Who should be present when buyers want to view your home?

Who should be present when buyers want to view your home? Many seller clients have recently asked me if I will be personally showing their home to prospective buyers, leading me to believe there’s some confusion about who exactly should be present when homes are shown. Some home sellers believe that their agent, or they themselves should be present to show and “sell” the home to prospective buyers. This is a common misconception that can backfire on your home selling plans very easily. The truth is neither you or your agent can sell any prospect buyer on your home. Homes sell themselves. Your agent is responsible for marketing your home to attract buyers to come in for a further look, providing information about the home to buyers and their agents, handling contract negotiations and managing the transaction to get it to close. However, no amount of showing or talking about your home will “sell” a buyer on the home. Buyers simply will or wont like your home. The easiest way to completely turn off a buyer is by being present for the showing, or having your agent present for the showing. Buyers do not want to be hovered over by the seller or their agent when they tour your home. They will want to look at your home on their own and in peace. Being present will only encourage the buyers to:

• avoid speaking freely about the home
• not look around carefully (ie open closet doors) for fear of offending the homeowner/agent or seeming invasive
• get right back out that front door in a huge hurry to avoid the awkwardness of being hovered over as they attempt to make the largest purchase decision of their life

You and/or your agents presence will not help sell your home and will likely serve as a deterrent to possible buyers. The best way to deal with buyers in your home, is to simply leave them be.