Your home looks amazing! It has been marketed to key agents and contacts across the Silicon Valley and in Santa Cruz County and it’s finally on the market! So, now what happens?
One of the first things we will do is ask you to look over all of the information on the MLS. You know your home best and we want to ensure we have captured all of its amenities, features, and materials accurately. If we’ve left something off or if you find an error, please let us know right away so we can amend the listing.
Once your home hits the MLS, it can take a little time before we begin to get requests for private showings. But, the advanced marketing should help bring in showings more quickly since many agents and their clients already know about your home.
We will discuss showing instructions with you prior to going live. This will be the protocol we’ll ask buyer’s agents to follow when notifying us to schedule a tour of your home with their client. These instructions work around any special requirements, such as pets, if you work from home, or if you have young children.
As a rule of thumb, we request buyer’s agents provide advanced notice before a showing. If the date/time requested by the agent doesn’t work for you, you can always deny or request an alternate timeframe, but we recommend being as flexible as possible to work around the buyer’s schedule.
The ultimate goal is to get as many potential buyers to tour your home as quickly as possible, so we encourage you to keep your showing requirements simple to facilitate this process. After all, the more people who see your house, the higher the odds are of getting an offer…or multiple offers.
Agents will have access to your home via a special lockbox. Only REALTORS® have the ability to access the key in the box. The lockbox, also called a Supra, tracks who has entered your home. This allows Dawn and her Team to track which agents have been to your property on a particular day and time, and even if they’ve been multiple times. We typically ask that agents leave a card so you can also see who has been through your home.
Generally, a showing lasts from 15 to 30 minutes. A buyer feels more at home if they are able to view a property with their agent without the seller present. Because of this, we ask that you leave your house 15 to 20 minutes before the scheduled showing time and return about 30 minutes after. For example, if a showing has been scheduled for 5pm, you would leave no later than 4:45pm and return after 5:45pm.
We will leave a basket of shoe booties or request people remove their footwear while touring your home to keep dirt to a minimum and keep your floors clean.
After each showing, Dawn will follow-up with the Buyers agent and collect and record feedback. The information gathered can be tremendously beneficial for making sure your property is being presented in the best possible manner.
In addition to being on the MLS, Dawn will also put your listing on various real estate websites, including the Compass website, Zillow, Trulia and others. Click here to learn more about this additional online marketing.
