Are you looking to put your house up in the market? Are you thinking of doing a house showing yourself? Is this going to be your first time to do a showing of your home?
June 2019 saw more than 646,000 sold houses in the US, a 4.5% increase from the housing sales in June 2018. Some of the top reasons for selling a house include a lifestyle change, the need for a bigger/smaller house, or not being able to afford it anymore. Whatever your reasons for selling your house, we understand that you want to sell it to the right person.
Read on below for 10 tips for showing your home.
1. Appeal to the Buyers’ Visuals
When you’re buying a new home, it takes up a lot of your time and effort. Why? That’s because you want to make sure that the living space you’re investing in is a place you can be comfortable in.
A lot of real estate companies charm buyers with simple things that appeal to your senses. Do the same thing with some colorful plants on the front steps. Bright flowers and mowed lawns make a welcome sight and bring the house life.
Extend the visual ease inside the house, although this would be a priority one for most sellers. Keep your cords tucked out of sight. If you want to put away random things to give a clean look to the interior, stash them in a bin for random things.
Having personal items around like photo frames can make the buyer feel like he’s imposing. Make sure to put them away to give the house buyers a more welcoming feel. Before a showing, make sure the trash bins are all empty, from your bathroom to your kitchen.
2. Practice Your Tour Around the Home
Tours around the home are your tools for selling it. This is what makes the difference between hosting an open house and a showing. A showing allows you to give the buyers more information while open houses make the buyers work for it.
In any form of marketing, you don’t want to make your clientele work. That is unless you’re selling the excitement of the process, like escape rooms for example.
Practice the order of the rooms you’re going to show. Start from the front door or the receiving area. However, if the customer wants to lead, be flexible.
During the house show, allow the buyers to look things over and take in the space. Give them some time to imagine living in the house. Don’t rush the tour and let the buyers enter each room first.
In the midst of or by the end of the tour, give your buyer some time alone. Let them discuss with each other about the house and its promise. Use this time to take a 20-minute break outside or in another room.
3. Prepare to Answer Questions About the House
Expect that buyers will ask you questions. You want to be ready for any inquiry your buyer throws at you about the house. You shouldn’t stumble, take too long, or seem uncertain about your answers.
Practice in front of the mirror how you’re going to answer them. Answer with facts rather than opinions. Be sure you know what you’re talking about.
This means you need to research the unknowns in your house. How old is your furnace or what are your AC units? How safe is the neighborhood, what are the closest school districts, and the like?
People born between 1980 and 1989 or the “older millennials” account for 26% of all housing sales. It’s worth noting that millennials can have very unique ideas about their plans for the house. They might ask you anything like what is the heaviest load your bedroom ceiling beam can carry.
4. Have Handouts and Refreshments Ready
Get copies of the needed documents and staple them together as your handouts. These documents can include the disclosure statement, property survey, and homeowner association documents. When you finish the tour and your buyers are on their way out, suggest they grab a copy.
You can also print out flyers for interested parties to take home.
It’s also great to have refreshments and snacks on hand, especially if the climate calls for it. Lemonade, iced tea, and bottled water are suitable drinks. Snacks may include baked cookies, brownies, or to-go bags of trail mix or chips.
To keep the house tidy, prepare wastebaskets in the rooms. It’ll be polite to offer napkins along with the snacks. If you don’t have those, try other snacks or beverages that are appropriate for a home showing.
5. Don’t Reveal Too Much About Your Situation
If you’re the chatty type, you might feel tempted to talk about your home. That’s not a bad thing. In actuality, it’s good to educate interested buyers about the house.
What you want to avoid is sharing about your circumstances. Remember that the buyers are here to look at the house and to learn about it. Focus on the house, give them a bit of its backstory, share the interesting things you discovered about it.
When a visitor asks you about personal things, keep your answers vague. When you’re questioned about why you’re moving, tell them it’s time to start a new chapter in your life. Bring the topic back to the property as fast as you can.
6. Encourage Touching
Give the buyers a little more to work with other than visuals. Give them a tactile experience with the textures in your home. Offer to let them touch your textiles for their textures.
To get the most money for your house without maxing out, try the following:
- Dust surfaces
- Vacuum the carpets
- Clean the rugs
- Avoid worn or dirty towels in powder rooms
If you plan on allowing potential buyers to touch your surfaces, make sure they’re clean. Use what you have and stick with simple, familiar textiles. You don’t need to buy luxurious accessories for a house showing.
7. Virtual Showing or Augmented Reality Technology
What if your buyer isn’t in town or doesn’t have the time to go to the house showing in person? There are still ways to make a house showing possible. The solution is to try virtual showing, which uses virtual reality (VR) technology.
Like Google Street View, your buyer can walk and look around your house from their computer. They can take the tour on their own and without your family having to vacate your home for the showing. All you need to do is set up the 3D VR of your house.
Another way to use modern tech is with AR or augmented reality. This tool helps your buyers see the potential of your house at the touch of a button. For example, AR can help them see how furniture will fit into your space.
8. Keep Unwanted Scents Out and Welcoming Smells In
Taking out the trash helps neutralize any unwanted smells. Speaking of smells, you want to deodorize and freshen up the house. Human beings have a sensitive sense of smell, giving us the ability to distinguish between countless scents.
Instead of overpowering air fresheners, use natural aromas. Gentle, almost unnoticeable scents work great to make the home feel like a home. For example, the smell of clean linens makes a great “welcome home” smell for buyers.
A great home-selling tip is to make it smell better with natural means. Grind citrus rinds in the garbage disposal or place dryer sheets in the drawers. Use cleaning products with mild scents when you clean up.
While it’s advisable to deep clean your house, the lingering scent isn’t as great for the house showing. Deep clean ahead of time and freshen up before a showing with milder products. Address pet odors too.
9. Put Emphasis on the Positive
With so many houses in the market, it can be difficult to put a spotlight on yours or sell it faster. A great home showing tip is to emphasize the best things about your home. If you bought the home before, remember what you saw before that made you want to buy it.
Now, show your buyer the same potential you saw in the house. If you added something to the house that made it special, showcase it to the buyer. It can be anything like a blooming garden, the view from the kitchen sink, or a built-in bookshelf.
The median prices of homes adjust monthly nationwide. In the US, the median price of a home this 2019 is $280,800 while starter homes cost around $219,000. If you’re selling your home at a much higher price, you want to show any potential buyers that it’s worth it.
10. Use Sound to Sell
One of the best house showing tips is to use all the human senses to your advantage. We’ve covered sight, smell, and taste above. Now, it’s time to play the right music to your buyers’ ears.
One of your problems at the home might be noisy neighbors. If you have noisy neighbors, talk to them in advance about the upcoming house showings. Tell your neighbors that they only have to keep the silent drill on for a few hours and a few days.
If you can’t help the street noise, use water features to lessen it. These features give the house a Zen-like ambiance too. Put water features in your front or back yard since they work best at close-range.
Wind chimes are simple, more affordable, and have a variety of tones to choose from. You can also play some non-vocal music to keep the sounds neutral. Don’t assume the tastes of your buyer or push your music.
Perfect Your House Showing Style
Those are 10 simple but effective tips for a house showing.
Selling a home takes a lot of patience and diligence. Remember, it takes more than a house showing to sell a house. You also need a solid marketing plan, reasonable pricing, and more.
If you want to learn more about these elements for selling your house, check out our other guides and articles. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us now.
