Are they looking at more than just room size? Surprising checkpoints real estate agents notice during property viewings
After clearing the property criteria online, it's time to head to the site. The "viewing" where we, as real estate agents, guide our clients is the final hurdle in the room-hunting process.
Do you know what clients, who have built up an image from floor plans and photos, look at first the moment they step into an actual room?
Of course, they check the size of the living room, the sunlight, and the storage capacity. However, when watching clients' movements on-site, I notice they very often pause at "parts directly linked to real life" that are not listed on the recruitment floor plans.
In particular, there are three points that almost every client checks these days.
The first is "whether there is cell phone reception." The number of people who take out their phones the moment they enter a room to check the antenna display on the screen has really increased. Especially in low-rise reinforced concrete buildings or recessed floor plans, reception can sometimes be poor. In this day and age, where teleworking and video streaming are the norm, poor reception alone can be a fatal negative point.
The second is "the smell and water pressure of the plumbing." They bring their faces close to the bathroom, toilet, and kitchen sink to check if there is any sewage odor rising up. If a property has been vacant for a long time, the water seal may have dried out, causing a foul odor to drift, and the client's enthusiasm drops instantly at that moment. Also, if the water can be turned on, checking the shower to see if the water pressure is sufficient is another point they care about.
The third is "how the common areas are used." This refers not to the inside of the room, but to the entrance bulletin board, trash collection area, and bicycle parking area. Clients are concerned about the quality of the invisible neighbors, wondering "what kind of people live here." Seeing trash scattered about or personal belongings spilling out into the hallway makes them sense the risk of tenant troubles such as noise, and they quietly remove the property from their list of candidates.
These are all pieces of information that can never be conveyed through photos on portal sites and can only be understood by going to the site.
Hard aspects like the floor plan and distance from the station cannot be changed. However, soft maintenance such as regular ventilation during vacancy periods and frequent cleaning of common areas can be improved depending on the owner's mindset and the management company's actions.
For us as real estate sales agents, properties where an environment is in place to remove these "invisible anxieties" are easier to recommend with confidence and lead to higher closing rates, as they allow clients to make decisions comfortably on-site.