5 Safety Steps for Showing Your Home FSBO

Thanks to Peter Foster on Unsplash for photo

This short version is anybody can.

As a For Sale By Owner, you have less flexibility to narrow the search down to just Realtors accessing your home.  It is very common for people driving by to stop and knock on your door, interested in your house.  It can happen during your morning shower, meal times or even right before bed.  You do have a few options to keep this from happening:

• Don’t answer your door.
• Put a requirement that all buyers must be accompanied by agents to view the home.
• Let anybody in at any time.

Except for the last option, you are going to be limiting your exposure.  Because there is no 1 good location to find legitimate homes for sale by owners, buyers have limited access to this information.  Agents are sending them listings that are found in our MLS.  Some buyers will either drive a neighborhood they are interested in and come across your home or they may be searching the internet on their own and come across it that way.  Your home will still not be seen on the over 50 different websites it would be if you were listed with me.

So….be very cautious about who you let in.  Here are some of the worse case words of warning and some safety practices.

• Never leave out any valuables, guns, money or prescriptions that someone might see in an initial pass through and want to come back and take at a later time.

• Make sure your doors and windows are locked at all times.  After a showing, double check your windows because it has been known that people will unlock a window to be able to enter at a later time.

• It is always a great idea to be able to catch people on video as they enter your home just so you can have a face recognition in the future if it should ever be needed.

• Before you let them in your home, feel free to ask to see their driver’s license.  If you can snap a quick picture of it with their car in the background, that would be a very good deterrent for the bad guys.  If they have nothing to hide then they shouldn’t have a problem with this step.

• Never, never, never, never let someone in your home if you are there alone.  Always have someone there with you as a precaution.

It absolutely sucks that we have to talk about these negative aspects of what may happen inside our own homes.  But it is a reality.  I would rather arm you with some basic things to think about than to see you on the 10 o’clock news.

Happy showings!

Buyers Make Sense ~ Tips, Tricks & Advice

Okay, so we know that the buyers are going to be looking around the house and at some of the very specific things around your house.  But did you realize that they are going to looking at things within the house too that you need to be prepared for?

There are no perfect buyers nor perfect agents that will be bringing the buyers through.  We try to watch them very closely and absolutely discourage them from being like this picture!  But, Buyers will look:

• In your closets
• In your cupboards
• Inside your refrigerator
• Inside the stove

Make sure these areas are clean, organized and there's nothing there that you don't want someone to see.

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Also, buyers sometimes have children with them.  And not all parents watch them very closely.  Here are a few tips that will keep you, your stuff and others safe:

• Put away any collectibles that you don't want broken or to come up missing
• Make sure there are no prescription drugs around the house
• ABSOLUTELY NO GUNS in the house that are not inside a locked case and out of site

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One last quick note.  Because you are not going to holding the buyers' hands as they walk through your home, make notes and tell them why things in your house are special.  Or create one sheet that has everything on it that they can look for as they go through.  Is that chandelier one-of-a-kind?  Has the carpet or flooring been replaced in the past few months?  Is that a new deck on the back?  Any of these items would be great information for a buyer to know about your home.  Share it!

Buyers Make Sense ~ What They Smell

Everything is great according to the eye.  Now it is time to make sure with the nose.

Can you close your eyes and remember different places because of the smell that they had?  I remember that smell of Grandma's and Grandpa's or going to the pool in the summer.  And a quick sniff can take you right back there.

Every place and every person has a different smell.  It could be attributed to the perfume / cologne that they wear, the foods that they cook, the animals that they keep.  Most people don't know what their own smell is because they are always with it.  It takes an outsider to come in and make a comment to know that there is one (good or bad).  Do you know what your smell is?

When it is time to start showing people your house, invite friends and family members over for a first look.  Ask them if there is anything noticeable in the house that an outsider would comment on.  Because you are openly asking this question, hopefully they will give you their opinion and you won't get mad at them if they answer it.

Here are some things that you are going to want to watch out for:

• Make sure that all animal areas are ALWAYS cleaned up including crates, litter boxes, bedding, etc.
• Don't go overboard with air fresheners.  Some people have a sensitive nose and this will be a turn off to them.
• Be aware of what you cook and how it could affect the house.  Some items such as fish, onions, etc. have a very lingering smell.
• If you clean with a bleach product, don't go overboard with it.  This may cause a buyer to assume that you are covering something up.
• Appeal to their sense of taste.  If you want to put a good smell in the house, bake a pie or cookies.  Who can turn those smells down...as long as you don't burn them lol.
• Make sure the trash is taken out.
• If the weather is nice and you have windows open...make sure that dog poop is cleaned up outside if you have a dog.  This smell does come into the house.

Buyers Make Sense ~ What They See

You've started marketing your property and hopefully you've had some interest.

It's time to talk about what you need to do around the house, inside and out, to be appealing to a buyer.

Outside

• Curb Appeal.  You may usually pull into a garage to park the car, but one time pull in front of your house and look at it as a buyer would.  Check on these things:
• Do you see any peeling paint?
• Is your roof & gutters in good condition?
• Is the walkway accessible or are there obstacles in the way?  Make sure it is clear and easy to get up.
• If you have a concrete walkway, are there any major cracks or breaks that could cause someone to become injured?
• Front Door
• It needs to be clean.
• It needs to look freshly painted.
• It needs to be a good color and not something crazy.
• No peeling paint around the door frame.
• Does the doorbell work?
• Front Stoop
• The buyers are going to be standing here waiting for either you to open the door for them or for an agent to let them inside.  They are going to be looking all around the front to see if they see any issues before they come inside.  
• Make sure that cobwebs are swept away.  
• There should b no dead leaves, flowers or others that need to be cleared away.
• A nice welcome mat is always a nice touch.
• If the weather is warm, take the time to power wash the siding to give it a clean, crisp look.

Inside

• De-Clutter
• You know that you're going to be moving anyways, so now is the time to start getting rid of some stuff.  If you're not going to be using it anymore, give it away or throw it away.  If you're not going to be using it right now, box it up.  That's one less thing you will have to do later!
• De-Personalize
• It is wonderful to walk into homes that have 1,000 baby pictures on the walls or amazing accomplishments and awards...but those things become distractions.  Buyers are more busy looking at these items instead of at the house.  Put those things away.  It is also a great idea to put away any religious items.  You wouldn't want to offend someone, or turn off a buyer because they didn't have the same belief as you do.
• Paint
• If you have rooms that need a fresh coat of paint or need to be neutral, it is always a good idea to do this before showings begin.  DON'T PAINT ALL WHITE!  
• Clean Carpets
• Sometimes a perspective buyer will look at a house and think that it needs new carpet when all it really needs is a good cleaning.  By doing this one step, it could save you some money because buyers will try to lower the price with the thought that new carpet is going to need to be installed.
• Run the Sweeper
• Before a buyer comes to look at the house, run the sweeper.  This assures that everything is nice and clean.  They know that you have put an effort into the house and that you really care.
• Close Toilets
• You would be surprised at how many homes I go into that they have not done this...and some of them don't even flush!!!!  That is just a gross thing.  Most buyers are not going to lift up a lid or look at the inside on an initial showing.  When they stick their head inside a bathroom, you just don't want the inside of a toilet bowl to be the thing that they remember!
• Take Out Trash
• This means for the kitchen and the bathrooms.  Trash in the kitchen can lead to odors that you wouldn't normally have or that you would want a buyer to smell.  And in the bathroom, things are usually put into there that you don't want strangers to see and that they really don't want to see.  Dump it before they get there!
• Change Light Bulbs
• You want the house to be flooded with light when they come in.  Because you are going to go around the house and turn on all the lights anyways, make sure that all of the bulbs are working.  If they are not, change them.
• Dust
• During the showing process, you will want to make sure that the normal areas are dusted.  But about once a month, make sure that you get those areas that you don't normally think about like ceiling fans, plant ledges, light fixtures, etc.  These are things that you may not normally look at, but a buyer will pick up on them quickly.