I so agree with you!  When we were house-hunting in CT 2 winters ago, we ran into the same issue!  I also have issue with removing my shoes if the carpet is filthy.  Of course, if I see a house like that (as a buyer), I'm not going to waste my time walking around.  But as a stager, of course, the curiousity gets the best of me.  ;)

Susan,

Thanks for commenting.  And I see a lot of crummy houses, since I do a lot with fixer-uppers.

I appreciate a clean home, and never mind going shoeless in one.

Mike, It sounds reasonable to me. It is amazing how many people are unreasonable in their demands.

Bill Roberts

The sellers could provide disposable "booties" at the door, if its really important to them ..  those are available at most Home Depot type store, I have had buyers who will not take time to properly view a home when the temp is freezing inside or in our case a "sweatbox", no a/c temperatures of 100 degrees outside.  I wonder what the sellers are thinking? While we understand the need to conserve energy and money is it a case of pennywise and pound foolish?

So penny wise and pound foolish!  They need to remember to make the showing a pleasure for the buyers or else they just move right along...

Bill, 

When they get unreasonable enough, amazingly, the home might just sit on the market for months...

Gail,

What are they thinking?  I don't know.  Not about marketing and selling, that's for sure.

Thanks for reading and commenting.

Josette,

AKA, stepping over dollars to pick up dimes.

It was not a pleasure.

Mike, these sellers amaze me.  Turning the utilites off on a vacant house in the winter is as bad as turning it off in Houson in the summer just different degees of uncomfort.

People need to remember that the first 15 seconds will determine if a person buys a home or not.  Having cold feet (literally) could factor into that decision.

Marchel,

We get the heat in summer, too, in homes with the AC off.

Matthew,

Really.  but still, too many Sellers seem to consider Buyers to be an intrusion.  Thanks for reading and commenting.

Mike,

I can relate to this post - showing instructions sometimes have really odd requests.  My favorite ones are when they tell you not to let the cat out or that they have a large dog that looks scary but is friendly. 

Mike, I agree, it is ok to have to take off their shoes, but heat would be nice!

Rita,

We had an agent attacked by a dog thiis year, and I don'ta ssume a dog is friendly.

And I HATE cold feet. 

Roberta,

Having heat also shows that the system has at least a rudimentary functionality, too.

Thanks for reading and commenting!