When you are ready to sell your home, there is a lot of preparation that goes on beforehand. Cleaning, decluttering, choosing a fantastic REALTOR and making the house picture perfect for those oh-so-important marketing photos. This is when you are most excited about the process, the most hopeful that it will sell quickly and for the best price.
When your agent calls to set that first showing appointment, it’s an adrenaline rush. Is everything tidy? Beds made? Kitchen clean? Bathrooms sparkling? Check, check, check and check.
You happily go for a walk or a drive or out to eat while your home is being shown and dream of the possibility of getting an offer from the first person who views it. Your head is filled with hope…hope that they like the house, hope that they will make a reasonable offer and hope that you can move on to whatever it is you have planned for the next stage of your life.
Unless you are one of the rare people that gets an offer right away on your home (the rumor is that it sometimes happens, but it’s as rare as sightings of the Loch Ness monster in this market) then you will lather, rinse and repeat this process. Multiple times.
The truth that no one ever tells you is that it can be very inconvenient to sell your home.
After a few showings, or even worse, no showings, you’ll start to get a little tired and a little lax in the preparation department. The beds are not made quite as neatly. A few stray dishes are left in the sink when you leave for work in the morning. The laundry hamper is overflowing. The baseboards are getting dusty again. One of the kids stained those crisp, new guest towels mopping up a mess and there is now a beach towel hanging on the towel bar instead.
That’s the day that your agent calls and wants to show the house in an hour or two. What will your response be?
Lately, I’ve seen more and more sellers who are just fed up with being ready to show. They are tired of cleaning each morning and night and not having any appointments scheduled. They are starting to feel a little rejected and disenchanted with the entire process. As a result, they are turning down showings with the most common excuse being “the house is not clean”.
STOP IT!
99% of the time, if you decline a showing you’ve lost your shot at that buyer. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard an agent say “I’ll get back to you if the buyer wants to schedule a different time” and I have never heard from them again. There are too many homes on the market right now (that’s why it is called a buyer’s market) for showings to be declined for a lack of preparation.
I know it’s a pain in the rear to feel like you are cleaning and cleaning and cleaning for a party that never starts. I know it is disheartening to be on the market for an extended period of time. I know it’s no fun to feel like the wallflower at a high school dance, passed over again and again. But, the reality is that with stiff competition, you need to be ready – every single day.
What can you do?
Home stagers will keel over with the vapors at this advice, but….
If you get a last minute call, pull up the covers on the beds, kick the laundry, shoes and toys under the beds, toss the dishes into the dishwasher, cram the mail into the junk drawer, make a quick pass through the house with some Febreze, grab the dog and the garbage and go.
If you have at least an hour before the showing, do all of the above and remember that a Swiffer duster can do wonders to get rid of dust and animal hair. Remind yourself that you won’t have to go to the gym tonight if you run through the entire house speed cleaning.
Inconvenient? Yes, but it keeps you from losing a showing.
Now, let’s sell a house.
For more information about home buying or selling on the West Bank of New Orleans, or relocating to or from NAS JRB New Orleans, please contact the West Bank Living Team. It would be our pleasure to have the opportunity to assist you with any of your real estate needs and have a little fun while doing it!
