How to Ace a Home Showing: What Sellers Can Do to Prepare For Prospective Buyers

Selling a home can be stressful, as you don’t know when or if it is going to sell. That is why, when you do get a prospective buyer, you must make sure that the viewing goes well. Once you are able to get them in the door, the hard part is keeping them in it. Showing a home should be a pleasant experience for the buyer. That being said, the first thing you should do is not be present. Home owners should not still be lingering around agents arrive with potential buyers to see the home.

You may think you’re being helpful by being there, but you aren’t. No one wants a seller walking around with them while they are trying to decide if they like the home. First off, it puts a lot of pressure on them. They may feel as though they have to act like they love your house, even if they don’t. Always be prepared to have your home shown at any moment. This means it needs to be kept clean and presentable at all times. 

Another party that should not be attending the viewing are your pets. Think you can put your dog in a crate? That is actually even worse. The dog is likely to bark throughout the whole viewing. And, if he is uncrated, he’ll probably be jumping all over the buyers. Not to mention the fact that many people are afraid of pets. So, no matter how nice your dog is, please be sure to take all pets out of the home temporarily, while the home is being looked at.

Be sure that you don’t cook anything directly before your home is to be shown. No one wants to smell fish, peppers, or eggs. If you are a smoker, definitely be sure that no part of the house smells like cigarettes. Same goes with pets. The home should not smell like “dog.” The home should smell like nothing other than the scented candle you should light for the buyers. If your carpet smells, replace it. Anywhere that odor is coming out in your house needs to be handled. 

If any of your doors open the wrong way, or any rooms need to be painted, make those repairs and changes. If you have a second bedroom that you’ve converted into an office, restore the room to its original use, as buyers can get confused.

Never leave your dirty laundry lying around the house; same goes for dirty dishes, or dingy bed linens. The house should be spotless. If cleaning isn’t top-priority to you, don’t be surprised if your house sits on the market for a few months. If you don’t have the time to clean, hire a housekeeper until your home is sold.

Aside from helping your counters look cluttered, another reason you should remove all mail from sight is that it isn’t safe. You don’t know the people who are looking at your house. Identity theft occurs every second these days. Plus the fact, it might give buyers a leg up if they see your bank statement for example. If it shows that you’re broke, they’ll know they have an advantage and that they can offer much less on your house, and that you’ll probably take it. 

Always make sure that your home is well-lit. Don’t be hesitant to open the blinds and draw the curtains. Unless, of course, it highlights scuffs on the floor and walls. In these cases, you’ll want to use a staging technique, which is to keep the blinds shut, and keep the lighting internal with floor and table lamps, which will minimize the appearance of the damage.

If you have any disturbing photos on the walls, remove them. Many agents have told stories of photos in clients houses, that when they went to show it, were pretty embarrassed. You never know.

Here’s a helpful article on, Should Our Seller Agent Be At All The Showings Of Our House? As well as another on, Sellers That Do Not Allow Showings Unless They Are There

2 thoughts on “How to Ace a Home Showing: What Sellers Can Do to Prepare For Prospective Buyers”

  1. Great article. I really like the part about not leaving papers lying around the house. When selling my home, I never did this, but it sounds like a very good suggestion. Double check and make sure. Even when I go to a friends house and see mail lying out I peek over. Everyone has a nosy streak!

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  2. I liked the part about pets. It shocks me that some sellers leave their pets in the house when their agent comes over to show it. It seems very rude, in my opinion. Then again, it seems many people are lacking in common sense and manners these days.

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