If you’re ready to put your house on the market, an open house can help promote it and hopefully attract prospective buyers.
However, before your selling agent hosts one, an initial-walk through is worthwhile.
Below we’ll dive deeper into what the walk-through should entail and recommend crucial conversations to have with your real estate agent before visitors tour your home.
What agents look for doing the initial walk-through
In most cases, agents perform initial walk-throughs before they’re officially hired.
Initial walk-throughs reveal a home’s best features, and possibly its worst features, so that agents can come up with strategies to accentuate the best and downplay the worst. They also give agents the chance to determine whether a listing is a good fit. A walk-through can help reveal whether you’re on the same page with them about major points, such as pricing expectations, timing, and preparation. If not, you may need to continue your search for the right agent.
During a walk-through, it’s important to give prospective agents access to all parts of the home so they can thoroughly assess your property. This includes the attic, basement, children’s bedrooms, and outdoor living spaces. They’ll need to see everything to come up with a realistic pricing and marketing strategy.
Fortunately, most walk-throughs are fairly quick, so you don’t have to dedicate a lot of time to them as the seller.
A walk-through should not take more than 15 to 30 minutes, for a typically sized home.
Red flags for real estate agents during a walk-through
After the initial walk-through is complete, most agents spend another 30 to 45 to minutes speaking to the clients and going over the sales process, comparable sales, and strategy. This is your time to really understand how they work and how they might be able to help you.
If an agent determines your house needs a lot of work, don’t fret.
Keep in mind that as a seller, it’s your responsibility to make sure your property is safe for visitors to walk through. Therefore, you’ll need clear out as much clutter as possible and hide valuables and medications—or remove them from the property altogether.
You may also want to remove family photos or other personal items, so potential buyers can enjoy a blank canvas that makes it easier to envision themselves in your home.
Depending on the property and the strategy, freshening up with modern lighting, paint, and flooring can also go a long way.
Establishing a marketing strategy
Perhaps the greatest benefit of the initial walk-through is that it will give the agent the opportunity to determine the best way to promote your property. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean you don’t have a say in your marketing strategy. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. Your input is valuable and important.
As a seller you’ve lived in your home, so you know it best.
However, the agent knows how to attract the right buyer through their marketing strategy, so it’s a collaborative effort.
If you both work together, you can meet (or even) exceed your goals
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