Part of having one’s home on the market is accepting that your Realtor® will hold open houses and that, at the first one or two, your neighbors — particularly those you don’t socialize with — will show up to see what you’ve got in the way of “stuff.” I’ve sold enough homes to know.
Of course, the neighbors are curious to compare how their houses stack up against others on their street; that’s only human nature at work. Of course, an open house also attracts a lot of lookers from other neighborhoods who are not really searching for that next home either. So you need a tough skin to open your home to the casual observer.
Intellectually I understand this; but emotionally I’m feeling put upon. I don’t like it that some of our neighbors have shown up more than once to ogle our “stuff.” In fact, one of them even brought friends to look at our decorating ideas. She also asked if she could have something in our bedroom if it didn’t make the cut to our new place.
Frankly, I find this behavior crossing the line. We’re not holding an open house so others can get decorating ideas; nor are we doing it to show off our furniture and artwork. We’re doing it to attract serious buyers who might want to live here.
I’m more than willing to entertain any neighbor who hasn’t seen our house or who brings a serious buyer. At the same time, if this particular person comes again and stays as long as she did today (at least half an hour), I think I’ll ask her if her interest is driven by the desire to have our house and, if so, when might we get an offer from her Realtor®.
Leave a Reply