Showing The Home
One of the important aspects of selling your home is showing your home. Before this happens, though, you want to make sure your house is in good enough condition to show. No one wants to buy a home so messy or dirty that it looks like it'll take more work to fix up the place than it'll take to actually buy it!
Prepare For Home Viewings
To prepare your home for viewing by others, open curtains and turn on lights to give your home a bright, full-of-light appearance. If the house is being shown in the evening, be sure to turn on all outdoor lighting to illuminate your home. Ensure that all rooms are neat and clean. You might consider shifting around the furniture so that rooms look as big as possible.
Viewers will want to evaluate the kitchen, so be sure that it's clean. Clean dirty dishes. Put all clean dishes away. If you have kids, make sure that their toys are placed neatly on shelves or in toy boxes in their rooms only. No one wants to trip over Harry Potter memorabilia while trying to make a big decision like whether or not to buy a home. If the weather outside is cool, give your home that cozy feel by lighting a fire in the fireplace (if your home has one, that is).
Make Yourself Disappear
When the time comes for your agent to actually show the home, leave the home, if possible. Your presence might make people feel like intruders. If you must stay at home, try and stay out of the agent's way as much as possible. If the potential buyers ask questions, feel free to answer them. However, avoid bombarding them with questions; you don't want prospective buyers to feel on-the-spot. It's better if the agent answers their questions as much as possible.
Dont mention items you wish to dispose of or sell, unless you're specifically asked by the viewers. Again, this is to ensure your viewers don't feel put on the spot.
If the agent holds an open house, it's best to not be around at all. If you are around, keep pets outdoors, keep children quiet and in one area, and keep music or television noise to an absolute minimum (though it's much better to have them off; an open house is noisy enough without the extra factors). Also, just to be on the safe side, hide all money and valuables. You want to sell your home, but not to someone who's going to pawn your family heirloom to purchase it!
