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A couple of selling etiquette questions...
We're not ready to start the selling process yet, but I'm curious about a couple of things. Are you screwing yourself over by requiring x amount of hours notice for a showing if you sell? We'll be selling with a 1 yr old and a NB and live in the country. For every showing MIL will have to come over (45 minutes) to help me load up the kids and cats. We can't just leave and go for a walk out here and DH takes the car to work. You have to do what you have to do, but our house is probably going to be harder to sell in the country so if I have to make it work I could find a way...somehow. Just not sure what the norm is.
Also, this is an obscure question so I'm not sure if anyone will be able to answer it. We have horses and (extremely hot) electric fencing. It already worries me having strangers on the property to begin with, but I'm terrified about them being around the horses. How would we go about telling them to please not touch the horses or the fence? Realtor notes in the listing? Polite signs on the fences reminding them? Our fence will literally knock you on your @ss if you touch it, but we live on a busy road so cannot turn it off for showings because my horses are pushy. Also, would it be weird to also note to please do not open any gates or doors that are not already open? Opening one wrong door could mean a loose horse or dead person and not everyone has common sense.
Re: A couple of selling etiquette questions...
I wouldn't demand an X hour notice. I would negotiate as buyers/agents contact you. "Oh, 1:00 isn't great; can you come sometime after 2?"
We only saw 1 house by last minute appointment and it was unoccupied.
I would make sure there are signs very few feet on the fence stating the danger.
I would also put the horses out if at all possible and have a note not to open the pasture gate so that people can look in the barn/stable. OR have all the horses safe in stalls with a note on the barn that says not to open or enter stalls with animals. I would try not to have a mix of animals in and out if you can help it.
For notice, I would do it on a case by case basis. If someone called last minute, I would probably say yes but tell them you will be there, and will stay in the nursery with the baby and cats, or something.
For the horses, I would put a note on the listing, a large, obvious note somewhere like your front door, then also on the barn door and a few places on the fence.
We required 1 hour notice, and a couple were annoyed at that but oh well. We had tons of foot traffic, and I can't imagine being in your shoes. We put notes and warnings on some doors on our property. That is totally fine. We put the same notes in the realtor listing. We only allowed realtors to contact me for showings and they called my cell direct, and I was able to provide specifics. It was easier to have them call me direct since it was my schedule and more difficult to have them call my realtor in that situation.
As a buyer, we mostly looked on the weekends. I would usually get our list to the realtor by Wednesday for the Saturday showings, so there was always plenty of notice going to the sellers. On rare occasion, we would go look after work during the week, but I would still have the request sent to our realtor by 10:00 a.m. for that evening so we could determine if the showing would work with the seller's schedule. I can't imagine just popping by a place on a whim, as it is terribly inconsiderate of the current owners. I think requesting an hour notice is more than reasonable.
I would definitely mark the doors you want to keep shut. Don't trust the listing to be sufficient. Chances are that they won't know where the door leads, and may open it by mistake. But if you mark that the door should remain closed, then I suspect they will listen. I'd probably mark the fence as well.
Click it if you can't say it!
I cannot even begin to comment on your horse/fence issue.
As for the notice- I've been a prospective buyer for the last 2 years. I never expected to see a place with zero notice. I usually banked on 24 hours notice since I needed to coordinate my schedule with my realtor, the other realtor and the seller's. I would think a couple hours of notice would be plenty.
We had in our listing that we required 24hrs notice and it was never an issue (that I know of).
Is it possible to have your realtor present at all showings so instructions can be given about the horses and fence?