Now that you’ve read parts One through to Four, your property should be in great shape, and ready for viewing.
Great Job! You’ve uploaded all your pictures, and written a detailed listing including all the special features of your property. It’s time to let people come and have a look.
Some quick pointers: You should always have two adults present for your viewings, (yourself and someone else), and make children and pets scare - the less distractions the better for everyone involved. Some people aren’t keen on pets, so avoid any unecessary problems. Keep any valubles out of site, or at a friends house. You may have several people (who you don’t know) viewing the property at one time.
As we said in earlier discussion, keep rooms as bright as possible, curtains pulled back, and lights on where there is little light. If your showing people the property at night, switch on all the lights for maximum brightness.
At this stage of the process, you are only letting people in to have a look around at the property - so there is no pressure on you. Chances are, you will be showing many people around - the more the better, as you will be receiving more interest and hopefully more offers. It’s good for you too, as you’ll get more practise showing people round, and you’ll become more experienced as to what people like and how to verbally present the property. You are not trying to close the deal here, only to let people in to see if they are attracted to the property, and if they want to take the process further. If someone is interested in the property, then you can instruct them to put it in writing either direct from themselves or via their lawyer.
Make sure not to be pressures into agreeing to any verbal agreements at this stage. You’ll be getting interest from lots of different parties, so it’s in your interest not to commit to anything you’ll regret later. Don’t panic! Remember that this stage is only about showing the home, not closing a deal. Do not negotiate price or come to any agreements verbally. If you do receive an offer in writing, you can then let your lawyer review it and take it from there. It’s to everyone’s benefit if you avoid making any commitments, or suggestions of committing when someone is there viewing your property - it avoids any misunderstandings, and gives the viewers time to mull over the property and make a decision.
Individual showings
To help you organise your showings, you may want to set specific days that you can show the house to potential buyers. You can also put this is your listing, to save you repeating yourself on the phone or email. You should also put all times people book with you in a specific viewings diary. You can organise viewings for tuesday and thursday evenings, and all day saturday, for example. You can afford to be fleixible though, if someone can’t make a specific day. We recommend not turning anyone away - make sure everyone who wants to see the property can - you never know who will fall in love with the property! Always make sure you are ready for the viewees and punctual - coffee and biscuits is a nice idea.
So you will be inevitably be showing to lots of potential buyers. How to handle them? Well, first of all don’t be too sensitive to comments. You’ll soon get used to dealing with lots of people wandering round your home, and you’ll finely hone your presentation skills. Some people may want to chat to you, and for you to show them round. Some will want their own space. We recommend showing people round briefly, all the rooms etc, then offering to let them wander around on their own, free to look around.
Most people will turn up with a partner or friend, and they’ll want space to chat amongst themselves. Some features that you love may not be so great to a potential viewer, so don’t get too hung up on people’s comments. All that matters at this stage is that you have presented your home on your listing as well as possible, you’re getting viewings and showing as many people your property as possible!
Once people have been aroud the property and seen all the features, you can then invite them to ask you any questions they may have. You can tell them about the neighbourhood, your great neighbours etc - are there any new developments coming to your town? Do they have kids? Where do they like to shop? What hobbies do they have? What entertainment is there in the area? If you like you can find out a little about them and think of suggestions that will make the area more pertinent to their situation. A potential buyer may be insistent on attempting to close the deal or negotiate the deal on the night. As we said earlier, you must be firm and reiterate that all offers must be made in writing. You can always tell them that you are showing more people and are not in a position just yet to commit to anything - which is true - your always waiting for more people to contact you! See ‘Part Seven: Negotiation’ for more details on how to negotiate the closing a deal.
Multiple Viewings
You may prefer to show multiple parties the property at the same time. This is a good idea for a number of reasons - you will same time, have less hassle, and most importantly - everyone will see there is a lot of interest in your home! Of course not everyone coming to see your property will be genuine buyers - this is all part of the home selling process. Whether you are selling FSBO or with an agent, there will always be a small minority of ’sightseers’ - people just browsing. Not to worry, just concentrate on showing as namy people as possible, and your buyer will arrive. Open houses are also a good way of generating a good buzz around the sale in the neighbourhood - perhaps you will want to put a sign up outside? Good publicity. Some people will feel more comfortable in the ‘open house’ atmosphere too - more people and more relaxed. You can also get lots of feedback from all the visitors.
You can also printout all the details in bullet point form from your listing, in a simple A4 format, just as a reminder of all the great features of the property. You can also put points of interest in the local town, and your contact details too. It will be useful for people to see all the points again from your listing.
You can do a search on current listing by clicking here and research how other people are listing their properties.
Read Part Six for more FBSO Top Tips.