How To: Show Your Home

Showings / Open Houses

Remember, buying a home is a very emotional process, and it’s sometimes hard for prospective home owners to imagine themselves living in a particular place when the current resident is still inside. We will work with you and the real estate professionals who will be showing your home, to schedule and supervise the listing appointments that will be made when your house goes on the market.

You may be asked to have an Open House at your property. Open Houses are usually most effective on the weekends during several hours in the afternoon.

An aggressive showing schedule will help us to sell your property quickly, which is our ultimate goal. 

Home Staging: 

According to the Real Estate Staging Association, a properly staged home can:

• Increase a property’s value

•Help a listing’s competitiveness in a down real estate market

• Drastically reduce the Days on Market (DOM) of a property

In fact, their 2010 study on both vacant and occupied homes showed that staged properties spent 67% less time on the market than non-staged properties.

Home staging is designed to market and sell your home in a way that is appealing to the largest buyer audience possible.

Whether we choose to professionally stage your house or not, here are some simple practices that will help us keep your home looking open and appealing.

  

 

• If it’s smaller than a grapefruit it needs to be put away. Anything nonessential should be put away during showings.
• Limit the number of items on any surface to 3 or less.

• Beware of odors: especially bad ones and strong ones. Any smell that is strong should be eliminated. Check garbage cans, disposals, sinks, and bathtubs. Do not rely on air fresheners to mask smells, these can often be just as offensive to some buyers. Instead, clean or remove the source of the odor, and keep windows open when possible to allow fresh air inside.
• The only exception to the smell rule is chocolate. Baking chocolate before a showing can help a buyer envision living in your home.
• Remove pictures of your family—it may seem counter intuitive—but it helps buyers see themselves in the home.
• Remove personal items like trophies, pictures of names, or school flags. Buyer’s can’t see themselves in a home when they are constantly reminded that it is someone else’s.
• Put away unsightly laundry or cleaning products.
• Try to position furniture to make rooms look larger and more appealing.
• Stage the outside of the home. Never underestimate the power of “curb appeal.” Buyers want to be proud of the home they are buying, and its place in the community they are moving to.