So, you’ve put in all the work to get the house market ready, we’ve taken professional photos and video, we’re marketed the house for a couple of weeks to build up interest, and we’re ready to go live. Now what?

1) Keep the house as close to perfect as possible

I know this is the biggest pain, but it will pay dividends later. The Queen of England should be impressed by your level of meticulous care. There should be no toothpaste in your sink, no dishes left out, no shoes by the door, bed made, laundry folded, towels hung up, and all toilet seats down.

2) Get out of the house for showings and open houses

Remember, the buyers are trying to picture themselves living in the house. We removed your photos and personal items at the beginning for this reason. If you’re standing there, they can’t talk about the positives and negatives, and they won’t feel comfortable. If they don’t feel comfortable in the house, they won’t buy it.

3) Prospective buyers need access

Short of some catastrophic emergency, you should NOT deny showings.

Price/value is the number-one reason a home sells, number two is its online presence/marketing, and number three is access! It doesn’t matter how much we market a place, how great the photos and website are, if the buyer can’t get into the house when they want to…they’re going to buy the one they can see.

4) Open houses have a shelf life

Open houses are great for the first two weeks, and if there’s a price drop. Otherwise, they are a waste of your and the agent’s time. However, those first two weeks can generate enough traffic that one of those casual buyers gets motivated enough to put an offer on your home.

5) Pricing rules

As a general rule, if your home has been on the market for two weeks and/or has had 14 showings without an offer, then it is overpriced. No amount of marketing will compensate for a home that is not priced correctly. Either no one is coming the first two weeks because they saw it online and already thought it was too pricey, or they came and saw it and thought it was too high priced to even put in an offer.