Maximizing Your Home's Appeal with Easy Access: A Guide to Selling Your Property

After deciding to sell your home and enlisting the services of an accomplished Realtor, you'll need to decide how much access you're willing to provide for prospective buyers. Your response holds greater significance now compared to previous years. Here's why.

During the pandemic’s peak buying seasons, we witnessed a surge in offers placed by homebuyers who hadn't even stepped inside the property. Primarily, this was in response to:

• The shortage of homes for sale
• Heightened competition driven by record-low mortgage rates
• Reluctance towards in-person home tours due to safety concerns (remember social distancing?)

All three of these factors have shifted, allowing buyers to be increasingly selective and deliberate in their decision-making process.

To successfully showcase and sell your home, it's important to enable potential buyers maximum access to the property. Before informing your agent about your preferences, take into account the following options, in order of highest buyer convenience: 

1. SupraKey (Realtor) lockbox at a vacant property – Provides maximum flexibility and viewing opportunities, when accompanied by an agent with a SupraKey subscription. (This also provides good security, as SupraKey records the name and contact information of every licensed agent who accessed the lockbox.)
2. On-demand showings of a vacant property - Enables buyers to schedule a tour with minimal notice, via text or phone call.
3. Scheduled showings of a vacant property - Agents can leverage a variety of apps to set specific showing times in advance. Buyers or agents can select from the time slots available and appear at their scheduled time.
4. Open Houses - Whether or not a listing is occupied, buyers appreciate being able to drop by during prescheduled Open House hours, with or without an agent along. Offering Open House times is important in combination with the other options because people are often busy with other plans during evenings and weekends, which is when Open Houses typically occur. 
5. Occupied properties / restricted access - Sometimes homes need to be listed while the owner or tenant is still living there. Naturally, this means more restricted access but we do what we can to accommodate interested parties. It's also the least convenient for the occupants, who typically want time to tidy up before a showing, and then find a productive way to spend an hour or more away from the home.

In summary

I tell homeowners that while many factors contribute to a successful and profitable sale, the top 5 remain constant: Price, Location, Condition, Competition and Availability.

It is important to remember that the more access you offer, the more potential buyers are likely to tour the listing, and the higher the chances of selling the property swiftly for a good price.

If you're considering making a move this season, contact me for more on successful strategies!

Helping To Find Your Place In The World

Stephanie Sills - MBA, MIM, REALTOR®

Palermo Properties Team at COMPASS

DRE 02060529  |  650.678.5707 |  [email protected] 

Courtesy to: KeepingCurrentMatters.com