So your house is ready. It is spick and span and looks like a show home. You are waiting expectantly, and probably rather nervously, for that knock on the door from your first potential buyers. Experienced estate agents have all sorts of little psychological tricks up their sleeves designed to turn viewers into buyers. However, you won't necessarily always have an estate agent on hand to show people around, so it is worth picking up a few tips from those in the know.
Buyers are reputed to make up their minds about a house within the first 11 seconds. This means the front garden, the front door and the hall must make a good impression. Hide any pets away. No one wants to be greeted by your dog's muddy paws on their clean coat, or sit on a sofa covered in cats' hair.
Don't greet the buyer with too much visual information at once. For example, if there is an attractive view from the hall into, say, the kitchen, then show it, but close all the other doors off the hall, so that these rooms come as a surprise.
Carefully guide the viewer round the house. Make sure they see the house in order you decide, but give the buyer the impression that they are in control by letting them enter each room first with you following. If you decide to show the best rooms first, make sure they also see them again before they leave.
On the first viewing be businesslike, rather than overly friendly. Buyers are usually busy people and they may have booked to see several houses that day. The last thing they want to hear is your life story.