Step 4.  It's Showtime!  Showing Your Home for Sale

Would you go on a first date looking like you had just fallen out of bed? Selling your home is a little like wooing someone on a first date.  You'll need to dress it up as pretty as possible to woo those buyers.

Even If you are a neat freak, combined with the ability to resist hoarding stuff, you will still need to step back and try to look at your home as a buyer might see it. Continuing with the dating theme, selling your home is like speed dating, you only have a few minutes or even seconds (drive-bys) to impress.

In today's market your home needs to be in its best possible condition. You may not have the money to add a new roof or update the kitchen but following some relatively inexpensive suggestions could transform your home.

Staging your Home
As I mentioned above, as a seller it is a good idea to try to view your home as if you were a buyer. To you, those Elvis velvet wall hangings you picked up on a California road trip fabulously anchor the whole living room décor. Potential buyers, however,  may just poke their head in the front door and go no further. Once your home is staged properly and all the "stuff" has been hidden out of sight, you might break an agent's heart by uttering these words……"Wow! I didn't realize my place could look so good. I think I'll stay!"

When you are still living in the home you will face a fine balancing act between keeping the home as presentable as possible and actually living in it. You may have to make some lifestyle changes. Before, you may have used your bedroom floor as your wardrobe. Now you will have to actually use the wardrobe. Those sports section of the Seattle Times in easy reach of the toilet will have to go. Most buyers will be realistic when they know you are still living in the home and not expect model showroom standards.


The Staging Process
The objective of staging is to make your home look its absolute best without breaking the bank. At the end of the process, your home should look bigger, brighter and emptier. Simple cosmetic changes don't cost very much and will make a big difference in the saleability of your home. In addition, it forces you into a head start on the packing / moving process.

When the home is vacant, you have a few options.
• You can stage the place with your own furniture, then move or store the remainder
• You could pay a professional staging service who uses their furniture. Prices are based on the size of your home and how long it needs to be staged.
• Finally, your agent may offer to stage your home with their own items, either for a fee or for free. 

It is definitely an advantage to have a straight-talking agent who will tell you what you might not want to hear. Your agent should be familiar with your competition as well as what buyers are looking for. While obviously your agent will want to maximize the possibility that your home will sell (and hence get paid for their efforts), just listing the home as-is may mean that your home may never sell.

Click here for a list of the items you need to spruce up before putting your home on the market


When home invasions are a good thing
Once your home goes on the market, you can expect to have strangers wandering around your home (hopefully). The more the merrier!

Open houses: only 1% of home sales result from a buyer seeing the home during an open house. However, sellers are always keen to have their agent do as many of these as possible. It is not unusual for the majority of those who do come in for a look to be curious neighbors who've been wondering for years what the inside of your home looks like. 

Open houses are usually scheduled for Sundays (sometimes Saturdays) for three to four hours between noon and 4pm (or some variation of that). If you are still living in the home, you will need to disappear for few hours during the open house. If you are standing around while buyers examine the place, they may feel a little uncomfortable and not stick around long enough to fully see all of your home's best qualities.

It is important that you remove all your most prized possessions that can be easily concealed by someone with itchy fingers. These include any expensive jewelry, laptops and critical medicines. Your agent will try to keep an eye on all your stuff, but if your home is a hit with buyers, the place may be overrun with people during an open house

Brokers' open house: you have probably also noticed those A-shaped agent signs on street corners during the middle of the week. In this case, the listing agent is holding an open house for all the realtors and brokers who work that area. It allows them to view new properties that have come on the market. They will be either looking for possible matches for their buyers or just keeping up to date with local inventory and pricing trends. Your agent should be willing to hold a brokers open house for you.

Viewings: the key box attached to your front door will allow other agents, with or without buyers, to view your home. If the home is vacant, it probably won't matter when they come. However, if you are still living there during the listing, expect agents to call wanting to see the place. You will need to keep the place as presentable as possible or be able to get it presentable at short notice.

Talk with your realtor regarding how much advance you would like other agents to give you before viewing your property. If a buyer calls to see your home, tell them that they will need to schedule an appointment with their agent.


Continue to Seller's step 5.  Handling offers and negotiations


Return to Seller's step 3.  Go solo or go Realtor