5 Tips for Preparing Your Home for a Short Notice Showing

You’re sitting at work, on your coffee break, reminiscing about the family game night you had last night. It was so much fun! There is a little bit of cleaning to do, but the kids promised to help you clean up after work today.  GREAT!  Now your phone rings, it’s your agent.  They want to book a showing at 1pm.  You panic a little, but you can’t say no. “Yes, you can show the house.  It’s tidy” you tell your agent.  Now what do you do? You run home at lunch to tidy up, but you have NO idea on where to start.  You start throwing things in places they’ve never even seen before.  The house doesn’t look any better, but it’s the best you could do on short notice.  You run back to work and call your agent when you believe the showing is done.  Unfortunately, you’ve lost your potential buyers.

This sounds like a nightmare, doesn’t it?  We don’t ever want this nightmare to become your reality so here are 5 tips to help you prepare your home for a short notice showing.

Take the Garbage out
No one likes the smell of old garbage.  Make sure to take your garbage out and replace it with a fresh bag.  This will help eliminate the smell.  If there’s a smell lingering, spray some Febreeze, or even plug in a Scentsy!

Put Pets Away
Agents know it’s sometimes tough to have a showing when there are pets around.  If possible, try and get someone to take your pet for an hour.  If that’s not an option, let your agent know that your pet is in it’s kennel and where the kennel is located.  That way, they can inform your potential buyers.

Sweep/Vacuum
No one likes walking around a house with the feeling of crumbs on their feet.  Or leaving the home with pet hair all over their socks.  Make sure to do a quick sweep and vacuum of your home.

Make Beds
The bedrooms might be a little untidy, but a quick, surefire way to make the rooms look neater than they appear, MAKE THE BEDS!

Tidy Key Areas
You don’t need to power clean EVERY room, but there are a few rooms that you should pay a little more attention to.

Kitchen– toss the dirty dishes into the dishwasher.  Or, if you don’t have a dishwasher, stack the dishes neatly in the sink.  Depending on how many dishes you have, you might be able to just wash them right then.
Bathroom– We’re not asking you to full out clean the bathrooms, but taking a disinfectant cloth to the bathtub, toilet and sink will make a world of difference.  And if you get the cloths that have a scent, you’ll also leave your bathroom smelling lemony fresh!  And if your mother never taught you, it’s always good manners to put the toilet seat down.
Main Entrance– This is the very first part of your home that potential buyers will see.  You should keep it tidy.  Limit the amount of footwear that is kept at the front, along with the amount of outerwear.  The less items, the less clutter!
Living room– Usually the living room is right off the main entrance, so it’s going to be the second room they look at.  Move any dishes, garbage, clothing out of the living room and give it a quick spritz of Febreeze.

Usually you’re given a few days notice that someone wants to have a showing, but other times you aren’t that lucky.  Don’t be caught in this predicament and try and keep your home tidy, but if not, use these tips to help you out of the rut!

Happy cleaning!

Categorised in: For Sellers

This post was written by teamcore