What to Expect
Oh boy! Here we go…it is game time. Now that your home is on the market and ready for showings what do you do? One thing you do not do is stay at home and try to talk to potential buyers. This is a red flag to agents as well as buyers and you do not want to be “that” homeowner that seems desperate. When there is a showing on your home the buyer’s agent will schedule a showing with a third party provider. The Triangle Area MLS uses ShowingTime. ShowingTime will send the seller a text or email with the time and day requested for the showing. The seller can either confirm, deny, or request a different day/time. Typically the timeframe given for a showing is 30 minutes to an hour. You will need to make sure the home is clean and clutter free and plan on being away for the entire time. Make sure to remove pets or leave them in a crate. *Pro tip; don’t cook any crazy smelling foods prior to a showing. Broccoli may be good for you, but it is not good for the home aroma it creates:)
Once the showing is over the buyer’s agent “should” provide feedback. Feedback is something that in my opinion is a lost art. It is meant to benefit the seller, it is a courtesy to the listing agent from the buyer’s agent. If the buyer didn’t like the home….that’s ok, but please let us know what didn’t work for them. It is possible the seller can make an improvement based on feedback. Unfortunately, I would estimate only 30% or so of showing agents leave feedback. To me, that does not bode well on our reputations of being a real estate agent. *One argument against giving feedback is a buyer’s agent may not want to give any information to the seller that may hurt their buyer’s position. I understand that, but if a buyer is not interested in the home, it does help the seller in understanding why.
Hopefully your home will sell quickly and you will not need to continue making plans to crate the dog, shove the kids to a neighbors house, you know the drill. When the magical time comes that your listing agent calls with news of an offer, they will go over the details with you and explain the pros and cons. If there are multiple offers your agent will present and compare them to you.
More information on receiving an offer can be found here from the buyer’s page. And what about closing? More information can be found here about the closing process. Both of these processes are basically the same for buyers and sellers, just with different objectives.
