I also think it’s okay if buyers don’t have an agent with them if they have set up an appointment (through their agent) to look at a home. Buyers going to open houses can obviously browse as they please during the showing.

I never had an open house when I was selling.

I look at it as though it’s a marathon – you train for it, right? If you didn’t, you won’t finish, and you’re just going to get in people’s way who did. Unless of course, the unrepresented person has a briefcase full of cash for the full asking price. That would up their attractiveness considerably.

The only part I didn’t completely agree with, is not bothering if the agent isn’t WITH them. I and my husband do 99% of the legwork and running around in our search for a home. We know exactly what we are and are not cool with in a house, and we see no need whatsoever to force our agent to accompany us in our extensive driving about. Especially since we have looked at over 75 houses so far, and only offered on two. That would be horribly unfair to have made them trail in our wake this past 6 months. We call them in when we need to get inside a place, or I want some background info, or we have decided to make an offer. That’s it. They don’t need to leave home on our account but rarely. I do keep a stack of their business cards in my bag, and leave one behind at every house we hit.

I don’t offer up the information that we are represented unless asked, so I suppose to most folks at the open houses we’ve been to, it appears as though we are just gawking. Well, prepared gawkers with camera and taking lots of notes.

I’m not excluding Redfin buyers whatsoever. Even a Redfin buyer “has an agent”. I am talking about people who just happened to drive by and decide it’d be a good idea to just see what your place looks like or are just in the research phase. But Scott has a good point that anyone could turn out to be a buyer down the road.

You have to be constantly monitoring the market to see what is selling and for what. But almost as important you have to pay attention to whats on the market not selling. When dealing with a price reduction, why reduce it 3-4 thousand, that’s not going to turn any heads. You are correct that you have to be ahead of the curve and catch the next price point. However, you must create a sense of value to the buyers. That can be done with condition of the home or the price specifically. If your a seller and you around during a showing, that is usually not good. It can make the buyers feel uncomfortable and they might not spend too much time in the home if you are there. Lastly, the lookee-loos. I agree that more often than not these people are months away from purchasing. But you shouldn’t disregard anyone or treat anyone differently, because you never know if they turn out to be the buyer.

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