When and when not to allow showings on your home

A lot of people are watching the Superbowl tomorrow! But that should not preclude you from showing your home if it is on the market.  I have a client who needs to move immediately, and I was trying to make appointments for tomorrow. Believe it or not, two homeowners declined appointments because of the game. I'm not singling out sports fans, I like to watch, too, BUT, if your home is on the market,  please don't disallow buyers access during a televised sporting event, or a particular television show. They may very well be just as big as fans as you are, and are even more sorry to miss the game or the show  to go look at houses,  but not allowing  buyer access for a few minutes is just not a prudent business decision on any sellers part without good reason. In tomorrow's case, my particular buyer-client  may very well purchase something tomorrow, and those two houses are out of the running because... of a game.

Generally speaking, if a buyer would like to see your home at a reasonable time, let the buyer see it.  I've called to make appointments and I have gotten every excuse in the book- Like, "I have to pick up the house first", (by the way, when I get the seller to agree to the showing, and I usually do, the house tends to be one of the cleanest of the day- and it's not just because they had an extra half hour to clean the house. It was clean already. Here's another one- "We are doing work in the house, and you can show it next week".  Please remember that if you are doing work to sell your home while it is listed, it's an especially good idea to let buyers in during the project for two reasons,.. no let's  make that three.

1. They can see that you are doing quality work 2. If the buyers like the house, and want to make a minor change to your project, you can stop right there! and 3. I guarantee you the buyer won't buy your home if he/she can't look at it.

Reasons to put off a showing- Illness or personal event.

In the case of the above two properties, I think it's akin to  shirking your duty as an agent to forward buyer appointment  calls to the seller. That's what sellers hire agents for- Although the many of  agents in my area direct appointment calls directly to the seller, I  choose to personally  take all appointment calls, and I all my client for confirmation. It's much better all the way around.   If you'reone of the millions  watching the game tomorrow, I hope your team wins!

It's time to de-clutter!

I don't know know about you, but I have seen some of the worst cases of home clutter known to man during my career. I can be conservative and  estimate that I have been in more than 30,000 houses and I've seen more than you are probably interested in hearing about!  Even if you are not planning to put your home on the market for another week, another month, or sometime in the near future, take advantage of the nasty weather we're having right now and do something for you that will actually make you money when you sell.

DE-CLUTTER.

In a kitchen that means, take off all the magnets and pictures from the refrigerator , keep the counters clean (so you and prospective buyers can see that you have a lot of counter-space) and get rid of the extra stuff  that seems to accumulate in the kitchen.

Your living room is another place to get the extra "stuff" out. Unfortunately, that means getting rid of all, or almost all of the family photos on the wall besides getting rid of extra furniture to make the room look bigger.. You may ask why  remove personal photos?...Because it does not allow the buyer to imagine the home as his/her own when they see it. That's a subliminal message, but a VERY important one.

I'm happy to come out to your home,  give you the staging advice that you need, and assist you in the process. (Okay, another shameless plug! ) As always, feel free to call, text or email me, as well as post a comment on the blog if you like. All are welcome!