Showing your home is fairly straight forward but it can prove costly if the handled incorrectly. Before I owned Premier Flat Fee, I had a friend ask for my help when he was selling his home by owner. He listed his home on the MLS, and acted as his own agent during the process with my support along the way. He did great and sold his home quickly for top market value. For the most part, the process went well but this story will reveal a very important lesson about you could lose out if you say the wrongs things when you show your home! When he excitedly told me he had multiple showings on the second day of his listing, he asked me for advice. I gave him two simple instructions.
He followed advice number 2 very well but when it came to advice number 1, he was not able to restrain himself. To give you some insight, this man is a good person and almost too good. He has a hard time not answering someone’s direct question with an honest answer. He could not remove his personal feeling from this business transaction. He felt compelled to reveal his bottom line number to this realtor and even got sucked into agreeing verbally to an offer!He even disregarded the fact that he had other showings later that day. He even wanted to cancel the showings because of this verbal agreement but I encouraged him to not do that because he had nothing since a verbal agreement is worth nothing.
He did follow my advice and because of that he ended up getting a higher offer from the second showing. He thought he was now was in a tough situation since he is a man of honor and felt compelled to his verbal agreement. I had to help realize that he was in a great situation. He had multiple offers on his home! But because of his boy scout like values, he still felt bad about the verbal agreement he made with the other realtor. My advice to him at that point was to call that realtor as quickly as possible and be completely honest with them about his amateur realtor skills.
It worked out great. He was able to get both offers up because of this scenario and ended up with an even higher offer than he anticipated!
So, if we learn anything from this, if you are not an experienced real estate person or just don’t feel comfortable negotiating in person, do not talk price and terms during the showing. Request a written offer before you agree to anything!
It is also a good idea to show a clean and organized home. If Possible, keep the kids and pets away during the showing. remove clutter so the home looks more spacious. People tend to be visual andthese little details can help make for a successful showing.