Everything you should know about showing your home
Once your home is on the market you’re going to have LOTS of showings. Real estate showings give potential buyers the opportunity to see and experience your home in person. Showings are a very important part of the home buying and selling process.
What is a showing?
A real estate showing is any opportunity you give a potential buyer to see your home in person. Avoiding showings isn’t really an option, sight-unseen sales are extremely rare.
Whether you’re looking forward to showing off your home to potential buyers or dreading the process, here’s how to show a home for sale.
1. Buyers will access your home via lockbox
Your agent will install a lockbox the day before your listing goes live. These lockboxes are only accessible by those who are on the local MLS. Having a lockbox on your home allows potential buyers to look at your home with their own agent. This setup allows more flexibility in scheduling. They can let themselves in rather than waiting for your agent to show the house.
Buyers are able to speak freely about their opinions on the house without worrying about the seller’s agent listening.
2. Leave your home for the showing
We recommend you leave your home during the scheduled showing time. Leaving 10-15 minutes prior to the scheduled time, and show up 5-10 minutes after the showing time is scheduled to end. This will give you a small cushion so you can avoid any awkwardness with the buyers.
3. Showingtime
In our market we use a program called “Showingtime” to schedule showings. The buyer’s agent will send over a request to show your home to their buyers. We will then confirm the time with you.
If you would like more control with this process we can set you up to approve your own showings through Showingtime.
Prepping your home for showings
Clean thoroughly - This might include steaming the carpets, mopping or vacuuming hard floors, cleaning windows, polishing appliances and give the bathrooms a serious scrubbing.
Lock up valuables: Lock away any valuables to avoid theft of expensive items or private information.
Have a plan for pets and kids
Depersonalize and declutter: Remove items that clutter up the space and make rooms look smaller. Remove family photos and personalized decor — you want buyers to picture themselves living in the home.
Rearrange furniture as needed: Remove excess furniture to make rooms seem bigger, and swap pieces in and out of different rooms to give each space an obvious purpose. For example, add a desk and chair to a bonus room to show it as a home office, or move a twin bed into an empty bedroom.
Keep storage spaces tidy: Every buyer is looking for a home with plenty of storage, which means they’re going to be opening your closets, pantry and garage doors. Closets should look tidy and not overfilled. If you have too much stuff consider getting a storage unit while showing your home.
Spruce up curb appeal: You want you home to make a good first impression. Plant flowers, pull weeds, mow the lawn, rake and/or shovel snow.
Showing Tips
House showings can be scheduled without much advance notice, so ideally, your home should be kept spotless while it’s listed for sale. You want to be prepared to show the house whenever someone calls.
Do a daily cleaning: Clean up daily messes, like crumbs on the table, coffee spills on the counter or toothpaste drips in the bathroom.
Turn on every light: Overhead lights, lamps, even turn on appliance lights and closet lights. Be sure the porch light is on, especially after dark; solar lights along your walkway are a nice touch as well.
Avoid strong-smelling foods: Avoid foods that leave long-lasting odors.
Keep pet areas clean: Clean up after your pets immediately and wash their bedding regularly. Also, hide any pet food or litter. Not everyone is a pet person.
Make it bright and welcoming: Open blinds and curtains to let in as much natural light as possible, and leave lights on when you vacate for a showing.
Empty trash cans: To avoid bad odors, regularly empty trash cans in every room.
Set the thermostat to a comfortable temperature: If tours will be happening when you’re at work and you usually turn the heat off, keep it on so that buyers will be comfortable during their tour. Same goes for the summer — if you have a nice, cool house, buyers will be inclined to stay longer and enjoy the home.
Open doors: Leave closet doors slightly ajar
Be flexible with showing times: Be willing to show your home between 8AM to 8PM. By being flexible with showings one should even allow for the possibility of last minute showings. One can never tell when the right buyer for your home needs to see the home as soon as possible because their spouse is travelling out of town and they don’t want to lose the opportunity to make an offer before they travel. The goal is to sell the home and the more buyers allowed in to see the home the greater the chance a good offer will be presented to purchase the home.
Pay attention to showing feedback: Once a home is on the market the most valuable feedback that can be had is from actual buyers who have visited the home. Buyers will be providing feedback on things such as the condition of the home, the overall appeal, pricing and more. If buyers are repeating one constant theme, such as the home is priced too high, it would be wise to listen to that advice and adjust accordingly.
Bottom Line:
The showing is the actual time a home gets viewed by buyers in person. The in person showing can make or break a sale. By properly preparing your home and keeping it ready when buyers are coming through the home sale is setup for success.