Access to your home is an essential component of marketing your home. Once you’ve decided to sell your home and have hired a real estate agent for guidance, your real estate advisor will ask how much access to your home you want to give potential buyers. Your answer matters more now than it did in recent years. Here’s why.
At the height of the buying frenzy seen during the pandemic, there was a rise in the number of homebuyers who put offers on unseen homes. That happened for three reasons:
- Shallow housing inventory
- A lot of competition from other buyers wanting to take advantage of historically low mortgage rates
- And general wariness of in-person home tours during a pandemic
Markets Changing
Today, the market’s changing, and buyers can usually be more selective and take more time to explore their options.
So, to show your home and sell it efficiently, you’ll want to provide buyers with as much access as possible. To determine what works for you, consider these five levels of access you can provide. They’re ordered from the most convenient for a buyer to the least suitable. Remember, you will be better able to sell your house if you provide as much access to buyers as possible.
- Providing the Home key – You may provide a key for the agent to utilize. Another option would require an agent to retrieve the key from the doorperson or stop by an office to pick up the key, which is still pretty convenient for a buyer.
- Open Access with a Phone Call – You allow a showing with just a phone call’s notice.
- By Appointment Only – For example, you might want your agent to set up a showing at a particular time and give you advance notice. That way, you can prepare the house and be sure you have somewhere else you can go.
- Limited Access – This might mean you’re only willing to have your house available on certain days or at certain times of the day. This is the most complex and least flexible way to show your home to potential buyers.
- Lockbox on the Door – This allows buyers to see the home as soon as they know of the listing or at their convenience (In Certain Locations).
New Development Registration
- As your “buyers” agent, it is procedural that I accompany you for onsite registration and all future visits to the showroom unless I can receive accommodation from the sales office otherwise.
- Following a specific timeframe set by the sales office, I must re-register you if you remain interested in the development.
As today’s housing market changes, work with your local agent to give buyers as much access as possible to your house when you sell.
Key Takeaway
Access can have a significant impact on the sale of your house. Let’s connect today if you’re ready to move this spring.
