Any real estate agent can tell you – the Waterloo Region home that shows the best sells the best. Showing your home the right way is your agent’s job for sure, and your agent will always help you, but you should be wary of following in the footsteps of some less than successful sellers by making these potentially deal-breaking showing mistakes:
Being Inflexible About Showing Times
While no one is suggesting that you throw an “open all hours” sign up onto your house when you are selling your home it will help you get that all important first offer on your house much quicker if you are fairly flexible about showing times.
Seven a.m. may be pushing it, but is it really that much of an imposition for you to forgo the lie in and allow your agent to show your home at 9am on Saturday morning if that is the only time a potential buyer can see it? If you are serious about selling your own house the answer to that question should be no.
Hovering
We’ve all been there. You are at the store (any store) having a look around, not quite sure what you want and you notice a store employee hovering over you. They don’t say a word but that fact that they are watching you is fairly obvious. Uncomfortable feeling isn’t it?
That is just how a potential buyer will feel if you hover over them in this way when they are viewing your home. Instead, either go out for a while and let the agent do their thing or smile, point them in the right general direction and then back off.
The Hard Sell
The seller points out their wonderful fireplace in the living room. The potential buyer agrees its very nice. But then the seller brings it up again and again, because they think its one of the home’s the big selling points. Often this can backfire as the poor buyer gets so sick of hearing about the fireplace while they are trying to follow the agent and look at the bathroom that they tune out and lose interest altogether.
Mention the highlights of your for sale by owner home once only, then leave the people viewing to get a chance to discover what they like about the house by themselves.
Mess
If you are still living there when you are trying to sell your home remax says no reasonable person is going to expect it to look like a total show home when they come to view it. However, if the showing appointment was made a few days ago and you still open the door and there are piles of dishes in the sink, the cat’s litter box hasn’t been changed and your kids’ football is still lying in the middle of the hall you are simply not creating a good first impression. And like with so many other things in life, when selling your home making a good first impression is crucial every time.