How to Prepare your Home for Agent Showings
Your listing photos may draw interested buyers to your home, but the actual showing allows them to assess your property better. So, you will want to do what you can to create the best atmosphere, visual impact, and desire for acquisition. Here is how you can adequately prepare your home for agent showings.
Make Sure You've Got Curb Appeal.
Take a walk around your property as if you were a prospective buyer. You'll want to see that the exterior of your house is in good condition. Replace, repaint, and repair cracked panes, downspouts, eavestroughs, and the like. Ensure that your garden and lawn are weeded and trim those shrubs and hedges. Remove any litter. Tidy up your garage/carport, foyer, and porch. Check that your doorbell is working and that your house number is readable. Rake up any loose leaves, and if it's wintertime, make sure you clear the snow from the walkway and salt down any icy areas.
Make the Interior Welcoming and Pleasing to the Eye
You often hear about people baking cookies so that buyers are hit with a wave of nostalgia and happy thoughts when they walk into the house. The idea is that people walking through will connect this property with views of "home" (enough to make it their home eventually). Clean every room, including floors. Fixtures, appliances, mirrors, taps, cabinets, cupboards, toilets, furniture — everything that may be looked at — should be in good condition and clean. Touch up any chipped paint. Reduce as much clutter as possible, especially on stairs and hallways. Empty all the garbage cans. Make sure any towels — including dishtowels — that are displayed are clean and look relatively new. Ensure all the lights and doors are working, and oil any squeaky hinges. All the beds should be made and replaced with fresh, clean linens.
Keep Things Comfortable
While you don't want prospective buyers to hang around your house all day, you do want them to feel like they want to stay. Sure, bake those cookies or use some potpourri — but make sure you don't overdo it. You want the smell to be subtle and pleasant, not overwhelming. Play calming, instrumental music in the background and turn off TVs and other sources of distracting noise. Light your fireplace on a cold day, not only to warm the house but also to showcase how great a feature it is. Use drapes or blinds on super sunny days to avoid blinding or making warm areas around the house even hotter. Keep lights on in dimmer rooms, but in general, let in as much natural light as possible. Use the air conditioner on hot summer days. The occasional (subtle and complementary) flower arrangement is lovely, but make sure it's not too fragrant and that the house is well ventilated if viewers suffer from allergies.
A Few Things to Remember
Sadly, thefts have occurred during showings, so make sure jewelry and valuables are out of sight and safely secured. Also, try to make the property look as close to your listing photos as you can. These photos are likely what piqued the prospective buyers' interest, so you want the house to reflect what they saw in the pictures.
Have any questions? Contact a local REALTOR® on selling your home today, as they can help you prepare your property for open house showings.
