Key Reasons Realtors Hate Your Front Door
By Van Alstyne, TX Realtor Keith Laursen
Don’t let Realtors and buyers hate your front door! The key to selling your home starts at the front door. Many of today’s busy families come and go through the garage door but home buyers and their Realtors will take the scenic route via your front door. What could possibly go wrong?
Do You Have A Front Door Key?
You would be surprised how many homeowners don’t even know where their front door key is. For many, the last time they used it was when they opened the door to move in. Rural homeowners often use the back door and seldom open the front door.
Does The Key Work?
Often times the key is hard to insert or the bane of every Realtor’s existence, it sticks. While the buyer’s agent is fumbling with your key, the buyer is scoping out your neglected paint, bad window caulking, dead landscaping and guy across the street working on his hot rod.
Your home won’t sell unless buyers see inside and if the key sticks, they will only wonder what else hasn’t been maintained while checking out your porch and neighborhood.
Do You Have A Spare Key?
Trust me, you will need it. Your Realtor will need one for the lockbox and they have a bad habit of disappearing. Overzealous agents in a rush to get to the next home showing will forget that it is in their pocket.
Have you ever dropped a key on a deck or wooden porch shuddering in fear that it may fall through the crack between the boards? Murphy lives on your front porch and there is never enough room for Murphy to retrieve it.
Do You Know Where Your Spare Key Is?
Recently a homeowner called from the garage with three young kids and a load of groceries not able to get into her home. One of the showing instructions Realtors frequently get is, “turn off lights, lock all doors”. The showing agent did just that, including locking the door from the garage to the house. I made sure to advise them to get a spare made but I didn’t advise them to not leave it on the kitchen counter!
Do You Have A Key Hiding Place?
Obviously the kitchen counter is not a good hiding place so be sure to have one on your keyring as well as one hidden somewhere or with a stay at home neighbor. If someone walked with the lock box key or locked it inside at least the neighbor or the next Realtor could get into your home.
There is nothing worse than standing outside a home with an eager buyer unable to get it. Many buyers have limited time so they won’t be back.
Along those lines, another important item to mention is you can have all the working keys in the world to no avail if someone forgot to move the child safety lock to the unlocked position before leaving for the showing or for the day.
While we have covered the key reasons, don’t overlook other items that can hurt your home selling before you even get to the door. An often overlooked item is your address. Regardless if it is on your curb, your mailbox or the home, make sure it is readable and in great shape. Not only does it look good and maintained but it ensures that the buyers tracking through your home are in the right place!
Buy a new doormat, replace the rusty porch light and make sure the doorbell works. If your front door looks like the picture, don’t cheap out, just paint it! Repair the walkway and address any trip hazards. Make sure you don’t have trees growing out of your gutters or limbs that will poke someone in the face on the way to the door!
Picture yourself fumbling with that key looking at the dirt daubers or barn swallow nests and take back that plant the nursery guaranteed wouldn’t die two years ago. I cover more tips in my post about how your home showing is like a first date so check that out.
For other home selling tips, call me. We have work to do but the key to selling your home starts at your front door and ends at the closing table when we hand that key to the happy new homeowners.
