When you meet someone for the first time you get an impression of that person, it can dictate how you deal with them and has bearing on the relationship that you may or may not have. The same hold true for home sales. Within the first few minutes of seeing a home buyers have usually already decided whether or not the home is a viable option for them. First impressions are a powerful thing and as a home seller you need to ensure that your home has a dynamic first impression on not only the buyers that come to view the home but to their agents who may have other clients looking at the same time. There will be two distinct first impressions that buyers get when arriving at your home, the first impression of the yard and the first impression of the home's interior.

Getting these two areas ready for showing should be the focus of the time preceding any show. It can be a bit of a chore to keep things in tip-top shape especially if you are still living in the home. But, it has to be done, sometimes on a daily basis. In thinking about the front of the home one must realize that this is one of the most important impressions that a home will make. What buyers see when they pull up in front of the home has the ability to drastically alter someone's perception of the home if it is not what they saw in the original pictures. Use those photos as a guide to what people are expecting to see. If it looks even better than the photos, fantastic! Garbage and yard waste is a killer to this image so be sure to get rid of anything that might be considered waste before the showing starts.

As with the front of the house, buyers have likely seen pictures of your home's interior and those pictures should not lie. In fact people should be even more impressed with the home in reality. As the buyer moves from room to room there should be no unpleasant surprises and nothing unexpected unless it is a special feature that you did not have photographed. The first impression that anyone has of a home should definitely be that its clean as a whistle and in good condition. That impression should continue as buyers move their way through the home and at the end of the show their first impression should have extended into an impression that is good enough to make an offer. Remember how finicky you were when you bought your home? Play to this and the show will come off beautifully.