What is a 24-hour Notice When Showing a House? | Garden State Home Loans | NJ
Jan 18
, What is a 24-hour Notice When Showing a House?

What is a 24-hour Notice When Showing a House?

24-Hour Notice

When selling your home, one of the things that you may think about how you will make your home available for showing. In addition to a 24-hour notice, there are a few different notices you can employ for this.

  1. Call first, lockbox

This is the method preferred by most agents. The buyer’s agent calls the seller to let the seller know the agent and the buyer are coming over. There is no appointment necessary. The key is left in a lockbox, which is used to gain access to the home.

  1. Vacant with lockbox

If the home is unoccupied, there is no reason to call the seller or the listing agent. As before, access is gained through a lockbox.

  1. Appointment with agent

For this method, the listing agent or the agent’s representative is present for all showings. Sellers will sometimes request this method if they believe that the listing agent will point out features that the buyer’s agent might miss. Sellers may also believe that the listing agent can better sell the home than the buyer’s agent.

  1. Appointment with seller/tenant

The buyer’s agent or listing agent makes an appointment with the occupant of the home. This could be anywhere between a one-hour notice to a one-week notice. The appointment can be whenever is workable between the buyer and seller.

  1. 24-hour notice to show

A strict 24-hour notice is enforced for this notice method. If the buyer to see a house at 12 PM on a Wednesday, the buyer’s agent must call the seller no later than 12 PM on Tuesday.

When to use a 24-hour notice

  1. Pets are present

This is the most common reason why sellers need advance-notice for showings. It is easier to sell a home when pets are not present. The 24-hour notice allows for time to find a place to relocate your pets before the showing.

  1. It’s the norm

If all the homes in your community require a 24-hour notice, then it’s not odd to require a 24-hour notice on your house as well.

  1. Tenant occupied

Many leases require 24-hour notice to give tenants notice that people are coming to view their apartment.

  1. Unorganized

If you have a lot of activities going on at home or work from home, a 24-hour notice will give you the time to get organized and ready for buyers to come into your home.

  1. No competition

If your home is unique and desirable, buyers may not mind the 24-hour notice.

Downsides of having a 24-hour notice

Many agents and buyers don’t like the 24-hour notice method. An agent may have five to ten different homes to show. The homes with a requirement of a 24-hour notice often get put on the back burner. They either don’t get shown or are shown as a last resort. The agent will prefer to go through as little hassle as possible, so it’s easier to stick to showing homes that don’t have this requirement. In fact, unless a buyer expresses direct interest in a home with a 24-hour notice, the agent may steer clear of the house entirely.

 

Skip to content