Showing your home
Whenever your home is shown, there will be a Realtor accompanying them. We would like to think that all Realtors and their clients are honest people, but there’s no way for us to know each person that will be walking through the house. It’s best to plan to secure your valuables before any showing.
- Ask trusted friends and family if they can store particularly valuable objects for you until your house is sold.
- Place valuables in a safety deposit box at a bank.
- If your valuables need to be left in the home, please put them into a locked closet, locked file drawer, etc. then keep the keys with you.
- Don’t leave house or car keys hanging on key racks or lying on the counters.
- Turn computers off and have them passport protected.
- Do not leave laptops out.
- Be sure to lock prescription medications away as this is one of the more popular items to steal.
OPEN HOUSES:
During an open house, even though a trusted Realtor will be hosting, it will be impossible for the Realtor to keep their eyes on everyone in the house. For an open house, you need to be even more diligent about protecting your belongings since there will be no record of who has been in and out of the house that day. Open houses are always optional and if you're not comfortable with the open public coming through, we are confident that we can sell your house without holding an open.
When the home is shown its always up to the homeowner. However, aking the house easy to show will help get offers more quickly, and the sooner the offer comes in, the more likely it is to be full price.
Generally we recommend that a homeowner put their mobile number on the listing as this will be the easiest way for a buyer’s agent to reach you to schedule a showing. However, we are also happy to have the buyers’ agents call us to set up showings if a homeowner doesn’t wish for their number to appear on the listing. If the buyers’ agents are calling you directly, here is the etiquette of showing requests:
“Call First” – If the listing says Call First, this means that the buyers’ agent will call you and if you don’t answer they will leave a message with their name, number, and when they plan to show the house. If this time doesn’t work for you, you can call back to reschedule. If there’s no “notice” time given, that means that the agent can call, then come right over if they leave a message.
“Vacant” – If the house is vacant, we recommend allowing buyers’ agents to show the house at any time without notice or calls.
“Call First with Notice” – It’s common for homeowners to allow for the “Call First” status, but require a little notice. For example, “Call First, 2 Hr Notice” would require that an agent could call and leave a message, but it would have to be at least 2 hours before the showing. This allows the homeowner time to receive the message and respond if it’s not a good time.
“Appointment Only” – If you wish to actually speak to anyone before they enter the house and to set a specific appointment time, then we will list the house as “Appt Only”. The buyers’ agents will call and leave a message, but they won’t enter the house until they have spoken to you and set an appointment time.
It's always best to leave the house during showings. An average showing is about 20 minutes.