Don’t try the hard sell
Strange as it sounds, leaving your home during showings is one of the best ways to help it sell. No one knows your home better than you, but that doesn’t mean you should stick around to show it to buyers. Most experienced real estate agents would advise sellers to leave their home when it’s being shown to prospective buyers or renters.
Buyers need to critically examine a property before they can decide to buy it or not. It’s difficult for most buyers to talk frankly with their agent about a listing if the seller is home. Showing off your cabinets probably won’t get the house sold, and it could keep the buyers from looking at the qualities of the home that are particular to their need. An agent knows what their client is looking for and will highlight those features, so leave the showing to them.
Don’t ignore offers that don’t meet your asking price
By not countering even low offers, you could easily discourage what may ultimately be a good offer. Pride can all too easily enter the picture and silence can simply be viewed as a person that is not easily negotiated with. As much as I’ve hated making some low offers in the past, I’ve always encouraged the seller to counter with something, even if it’s a pittance of a drop.
Do provide easy access for showings
Selling your home is all about getting buyers through the door, so don’t make any aspect of the process hard on home hunters. Unclutter your property so you can be ready for a showing at a moment’s notice, and make your home available to buyers and agents for as much time as possible each day. Providing keys to your agent(s) if possible is undoubtably the best way to have your property show as often as possible. Many buyers want to view properties immediately, so having the keys on-hand with the agent will make your property one of the first to spring to their minds.
Do have a clear understanding of the selling process
Familiarize yourself with the typical marketing time in your area, what to expect with a home inspection and any hot-button items that could be of concern. Also, be familiar with the contract process, deposit escrows and closing time frames.
Don’t list your property with every agent in town
With most sellers, I advise they list their property for sale with multiple agents. Not having a proper Multiple Listings Service (MLS) in the area makes it more difficult to get the instant exposure to other agents and possible buyers that you’d have in the west. Having said this, hedge your bets with three or four major agencies, not every show in town. Listing with too many agents gets everything confused. Different prices get listed, keys get shuffled around, people leave air-cons on, the property get shown multiple times to the same client, etc, etc. Believe me, you’re much better off listing the property with three or four reputable agents who have good marketing exposure.
Do make sure your agent will have a strong online presence
The majority of home hunters begin their search on the Internet and then narrow down which ones to actually visit. This is particularly true of people buying property overseas such as Thailand.
