You've signed the listing agreement with your Realtor and are ready to sell your home in Las Vegas. You've cleaned, updated, painted and staged your property. You've priced it correctly to reflect current market trends and feel confident about getting a contract. What’s left when it’s time to have potential buyers view your home? You've got to exit stage left. To put it more bluntly: Get out.
Think about it from a buyer’s perspective for a moment. Would you feel at ease to discuss a property with the owners present? Would you be more inclined to stay longer while the owner was standing around? Probably not.
In fact, whenever I've shown homes for sale in Las Vegas and Henderson with the owner present, we always ended up going through the home quickly. Worse yet are owners who follow the buyers around or feel they must give a tour of the home. Can you say awkward?
Years ago I had a very difficult client. He had a beautiful home in a desirable gated community inside an A+ school district. We had showings every week and were quite busy. Feedback is very important to me, from both the buyers and their agents. What I was finding out was that the client would not leave for showings. Not only that, but he would always find a way to crank up a dialogue between himself and the buyers. Sometimes he would follow them around. Other times he would follow them to their car. One time he even invited them back for dinner!
Right away I explained the importance of being out of the home for showings and he promised he would take his dog for a walk from that point on. In all fairness he was fantastic about the showings themselves. I could give him fairly short notice and the house would almost always be available to be viewed. For a short while he complied, often walking his dogs. But then he started a new trick, he would leave just as the buyers were arriving and then start a conversation “on the way out.”
Subsequently feedback was always along these lines:
“Lovely house, but kind of weird with the owner there.”
“Owner followed us around the home the entire time.”
“Owner told us he was FIRM on his price.”
“Owner said he really didn't have to sell the home.”
On and on it went. The client simply wouldn't leave during showings. He turned off many buyers for a variety of reasons, but mostly because it appeared (incorrectly) that he would be unwilling to negotiate. I would explain to the agents that they should simply submit an offer as a starting point, but the owner had already left an impression. No offers came in.
Buyers don’t need a tour guide. They need space to view a property and time to think about it.
I’ve never seen buyers look at closets, cabinets, windows etc with the homeowner standing over their shoulders. In this case the buyer may feel more like a guest that must remain considerate, rather than a consumer who is taking an extensive look at a product. The less distractions potential buyers have the better.
Sellers too have a lot that they are worried about. Most of them are anxious about selling their home and everything that goes along with it. Because of this, they tend to talk too much. I watched my old client put himself in a weak position (even telling them he was getting a divorce) and turn away buyers by discussing issues he had with his neighbors. He simply could not help himself and was completely unaware that he was sabotaging sale after sale. (Or maybe...he was?)
I've seen other sellers feel they must provide every intricate detail of their property as buyers walk through. If they want to know something, they will ask their Realtor for information or check the real property disclosures provided on the Las Vegas MLS.
In the end, it’s best to get out of the home for all showings. Your presence will only hinder the sale, not help it, regardless of your intentions.
So what finally happened with that client’s home? It eventually sold, but was one of the longest listings I’d ever had. He was actually out of town golfing when the buyers came through. True to form though, he talked continuously at the closing table about his neighbors and their parties (I'd imagine he wouldn't have been as upset if he was invited- just a hunch.) At that point though, it was a little too late for him to kill the sale.
Just barely.