You’ve working tirelessly to meticulously stage each room in your home in preparation of anticipated showings and now you are finally ready to put your home on the market for sale. You’ve detached your emotions and so now the lockbox has become a permanent fixture on your front door. In addition your listing agent has asked you about the availability of showing your home when it is convenient for you and when it’s not so that buyer’s agents can schedule showing times around your personal schedule. It is imperative to be as flexible as possible with showings otherwise you could miss a potential sale with agents skipping over your home and moving on to another property that is easier and more accessible.

In addition to being accommodating to buyers and their agents, it is wise not to be home for any and all showings. If you choose to be home, it can be very uneasy and uncomfortable for you as a seller and most definitely to the potential buyer. If you must be home for all showings for whatever reason, don’t follow the potential buyer and their agent from room to room, and don’t volunteer information but answer only the questions that may be posed.

Before any showing, you’ll want to do a few things to just before the agent arrives with their client that will give an excellent first impression when they first come into the home. One of the first senses that will come into play for a potential buyer to experience is the sense of smell, in which you want to be a positive and not a negative. Nothing can turn off a potential buyer more than the scent of a dirty litter box or the smell of fish from the night before. About an hour before the showing, bake a dozen or so of chocolate chip or buttery sugar cookies so that the aroma fills the air, which will give the potential buyer a sense of home sweet home. Turn on some lights and open blinds and other window treatments as well. Check out each room in your home, turning on each light to illuminate every room, and especially focus on exterior lighting, if showings are later in the day.

Have pets? Be sure to have them under control, and most definitely make your listing agent aware of pets in the home. If you have dogs, take them out of the home or put them in the backyard; if you have cats designate a room in the home during showings to avoid them from running outside out of fear. Be sure that the litter box is clean and the home is free from any pet odors.

Remove all personal effects throughout the home as well. This is not the time to openly share family photos and abundant heirlooms with complete strangers. Also, buyers want to have a sense of how they would decorate each room with their personal items and if your personal effects are strewn all over, this could be a deterrent to the potential sale of your home. Treat each room as a showplace and remove all magazines, mail and newspapers that may be piling up on a dining room table or on a coffee table. Vacuum, swiffer and mop all floors, and dust hanging artwork and pictures, in addition to polishing furniture. Tidy up the bedrooms, making the beds, hanging any clothes that may be draped over bedroom furniture and put away the dirty clothes hamper. Don’t forget to visit all bathrooms in the home as well as the kitchen making sure that all trash bins are empty and clean. Two other rooms in the home which are often overlooked are the laundry room and the garage. Remember that it is human nature to be nosy. Potential buyers will open the laundry room door so be sure that there are no dirty clothes on top of the washer and that any clothes in the laundry basket are put neatly away and out of sight. The garage should be orderly as well with trash and recyclable receptacles as clean as deemed fit, and garden tools, kids toys and bicycles stored in a tidy fashion.

Author Bio: Tim Ryan specializes in helping buyers find great deals on Naples Real Estate. You can visit Tim\’s website where you can find thousands of Naples homes for sale.

Category: Home Management
Keywords: selling a home, real estate