possibility that viewings may need to be during difficult times, and make accommodations to match.

Even something as simple as the season can drive how effective efforts to push sales will be. For example, offering help with closing costs with credits tends to work better in the busier spring, while providing a home warranty is a better bet during the winter, a time when repairs feel riskier and people have constant reminders of ice and snow.

So, continue to compare the local absorption rates with those on a national stage. You can then use this data to determine whether you are pricing your locations high or low, as well as the current state of your local market, and respond accordingly.

Pay attention to local inventory too, and allocate your marketing spend to ensure that people have a better understanding of how many homes are available. You can then push people to make faster decisions after a showing, to avoid missing out on a good deal. You can even coordinate with preferred lenders to offer better discounts, keeping more hesitant buyers engaged when they are wary of the market.

Disjointed Showing Operations

If you have a difficult time with the showing itself, or make mistakes that cause wasted time for you and them, it will come across as unprofessional and potentially cause the loss of a sale.

So, make sure that you do not miss out on notifications. When an agent does not respond to a message promptly, people are much more likely to ghost or miss a confirmation. Instead, have a central inbox or CRM that gathers every message, so that the entire team can respond to them in real-time and get everything in order much faster.

Make sure to also fire off automated reminders, not only to the viewer, but to yourself of the scheduled showing, so that everyone is aware of the upcoming event. This buffer allows you to inform people of what will occur on the day and offer enough time to cancel or reschedule if necessary, retaining the momentum without cancellation.

These reminders should have your branding on them and contain all the information a viewer needs, including:

• Date
• Time
• Address
• Map pin
• Parking tips
• Reschedule link in case of unexpected events
• Any other important information

Make sure to send a feedback form to the viewer as well. Even if they do not engage or offer information, it will be a reminder of their visit without coming across as pushy, guiding them toward deciding on the house. You can also share the top three objections with the seller, helping them understand what is getting in the way of making a sale so they can fix it.

When using a real estate showing assistant like Instashow+, you can also use notifications when other reminders bounce, or even by default. Use every method the user requests to ensure they cannot forget to arrive.

Slow Follow-Up Can Destroy Momentum

Any delay can erode the urgency of a step in a sale, making it that much harder to get from interest to closure. BombBomb even states that 99% of people check their emails daily, so you don’t want to cause a buyer to wonder why you’re not doing the same. As such, actively engage at every step if possible, and avoid anything stagnating. For example:

• Create a human form of outreach with video email
• Develop dynamic offers to inject scarcity into a sale
• Time-box negotiation windows to encourage exciting spur-of-the-moment decisions
• Stagger touchpoints to ensure people feel engaged for longer

Follow the One-Two-Eight Outreach Rule

Call the potential buyer after one hour of their showing, text them after two hours, and after eight hours, send them an email. Doing this will create a set of clear touchpoints that make your actions feel like:

1. You are engaged in their purchase
2. You are constantly working on that home
3. The buyer is a priority

Make sure to log each of these in the system you use, whether that is Instashow+ or something else. Doing this will help keep your team aligned by giving them all the information on each customer’s purchase timeline.

If there is no response within 24h, send the person a personalized video, and be up-front about various perks in the location they could buy. After this, allow them time to make up their own decision. The video should also use your broker’s branded background or a similar greenscreen effect, as well as auto-generated captions to help with accessibility.

If you automate any of these, such as the email creations, ensure you A/B-test them, especially their subject lines. You want to continue using those with a high open rate and a significant conversion ratio.

Leverage Time-Boxed Negotiations

Later, you may present the buyer with a contract during the negotiation. However, there is still the possibility they may sit on it before signing.

So, clarify that any unsigned contract has a time limit that cuts off after a specific period. Doing this will create a sense of urgency, escalating their opinion of the situation to something they should consider faster. Alternatively, include escalation clauses so that they will get the best deal the faster they sign, but if they wait, it will not be as good a deal after a couple of weeks.

To reinforce this, gather all the data you have about this house and other similar houses, and how quickly you tend to sell them. Doing this may make the buyer think they need to pull the trigger before someone else does.

Underusing a Centralized Showing Service

Juggling all the aspects of the sale, including the showing and communication, can cause a mistake and could lead to you losing prime slots in a home’s showing calendar. So, work with the seller to ensure they have a unifying piece of software to handle as much of the showing process as possible and to take the most challenging work off your hands.

You can use a system like Instashow+ to handle:

• Scheduling
• Screening
• Reminders
• Feedback

It can handle all of these, giving you or your agents time to handle many other sales areas. The main reason for this is that Instashow+’s self-guided showing option lets people register for a showing at a home after registering their biometric data. They can then choose to engage in the viewing without the potential human error inherent in needing an agent in attendance, or select a classic-style guided tour.

Both modes mean that people can have a full tour and offer feedback on how it went, and people then have much more control over their experience, making them feel more comfortable about the whole process.