Showings and Contracts; Is one Dependent on the Other?

Getting traffic into your Athens, GA home for sale. That is the end all. At least they tell me it is the end all. Okay, okay, I know I am a Gen X'r and a Contrarian, but while I do agree we need showings, I still hold fast to the concept that the technology we have today does weed out and therefore reduce physical showings. This is okay. I mean, you don't want 47 people to walk through your house creating foot patterns in the carpet and also requiring you to possibly have to clean it each and every time there is a showing lined up when a handful of showings can just as well do the trick thereby creating a sought after Contract.

Examining showings on a few of the home listings that I have had recently go under contract or sell, this is my finding;

		Showings	Days on
Location		90 Days	Market
Sunset Drive		18	103
Brookstone Drive		6	137
Sterling Drive		48	269
Averages		24	169

So a few questions arise.

1. Do the number of physical showings (i.e. walking potential buyers through the front door) cause the house to have a higher probability to be sold as compared to the next home?
2. Does location weigh into whether or not a particular house is sold more quickly than another?
3. Does price factor more heavily than other variables in getting a house sold? Does price if it is too high also possibly reduce the number of showings as well as create a prohibitive environment reducing our opportunities for contracts of sale?

The answer to these questions are "no, yes," and "definitely yes."

What is almost humorous to me, forgive me if I make myself chuckle in my analytical geekness, is the fact that I did not include the sales price of any of these homes. What you might find interesting is that the home with the most showings was the least in price of the three sales. It's also quite surprising that it had the longest days on market. Why? It missed on location, the neighborhood had too much competitive inventory on the market for sale, and was vacant which hurt it compared to other homes which were furnished or staged.

The property with the least showings in Brookstone sold for 98 percent of list price, and sold at a relatively low number of days on the market. Why was this the case? It had great location for the buyer. There was also fewer comparable properties on the market for sale in this subdivision. The Sunset Drive property was the most expensive of these listings and sold in the fewest number of days on the market. This was a result of location, location, and location.

In the end, none of these sold as a result of a great number of showings where real estate professionals dragged people through these homes. None of them even had, are you sitting down, a single "Open House." They sold because of hundreds and hundreds of views online, they were priced right, and they had good location.

I know these are only three sales in my example, but I could throw you another that sold in 44 days on the market, was priced at $239,900, and had but 2 showings. Again, it sold due to location and price for the area.

Keep this in mind if you are in the process of selling your home or are thinking about it. Through keeping the "masses" off your carpet, hardwoods, and rugs, you will have less to have professionally cleaned for your buyer when it does go under contract!