Ask the REALTOR: Do I have to get out the minute a buyer wants to see my house?

Ask the REALTOR® is a regular video series in which I answer your most commonly-asked real estate questions, with a new Q&A posting every week. If YOU have a real estate question for me, drop me a note here.

This week’s question: Do I have to get out the minute a buyer wants to see my house? Here’s the answer in this brief video, and don’t miss the transcript below.

Transcript:

Hi. This is Cari McGee with Keller Williams Realty. Welcome to this week’s episode of “Ask the Realtor.” Every week I answer questions from buyers and sellers — and pretty much everyone in between — regarding real estate.

This week’s question is, “Cari, if I’m selling my house, do I have to get out the minute a buyer says he or she wants to see it?”

Great question and the answer is not really … but kind of. And let me explain further. What I’m really talking about is a rule. This is a law in real estate and you just need to know it if you’re trying to sell your home. Are you ready? Here it is, this is the key: The easier it is to show your home, the more people who will see your home and the more people who see your home, the better the chances are of you obtaining an offer. That’s it. Period. End of story. Don’t make it difficult for people to see your house.

Now if you’ve told your agent, “Hey, I need to get the dog rounded up and the kids rounded up and out to the car and just need about 15 minutes to straighten up the house before somebody sees it,” that’s totally fine and we get that, but don’t ask for 24 hours notice unless you have a renter in there which…they require 24 hours. It’s the law. But if you’re just like, “You know what? I’m gonna need a full day to get this house ready to show.” Okay. No. Don’t do that. It’s gonna be really difficult to get people in to see the house and when things are really difficult, people don’t go. I don’t care how compelling your house is and it doesn’t matter what the current market is — whether it’s a buyer’s market, seller’s market or balanced market. The fact remains, the easier it is to see your house, the more people who will come in and see it and then the better your chances are of obtaining an offer.

So that’s it from here. If you have any more questions for me regarding real estate, by all means, give me a shout via any one of the methods that follow on the next screen. Thanks so much.