How Can I Troubleshoot when Agents Tell Me That Showings Are Not Allowed
Over the course of a listing's life on the market, the number of showings is related to the speed at which the status changes to sold. When a showing agent indicates that they cannot schedule appointments, it can be an eye-opener.
We know that sometimes you have to prevent showings. Your owners may be sick, you may need time for painting or fixes, or you may just want to prevent showings for a holiday. We wanted to provide a few things to check out if you are unsure of why a listing cannot be shown.
- Appointment Restrictions
- Required/Suggested Lead time
- Office Allowable Showing Hours
- Allow Scheduling Overlaps
- Combination of Options
Restrictions can prevent showings for a day, a specific time, multiple days, or a specific time over multiple days. You can review these on the listing worksheet in the Appointment Restrictions section.
Required Lead time can prevent showings from being set, while Suggested lead time may warn agents before they can schedule. In addition, an option is available to prevent same-day appointments instead of a lead time. Lead times can be set to 0.
(Available in some markets) Offices can state that appointments can only be allowed during certain hours. In these markets, an office admin or manager may have options to identify the hours that showings can occur.
If the listing is set to not allow Overlapping Showings, and a showing is already scheduled for a certain time, the requesting agent will not be able to schedule at that time.*
In some cases, a listing may have a combination of things in play that seemingly block showings. For example, if appointments are only allowed between 8 and 5 (office allowable showing times) and the listing has a 4 hour required lead time, anyone trying to schedule a showing after 1 pm will not be able to select the same day.
Or if the listing is not set not to allow overlapping showings, and uses the buffer time feature, times may be blocked if scheduling appointments would bump into another or an existing restriction.
*Showing Agents are never aware if a blocked time means another showing is taking place. We display the same blocked identifier if its because of another showing, lead time, or appointment restriction.
You can review the appointment restrictions section on the worksheet to see if there are any rules or if same-day showings are allowed. Changes to the settings and the addition of restrictions are tracked in the listing change log
