I am in the process of looking for a new place to live. Specifically, I am looking to move to a larger condo unit. The move is not definite. I have not listed my condo for sale but I have been looking for a better part of the autumn. I have had the pleasure (or displeasure) of looking at a wide variety of places.

My preliminary observation is that the condo market is softening in our city. There are a lot of new condos being built and, quite frankly, there have been some vendors with an inflated sense of worth. According to my real estate agent, there are decreasing numbers of bidding wars or purchases for above list.

In this market, I find there’s been some indifference or inattention to how units are being shown. Specifically:

Open house don’ts

  1. Tenants. I saw one place that had a tenant. The tenant refused to leave and basically ended up showing the place to us while her spouse was watching television. This obviously became an odd and uncomfortable showing. Not to mention the fact the tenants were pack-rats; the stand up shower could not be used because of all the buckets and mops in it. Tenants are not your friends when you selling the place since there is nothing really in it for them. I am not sure how you can cajole a tenant to be co-operative but selling a tenanted unit may make the process more difficult.
  1. Please leave. I attended another open house where the owner did not leave. To top it off, she was on her cell phone during the entire showing. An open house is a sale process- try to at least show you are interested in selling the place. If she wanted to stay, at least try to pay attention to us.
  1. Air the place out. This one is from a family member who is also looking for a place to live. They attended an open house where the entire place smelt like wet dog. It was such a turn-off for them. My entire thought process in looking at an open house is whether I could see myself in the place. Try to make some effort to keep the place smelling nice and clean.

On the flip side, I saw some great examples of how to stage an open house. Specifically:

Open House do’s

  1. Music. It sounds funny but I saw a few places where they deliberately played music on their sound system. What a great way to put a potential buyer in the right mood.
  1. Make the place as bright as possible. Warm lighting and blinds/curtains left open are great for creating the right mood.
  1. Keep the place clean. This sounds obvious but I saw a couple of places with less than clean places. I don’t need to see spotless places but not washing the floors, dusting the place or cleaning the windows just gives the potential seller another reason to say no.

I’ll try to keep a running journal of the process.

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