Why Is My Home Not Selling? Part 3: How Your Showing Setup Could Be Costing You Offers

If your home has been sitting on the market and you can’t figure out why, one of the first things I’d check has nothing to do with your price or your paint color. It’s how easyhttps://youtube.com/shorts/fjowr4DGZAo your home actually is to show. It’s a small detail, and it’s one almost every seller overlooks.

Why I Test My Own Listings

The moment a home goes active on the MLS, I do something most agents skip: I set up a test showing on it myself, exactly as if I were another agent trying to book a showing for a buyer. I go through ShowingTime, the same portal every agent in this market uses, and I check a few specific things. Are there any weird time blocks locking out chunks of the day? Can I actually get a full hour, not stuck under a 30-minute limit? Is the requestable window realistic, generally 9am to 8pm? And are the showing instructions accurate, things like turn off lights, leave your card, remove your shoes, the basic courtesies we ask every agent to follow when they walk a buyer through one of my listings?

This takes me a few minutes, and it catches problems before they cost you a showing.

When Sellers Need Real Boundaries, Not Rigid Rules

Some of my sellers work from home and genuinely can’t accommodate showings whenever an agent wants to pop by. For them, we build a reasonable middle ground: block out a consistent window, say 10am to 1pm on weekdays, as protected work time, and open things up after 1pm for showing requests. That gives them real, predictable boundaries without shutting the door on buyers for most of the day.

The 24-Hour Notice Mistake

The biggest mistake I see is sellers requiring 24-hour notice before a showing. Buyers move fast, and agents will simply skip a home that’s hard to get into rather than wait a day and hope the buyer is still interested. This becomes a serious problem if you’re selling a rental property that isn’t vacant, since tenants are rarely in a hurry to accommodate a showing on short notice, and a 24-hour requirement compounds that problem instead of solving it.

Confirming Showings Is Your Job, Not Just Mine

If you’re still living in the home while it’s listed, confirming showing requests promptly is genuinely your responsibility. I give my sellers a choice of phone call, text, or email, whichever works best for them, but whichever they pick, they need to actually watch for it and approve requests in a reasonable window. A showing request that sits unanswered for hours is a showing that often doesn’t happen at all.

Curious what the actual truth is behind automated showing systems and how they affect your sale? Watch this quick video:

More in This Series

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If your home has been sitting and you’re not sure whether it’s actually easy to show, let’s take a look together. Call or text me at 952-994-7204, or reach out through my website.

Serving sellers throughout Lakeville, Apple Valley, Eagan, Farmington, and Rosemount.