How to tour a home

We show homes to buyers and open our sellers’ homes to other agents’ buyers every week, so we see showings from both sides of the front door. Most of what follows is simple courtesy. The rest is about using a short visit well, because a buyer who is absorbed in the wrong details can walk out of the right house.

What a showing is for

A showing answers one question: is this a house we want to pursue? It is not the place to work out what the house will cost to maintain. Arizona’s purchase contract gives you a separate inspection period for that, usually ten days, with professionals, and a formal way to ask the seller to fix things or credit you for them. (We explain how that works in our guide to the inspection notice.)

So it helps to sort what you see into two groups.

• Fixed. Location. The lot and how the house sits on it. Which way it faces and where the light falls. Views, and what might one day block them. Noise from a road, a flight path or a golf course. The floor plan and how you would actually live in it. The street and the neighbours. None of these can be changed after closing, and no inspector will judge them for you. This is what the showing is for.
• Priced. The age of the air-conditioning units, the water heater, the roof, the pool equipment, a cracked tile, a sticky slider. All real, all worth knowing, and all things that will become a line item with a number next to it during the inspection period.

The mistake we see most is a buyer spending twenty minutes reading the data plate on an A/C unit and never standing still long enough in the great room to notice the afternoon sun comes straight through the west glass. The A/C has a replacement cost. The sun doesn’t, and it will be there every afternoon for as long as you own the house.

An air-conditioning unit has a replacement cost. The view doesn’t come with a price.

For the same reason, the physical inspecting belongs to the inspectors. We once had a buyer climb onto the roof during a showing. That is well outside what a showing is for, and it is a real risk to the buyer and to the seller’s property. If the roof matters, and in Arizona it often does, it gets looked at by a roofer during the inspection period.

Thirty minutes, then regroup

About thirty minutes is the right length for a showing. That is enough to walk every room, stand in the yard, and get a feel for the place. After that, lingering tends to blur the impression rather than sharpen it, and the seller is waiting to come home. If it might be the one, leave, talk it over in the car or over lunch, and book a second showing.

The second showing is where the detail belongs. Bring the tape measure. Open the cabinets. Bring the contractor or the designer if a renovation is part of the plan. And if you can, book it at a different time of day. See the house at sunset, when the patio is at its best or the west rooms are at their hottest. Drive to it at rush hour, or visit on a Saturday when the neighbourhood is home. A house you have seen at two different times of day is a house you actually know.

One pattern from years of scheduling: the showing squeezed in at the last minute, an hour before the buyer’s flight home, very rarely becomes a purchase. There’s nothing wrong with it; it just isn’t how anyone decides on a house. If a home is worth seeing, it is usually worth coming back to see properly.

Being a good guest

The seller has moved out for the hour, often at short notice, and has usually spent the morning cleaning. A few habits go a long way.

• Leave the coffee in the car. The same goes for food. A spill on a rug, a ring on a marble counter, a cup left on a windowsill: none of it is worth the risk, and you want both hands free to open doors and closets. In the summer many listings, ours included, leave water out for visitors. This is Arizona.
• Arrive inside your window. If you are running late, have your agent call. Showings are often booked back to back, and two groups of buyers overlapping in one house is uncomfortable for both.
• Follow the house instructions. If the listing asks for shoes off or booties on, do it without being asked twice.
• Leave it as you found it. Every light, blind, door and gate. Exterior doors and pool gates matter most: a seller’s dog getting out, or a pool gate left open, is a far bigger problem than a lamp left on.
• Closets yes, drawers no. Storage is part of the house, so open the closets and the pantry. Dresser drawers, medicine cabinets, desks and mail are the seller’s life, not the house.
• Small things. Don’t use the bathrooms, sit or lie on the beds, or park across the driveway or the neighbour’s.

Children and animals

Children are welcome, and many families tour together; it is their house too. Keep them within arm’s reach for the whole visit. Much of that is about the seller’s belongings, but in Arizona it is mostly about water. A lot of homes here have pools, and the gates, covers and alarms a family with young children relies on may not be set up for visitors. Hold hands anywhere near the backyard.

Pets should stay at home. The seller may have animals of their own, allergies, or simply floors and furniture they would rather not have explored. Service animals are, of course, welcome. If the seller’s own pets are in the house, the showing instructions will say so; keep them inside and keep doors closed.

You are probably on camera

Video doorbells and indoor cameras are now so common that it is safest to assume every showing is being recorded, and that some devices pick up sound as well.

If you are buying, nothing about this should change how you tour. It should change what you say out loud. How much you love the house, what you would offer, what you can afford, what you think of the seller’s taste: save it for the car. Anything said in the kitchen can reach the other side of the negotiation before your agent has written a word.

Taking photos and video to help you remember a house is generally fine; ask your agent, and be discreet about personal items like family photos. Publishing them is not fine. A seller’s home is not content, and booking a showing to film a house for social media, rather than to consider buying it, isn’t a showing at all.

If you are selling, disclose any recording devices. Video of your own front door is ordinary. Audio is different: Arizona law allows you to record a conversation you are part of, but recording people talking among themselves when you are not present can cross into the eavesdropping provisions of A.R.S. § 13-3005. The simple course is to tell your agent what devices you have, let them note it for buyers’ agents, put a small sign by the door, and switch off audio during showings.

For sellers: the courtesy runs both ways

Leave the house. This is the most important thing a seller can do for a showing. Buyers need to picture themselves living there and talk freely, and they cannot do either with the owner in the next room. Well-meaning sellers who stay to point out the new appliances almost always make things worse, not better. Showing the house is what you hired your agent for.

• Put away prescriptions, jewellery, small valuables, mail and anything with account numbers on it.
• Make sure the house is easy to find. Not every listing has a sign in the yard. Earlier this year one of ours didn’t, but the house next door had one of its own, and several agents spent their showing time walking around the neighbour’s home looking for a lockbox. A clear address and a visible house number save everyone’s time.
• Set the thermostat to something comfortable and turn the lights on. In the summer, a few bottles of cold water by the door are a small courtesy buyers remember.
• Secure pets, or take them with you.

The short version

• Spend the showing on what can never change: location, light, views, noise, layout. The inspection period is for what can be fixed.
• About thirty minutes, then leave and regroup. Come back for a second showing, ideally at a different time of day.
• Coffee stays in the car, pets stay at home, children stay within arm’s reach.
• Leave every door, gate and light as you found it.
• Assume you are recorded. Talk about price in the car. Photos for your own memory, never for publishing.
• Sellers: leave the house, disclose your cameras, and turn the audio off.

Questions we hear

How long should a home showing take?

About thirty minutes. If the house is a serious contender, it is better to leave, talk it over, and book a second showing than to stay on.

Can I take photos during a showing?

Photos and video to help you remember the house are generally fine; check with your agent and avoid photographing personal items. Posting them publicly is not.

Can the seller record me during a showing?

Assume there is video. Audio recording of conversations the seller is not part of can raise legal issues under Arizona law, which is why sellers should disclose devices and switch off audio. Either way, keep price and negotiation talk for after you leave.

Should I check the age of the A/C and roof at a showing?

Note them if you like, but don’t let them take over the visit. Those are exactly what the inspection period is for, and they can be negotiated with a number attached. Location, light, layout and views cannot.

Should the seller be home during a showing?

No. Buyers need to speak freely and picture themselves in the house. Showing the house is the listing agent’s job.