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What Really Happens During A Showing


Blog by Matt Carre | January 31st, 2013


I often get questions from Sellers about what people really look at when they are viewing a home so I thought I would answer the top questions I get from my Clients.

Will they look in my fridge?  

Probably not but they should.  Usually the kitchen appliances are included with the home so I encourage my Clients to look at them too.  Your fridge doesn’t have to look like Yolanda’s on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills but it should be clean and not have any funky smells.

Although people don’t always look in the appliances they will definitely look in the pantry  so take an hour or so to organize it.  It’s a good opportunity to throw out expired food, give away things you don’t need and it lessens the load when you are moving.  

Will they look in our closets?  

Some of them yes but probably not all of them.  Buyers always look at the master bedroom closet so make sure it’s tidy and not overstuffed.  People don’t tend to look in the closets in the second or third bedroom unless the home is vacant and they rarely look in the closets in basement bedrooms or offices.  That doesn’t mean you can leave it a mess, I didn’t say they never look!

They seemed to be in the house for a long time and we saw them talking on the driveway, that’s good right?

Not always, there are times when I have met Clients for the first time at a house and within the first 5-10 minutes they’ve decided that it isn’t the right house for them but we end up chatting for another 15 or 20 minutes about what they are looking for.  There are also times when a Client goes into a house, does not like it and then spends 20 minutes talking about why the last house we saw is better.  

There are times when Clients do spend a lot of time going through a house before they write an offer but sometimes they just know it’s the right one and the showing might not take a long time.  

Usually when I show a house people are taking in the big picture, they are trying to decide if the house feels right for them.  They ask themselves can I picture myself living here or what would I need to do to make this home feel like it’s mine.  There are always specific things that a buyer is looking for but there is also an intangible feeling that goes with it.