The Sedona Verde Valley Association of REALTORS® has a message and a request for all of you Buyers out there.

Congratulations on your decision to take advantage of this buyer’s market, and kudos for collecting the tax incentives available to you! The REALTORS® are glad that you have chosen to investigate the purchase of a new home, and of course we’re happy to help you with it. We understand that viewing properties is exciting and fun – it is for us, too.

However, we’re seeing a problem and we need your assistance.

When Buyers make the choice to start looking, they usually play around for a while on realtor.com, and then they choose a REALTOR® to work with. Your REALTOR® will enter you into our system that automatically emails you whenever a property that fits your needs comes up.

This is where the fun starts.

As a Buyer, you get emailed a listing. It looks like a winner and so you jump into your car to go see. This is all fine and wonderful, and we’re glad that you’re looking at the outside of the house and checking out the neighborhood – that’s always a great idea!

But (Isn’t there always a “but?”) here’s where the problem happens.

A potential Buyer finds a house and it looks intriguing and so they jump out of their car and wander around the yard and then they put nose prints on the windows and suddenly the owner or the tenant comes out of the door, wondering loudly why these people are trespassing?

This situation can get ugly, and it’s been happening a lot.

Buyers, please don’t assume that a house is vacant. Even if it is empty it’s still private property and you need permission to be there. Often, the police have been alerted to patrol and watch these homes closely, especially the bank owned homes.

So here’s the plan. Absolutely drive around and scope out the homes and decide which ones you want to see inside. Then call your REALTOR® and have them make an appointment. Don’t worry about bothering us. Thank you, but this is one of the best parts of our job. We like to show houses.

Thank you so much! If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to call or email the Sedona Verde Valley Association of REALTORS® at 928-282-5409, or email us at info@svvar.com.

Happy hunting!