Should you be home for showings to potential buyers?

This is a questions we get a lot and I want you to put yourself in your potential buyers shoes and imagine stepping into a home for the first time.

If you're a buyer and you've been on a home showing where the seller was present - how did that make you feel?  Did you feel like you were "visiting" someone else's home? Did you feel like you may even be intruding on their time?  Did it make you feel uncomfortable? Most likely the answer to all of these questions is yes.

A buyer wants and needs the space to review a home with their agnet unconcerned with the seller looking over their shoulder or over hearing honest feedback about how they feel about the home. Buyers want to be able to explore and review all parts of the home without worrying that the seller might think they are snooping around, when really, they're just being thorough.

As a seller you want to optimize the showing experience for a buyer to fall in love with your home and envision themselves living there.  If they're seeing you, in your day-to-day life, they feel like a visitor in your home and have a hard time connecting with the home that could be their future home.

Many sellers would think that it would be an advantage to be at home, to impress the buyer with the knowledge that only a true home owner would know. While this knowledge valuable, its best left on the counter, in an informational packet about the home, where buyers can review it at their leisure. A better time for the seller to show the new family the ropes is best saved to happen at the walk through right before the buyer closes on the home. 

Making a buyer feel at home doesn't require you to be there. Kindness and hospitality can go a long way to leave a good impression by leaving homemade cookies, snacks, or drinks on the counter, with a note letting buyers know they can "make themselves at home".