How to Keep Your Home Ready for Showings

When your house is listed on the market, you want to make sure that it stays in tip-top shape. People will be coming and going to check out your place. This may seem like a challenge, but if you follow these steps, you will sell your home in no time!

1. Never turn down a showing. This may seem like an obvious suggestion, but many times, when a house is occupied, it takes a while for the interested buyer to see it. You want to make sure you can step out at a moment’s notice. Not sure what to do? Have a book handy, go to the local coffee shop, and hang out until the showing is complete.
2. Leave the lights on: You want to make sure your home is bright and welcoming when someone walks in! Buyers decide within 30 seconds if they like the house. When the door is opened and the home is cheery, chances are the buyers will be cheery, too.
3. Crank the AC—that is, if it’s hot outside! If a buyer walks into a warm home on a hot day, they may conclude that there are problems with circulation and air quality.
4. Stay “Show Worthy”: This may be the hardest part of the whole process. You need to keep your house clean and ensure there are no cooking odors, pet smells, wet towels in the bathroom, etc.
5. Tone down the kids’ rooms: If the kids’ room has a lot of posters on the wall, this would be a good time to remove them.
6. Keep everything safe: Don’t create temptation by leaving expensive items on the coffee table, jewelry on the nightstand, or prescriptions on the bathroom counter. Although this doesn’t happen often, it DOES happen.
7. Make yourself scarce: Try not to be at home when a showing is taking place. You want to make sure the buyers can envision living in the home, not you living in it.
8. Treat it like a business. The agent will guide you every step of the way and handle the buyers until the keys are ready to be handed over.