5 Home Showing Tips All Home Sellers Need to Know

4 Ways to Improve Your Home Showings Selling a home can be a tricky process. Most homeowners know that showing their home to potential buyers is one of the selling important parts of the entire process. A home showing, also known as a home tour or open house, is where buyers see the home in person for the first time. House showings must put the home’s best foot forward so every buyer who comes in through the front door has a positive first impression. So, how do homeowners improve their chances of having a great open house?

Don’t Remove Furniture from the Home

When selling a home, some homeowners think it’s better to remove their furniture from the home so prospective buyers have a “blank slate” to envision themselves living there. This line of thinking is buyers find their decor choices distracting; as if the sofa’s color takes away from the home.

However, having furniture in a home is extremely helpful. The truth is most people have a hard time “imagining” how their things will fit in the home. Existing pieces provide multiple benefits, including:

Giving buyers ideas for how they can decorate the home with their furniture
Providing a sense of scale and flow often missing in photos or empty rooms
Making rooms look bigger and more spacious
Making a home overall feel more welcoming

So, unless your real estate agent says otherwise, don’t worry about stashing your belongings in a storage unit. Do what you can to ensure that the home stays furnished while selling, even if that means hiring a home stager to bring in a few key pieces. There’s a reason why staged homes sell for 30% more than empty properties.

What you can do to improve the house during showings is walk about like a prospective buyer. Do any excess furnishings get in the way of moving around the room? Could certain pieces be placed in another room to better show the home features?

Partially Fill Closets

A modern, open wardrobe ideal for house showings, with clothing items, shoes, and boxes neatly organized on wooden shelves. The design combines hanging and folded storage. On the right, a stylized logo featuring the letters "ez" in a hexagon shape adds a touch of elegance.

For many potential home buyers, a priority in a new home is storage space so they pay special attention to closets. To show off a home’s closet space, don’t fill them to capacity. Overstuffed closets make it hard to determine how much room is in a linen or bedroom closet. Instead, fill it halfway so there is some empty space. This way, buyers can clearly see what is stored in the filled half and envision how much the closets can hold when they’re completely full.

While you’re at it, pay attention to your closet doors. Give them a little grease if they squeak or get stuck. Use cleaning products to move handprints and grime. Remember the storage in your kitchen, too. Organized kitchen drawers make their storage capacity look larger, too.

Choose Neutral Paint Colors

A modern living room designed to impress during a house showing, featuring a gray sectional sofa, assorted cushions, and a round coffee table. Wooden accents and decorative elements complement its warm color palette. A logo with "ez" is positioned on the left side of the image.

Many homeowners choose to give the rooms of their home a fresh coat of paint to get rid of any marks or stains before listing on the market. Before you opt for colors currently popular and in style, remember neutral colors will appeal to many people, increasing your buyer pool. If a color is too bright or a room is painted in a color that isn’t commonly seen, it could be off-putting to potential home buyers.

Neutral colors easily fit into nearly any setting and can match most home decor. It’s difficult to find someone who vehemently dislikes beige or gray. Lighter-toned and glossy neutrals reflect natural light very well and pair with most light fixtures. Plus, if the buyers don’t like the color the seller chooses, light neutral colors are easy to paint over.

Make an Informational Pamphlet for Buyers

A person is holding a real estate magazine open to pages showing various property listings with vibrant images and details, perhaps seeking tips for showing a house effectively. The magazine rests on a wooden table next to a pair of glasses and a charging cable. The ez logo is visible on the left.

When buyers schedule house showings, visiting multiple homes in just one day is common. Because of this, it’s easy for potential homebuyers to get their home showings confused. To help buyers, ask your real estate agent if they will make a pamphlet containing all of the home’s important information they can take with them. Most real estate professionals make brochures or flyers for their open houses. And if not, do it yourself. Things to put on the pamphlet include:

A clear, high-quality photo of the exterior
2-3 of the best interior photos
The address
The price
The number of bedrooms and bathrooms
The square footage of both the home and the property
The property taxes
Local neighborhood features, like if there’s nearby public transportation or a shared swimming pool.

And so on, and so forth. The more information included, the better. Homeowners should include everything they think a buyer would want to know when they’re deciding to make an offer.

Tidy Up

Modern kitchen with dark wood cabinets, a central island with granite countertop, stainless steel appliances, and pendant lighting. The walls feature light tiles and a backsplash, perfect for impressing during a house showing. There's a decorative logo overlay with hexagonal patterns.

There’s a saying, “Dirty homes don’t sell.” Some potential buyers can overlook a bit of dust here and there or an errant spiderweb in the corner, but most home buyers have a hard time looking past truly dirty and cluttered homes.

Before home showings, take the time to straighten up around the home. Hopefully, you have advance notice to get the home ready for private showings. If not, try to keep it in a show-ready state. For house showings:

Remove clutter, especially unessential appliances on the kitchen countertops. Coffee pots are usually okay, but not a blender, coffee pot, air fryer, and toaster all at once. Think clear sight lines.
Clean the floors and dust all the easily visible surfaces.
Wipe down all glass surfaces, especially the windows. Trust us, natural light makes a huge difference in those first impressions!
Add potted flowers to the stoop or strategic areas. Fresh flowers brighten up a space.

As for air fresheners, consult your real estate agent. There are varying opinions on artificial scents; remember, some people are allergic to them. Some prospective homebuyers think sellers use them to cover up problems in the home.

Preparing for house showings is an extremely important step in selling the home for a fair market price. Use these tips to get it right from the potential buyer’s first step inside. As always, consult with your real estate agent about the nuances of your home. Improve your chances of a great open house event and even better buyer offer.

Updated July 2024