house for sale without a for sale sign

[Anonymous]

I've seen this happening over the past couple of years - a house is listed on MLS as being for sale but there is no for sale sign in front of the house. In most cases it's a short sale. Why do people do this?

[Anonymous]

There are some neighborhoods where sale signs are not allowed.

[Anonymous]

Some people don't want nosey neighbors calling and asking about the house. With no sign, neighbors are less likely to fine out. They may be embarrassed if it's a short sale.

[Anonymous]

Some people don't want neighbors to know they are selling their house at all! It does not have to be a short sale.

They may be moving because of their neighbors!

Some neighbors really can be annoying and not mind their own business. They notice when their neighbors wake up (blinds open), they notice when the car is there -all. the. time. Some people don't like to live that way - being watched feels extremely strange and uncomfortable and NOT normal. It is NOT normal for a neighbor to notice that much about anyone else's life.

I have heard of neighbors who watch what people do - yet when a crime happens in the neighborhood, they don't even notice! Useless!

Having had good neighbors and bad, I would say that the sign would not be there due to the neighbors, who have proved themselves not trustworthy, and the neighbors may be a factor (though not the only factor) in them leaving.

You can buy a decent house, but you can't buy decent people living near you who mind their own business, keep to themselves, and know they own ONLY within their property lines.

[Anonymous]

We just bought a house that was a regular sale but no sale sign and no open houses. I will tell you it absolutely brought down the number of people who toured the house and we were their only offer. We paid WAY under the asking price, becuase we had no competition. So it's not necessarily a great idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just bought a house that was a regular sale but no sale sign and no open houses. I will tell you it absolutely brought down the number of people who toured the house and we were their only offer. We paid WAY under the asking price, becuase we had no competition. So it's not necessarily a great idea.

Only 10% of a homes potential viewings come from a sign. The majority of most people looking today are looking online. The fact the house didn't get many viewings would lead me to think the photos online were not very good, the house was overpriced or in a bad school district.

Some people don't want a sign as they believe it can make a listing look stale if it lingers for a while. I know I think this when I drive through a neighborhood and see the same house for sale for a long time. Same thought: it is either overpriced or the interior is a mess.

Also, open houses are for generating future business for an agent. Very few offers come out of an open house. Ask an agent if you don't believe me.

[Anonymous]

Open Houses are absolutely for the realtor's future business! Anyone who has ever bought and/or sold knows this immediately. The traffic is mostly nosy neighbors, which should be reason enough not to have an open house.

I would discourage them. If we all say no, they will have to find other ways, which is easy enough with the internet and other sources. I have a problem with strangers going through my house with no good intentions, but that is just me.

[Anonymous]

They are probably not allowed to because of their HOA. That is how it is in our development. We can have open houses, but nothing allowed in regards to signs in the yards/windows...nothing to do with short sale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just bought a house that was a regular sale but no sale sign and no open houses. I will tell you it absolutely brought down the number of people who toured the house and we were their only offer. We paid WAY under the asking price, becuase we had no competition. So it's not necessarily a great idea.

Only 10% of a homes potential viewings come from a sign. The majority of most people looking today are looking online. The fact the house didn't get many viewings would lead me to think the photos online were not very good, the house was overpriced or in a bad school district.

Some people don't want a sign as they believe it can make a listing look stale if it lingers for a while. I know I think this when I drive through a neighborhood and see the same house for sale for a long time. Same thought: it is either overpriced or the interior is a mess.

Also, open houses are for generating future business for an agent. Very few offers come out of an open house. Ask an agent if you don't believe me.

Exactly, how many serious buyers do you think drive around nabes looking for "for sale" signs. They go online and/or talk to brokers. I think that the "for sale' sign is more for "free" advertising for the listing agent. Also I think that a good percentage of the people at open houses are nosey neighbors who just want to see the interior of the house.

[Anonymous]

Open Houses are absolutely for the realtor's future business! Anyone who has ever bought and/or sold knows this immediately. The traffic is mostly nosy neighbors, which should be reason enough not to have an open house.

We bought both of our houses after going to the open house. In both cases, there were multiple offers and bidding wars, so we weren't the only ones going to open houses and making offers. We also sold our first house via an open house, again multiple offers that bid up the price. We put it on the market on Wednesday, open house Sunday, and we reviewed offers on Monday night and had a contract the next day.

I think a lot of offers are generated through open houses. We worked with an agent, but sometimes it was easier to drive around on a Sunday and walk through a couple of open houses on our own rather than scheduling a time to go with the agent. If we liked it, we'd go back with the agent for a second look and to get the agent's advice about putting in an offer.

[Anonymous]

Yes, we found many houses that we might have put a bid on through "open houses" - turned out the one we bought did not, because the inside was a mess, but we decided it was worth fixing. One thing though. In dynamic market conditions, we found open houses being held after the first bids had been received, even accepted... and in those cases, yes, I thought the realtor was totally serving herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just bought a house that was a regular sale but no sale sign and no open houses. I will tell you it absolutely brought down the number of people who toured the house and we were their only offer. We paid WAY under the asking price, becuase we had no competition. So it's not necessarily a great idea.

Only 10% of a homes potential viewings come from a sign. The majority of most people looking today are looking online. The fact the house didn't get many viewings would lead me to think the photos online were not very good, the house was overpriced or in a bad school district.

Some people don't want a sign as they believe it can make a listing look stale if it lingers for a while. I know I think this when I drive through a neighborhood and see the same house for sale for a long time. Same thought: it is either overpriced or the interior is a mess.

Also, open houses are for generating future business for an agent. Very few offers come out of an open house. Ask an agent if you don't believe me.

Exactly, how many serious buyers do you think drive around nabes looking for "for sale" signs. They go online and/or talk to brokers. I think that the "for sale' sign is more for "free" advertising for the listing agent. Also I think that a good percentage of the people at open houses are nosey neighbors who just want to see the interior of the house.

We absolutely drive around the neighborhoods we're interested in looking for "for sale" signs. A lot of homes have a totally different feel in person than they do in the photos. And nosy neighbors can be helpful, too. We've considered houses in our preferred neighborhood based on the opinions of friends who live nearby. Word-of-mouth can definitely be useful in some situations.

[Anonymous]

Nosy neighbors are never helpful unless they are honest. Which they usually are not. That is very different than word of mouth, PP. Clearly you have not had undesirable neighbors. Consider yourself very lucky. Some have to sue their neighbors for harassment or worse just to get them to back off and mind their own business. I've heard of some making their neighbors responsible for back taxes, which can be tens of thousands of dollars. It can get very ugly. Again, consider yourself lucky.

We have bought and sold many properties and know first hand that the value of an open house depends on the actual market.

We have also cut ties with more than one realtor who held the open house after having an offer.

Buyer (and seller) beware.

[Anonymous]

OP here. This is in a non-HOA area. It had not occurred to me people might do this if they are moving because of the neighbors!

As for realtors holding open houses after an offer was accepted - why would a seller agree to that??

[Anonymous]

I used to think that open houses and for sale signs were only for the agent. but then when we spent a year looking for a house we spent most of our weekends driving around the neighborhoods we like, going to open houses and looking at for sale signs. Yes, I scoured the online ads, but I agree with PP that it was so much easier to drive around and only go see houses you were interested in than trying to schedule time with my realtor each and every free day we had available and pre-determine a list of houses to view. Yes we did it when an open house wasn't available, but many weekends we just "popped" into open houses based on a drive by.