Nowadays, most estate agents offer accompanied viewings when you sell your home. But what if you have to conduct your own viewings? Property owners tell me all the time that it can be a nerve-wracking experience and they often don’t know where to start. What’s the best process? Which room should you start with? How much should you tell your potential buyer? How long should they spend there? These are all questions that you might have when selling your home.
If you’re not in a position where your estate agent offers accompanied viewings, then here’s my winning formula for conducting a viewing.
Ten steps to conducting the perfect viewing when selling your home:
First impressions count
Make sure you’ve prepared your home well in advance and make sure you look the part too. I don’t suggest you answer the door in a suit but be well presented and tidy – it all helps. Greet your buyer with a smile, introduce yourself and welcome them in. Remember that people buy from people they like, so if you can build a rapport (find common ground) with your buyers from the start, then it gives you a helping hand. Of course, preparing your property will pay off too.
Start with the best room of the house
As the first couple of minutes are when your buyer is forming a lasting first impression, it’s always best to start with the best room of your home. Remember that might be your garden. This straight away creates the wow factor and sets a precedent for the rest of the viewing.
Let the buyers walk ahead of you
This creates a feeling of space as they walk from room to room and avoids the buyer feeling trapped or uncomfortable. Stay slightly out of the way after they’ve entered the room so they can take in as much as possible without feeling uncomfortable that you’re standing right next to them. This is especially important in a smaller property with limited space.
State a couple of key features and benefits for each room
You don’t want to bombard your buyers with too much information that they can’t take it in, yet you DO want to sell the benefits of your house. Pick the two best features of each room (plan this in advance) and explain those to your buyers along with the benefits to them.
Allow time for them to take it all in
What you may think is an uncomfortable silence is probably just your buyers taking in everything they see. Remember it’s the first time they’re seeing your house so you need to pause in each room and give them time to have a really good look around. Wait until they prompt you to go to the next room or when you can see they’ve finished looking.
Get the garden out of the way
After the ground floor tour, before you head upstairs, take them to the garden. Unless of course the garden is your best feature! This will avoid the “I don’t like the garden” objection at the end of the tour, as many buyers use this as a good excuse for not buying a property.
Start with the smallest bedroom first
That way you finish the bedrooms on a positive note with the biggest room last. This simple tip makes the smaller rooms seem less small and the bigger room seem even bigger!
Finish in the best room at the end
Finish on a positive note, back in the best room of the house (the one you started in). That way they’ll be remembering that great space and that will be their strongest lasting impression when they leave. Try and keep question time / any discussions in this room so they spend longer there than the rest of the house.
Allow them to look round on their own
After you’ve finished showing them round, offer your buyer the chance to look round on their own in peace with you out of the way. That way you can be sure they’ve taken it all in and can look round without feeling uncomfortable. TIP – if your buyer declines a second look round this is a strong clue that they might not be interested. If they spend a really long time looking round on their own, they could be keen!
The longer they’re in your house, the more likely they are to buy
Well normally anyway! A rushed viewing is unlikely to end up in a sale so (without keeping them captive or in any creepy sort of way) encourage them to stay and look around for as long as possible, take your time with each room and allow plenty of question time at the end.
So there you have it – the formula to conducting the perfect viewing. Let us know how it goes at your next viewing!
Need help selling your home?
Professional property photographs will have a huge bearing on the success of your property sale. If you’d like a free of charge review of your Rightmove listing, simply email me your online link and I will gladly give you my feedback. My email address is angela@angelawestgarth.co.uk
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