Studio Four8 discusses some of the Do’s and Don’t’s when it comes to preparing your home for showing.
Preparing to Show Your Home
Transcription:
Welcome back folks were talking today about some key points to remember when you are preparing your home for show.
Who Enters?
Now first and foremost, don’t let people in who don’t have an appointment or aren’t accompanied by an agent. It sounds like one of those obvious things. But when you’re outside doing some lawn work, trimming your hedges, and somebody walks up, sees the sign, and says “hey, this is exactly the home we’ve been looking for, do you mind if we come in and take a look”? You want to say yes, you can come in and do that. But don’t. Just don’t do it. You’re exposing yourself to risk, you’re potentially not perfect and if the buyers are serious, it’s not that much of an ask to say “hey, not ready at this point in time. Have your agent get in touch.” If they’re serious about your home they’re going to come back to look at it. If they’re not doing that, they weren’t going to purchase your home in the first place. So at the end of the day, not that big of a concern.
Don’t Be Present
To kind of go further along with that thought process, when you’re preparing your home for sale one of the things to keep in mind is to not be present when there are showings. If somebody comes up to your door, knocks on your door, says hey I’d like to see this, this is exactly what we’re looking for. If there’s no agent visible or accompanying them, you are now potentially allowing a member of the public through your house and now you’re with them. Now if there’s an appointment that an agent has made and they’re bringing buyers through your home, its still a good recommendation to not be present during the showing. You want to give the buyers agent and the buyers as much space as possible to experience your home, and to talk about your home. There may be things that you don’t like to hear, but they are looking for their next place to live, an extension of their lifestyle and who they are. So at the end of the day, any showings, do not be present. It’s as simple as sitting on the back deck, that’s a good move. Better yet, grab the dog, jump in the car, roll over to Starbucks and get a coffee to go. Sit on the patio there, something along those lines.
On Pets
Another thing to not be present, is your dog or the cat, or the parakeet, or the iguana. As much as we love our pets to death and we think nothing could be more charming and maybe even you’re thinking it might help sell the house because they are so adorable, it is just not a good idea. Now you cant always do that. It’s the most convenient thing to do. But when and where you can, when possible, or at the very least if you have to leave them at home and you have a cage down in the lower level and some toys to keep them happy, that’s if you need to leave them there.
Funky Smells
The other thing that appears with pets can be odor. Yes I’m using my candle prop. I’m going to talk to you briefly about odors. That is if you think the vanilla candle smells are just going to enhance a showing, they’re not. The first thing that people think when they smell a candle or a glade plugin is that you’re covering something. Pet odors, mold, anything like that. So at least 24 to 48 hours before a showing if you have that notice, don’t light any candles. Don’t light any incense. Just let the natural smell, the spring air outside, open the windows if you want. That’s the best plan.
Securing Your Home
Another thing we like to have a serious conversation with our sellers about is to just have a security minded feeling. We have so many steps and procedures in place to keep your home safe during a showing. But we still need your cooperation and just for you to walk through and think about when you’re leaving your home for a showing what not to leave behind. You want to be careful not to leave your checkbooks, your credit cards, your bills that you are paying, do not leave those out on the kitchen table, put them away. Any medications that you may have in your medicine cabinet that people would be tempted to take, put those away. Fire arms: we’ve all had the experience of walking into a home and having firearms just present. That’s very dangerous if your buyers have children, so put those things away. So you just want to think about that when preparing to show your home. Walk through and think what should we be leaving out and what should we not be leaving out.