Why we need your house keys!

Today I am going to explain why it is so important to give your estate agent a key to your property whilst on the market and also answer some common questions as to why some clients aren’t comfortable doing so.

So why? 

Well, in this day and age, what with the internet and people having so much information in the palm of their hand, the world has become an inpatient place.

Buyers want to view a property when they want to view it. That might be 12:00 in the afternoon or 19:00 in the evening. So someone has to be available to show the buyer around i.e. your estate agent.

Selling property these days is more about being ‘reactive’ than it is ‘proactive’. Obviously your estate agent has to be proactive too but if I had to choose between a proactive estate agent and a reactive estate agent, reactive would win.

Your estate agent is the one who needs to be available for viewings, not you, so if someone wants to view in ‘30 minutes’ and it does happen, then your estate agent needs to be able to accommodate. Without access to your house, they can’t. Miss the opportunity and that buyer may go and see another house where the estate agent/property owner can accommodate, fall in love with it (remember buying a house is an emotional decision) and your house doesn’t get a second thought.

So why might you not be happy giving a key to your estate agent?

You don’t trust the estate agent: Then you have chosen the wrong estate agent in which case you need to choose a new one.

You have a dog and want to clear up: In that case, you would have hopefully chosen an estate agent who is good with dogs and can arrive a little early to clear up any mess OR you should send the dogs to the neighbours or dog sitters while you are on the market.

You are home all day: In which case it’s fine to not give your estate agent a key as long as you really are home all day and can accommodate viewings at short notice.

You need to tidy up before every viewing: The property should be viewing worthy the whole time you are on the market. I appreciate that you may be a busy family and life does have to go on whilst you are on the market in which case you have 2 options. 1. Hold an open day/block viewings or 2. Do your best to keep the house as tidy as possible.

Hope you found this helpful!

Author: Christos Nikolaou

BEng Mechanical Engineering, MSc Real Estate, ETEK Property Valuer, Register and Licensed Real Estate Agent.

Christos Nikolaou is the founder and Managing Director of Property Canvas, he holds a license as an Estate Agent from the Association of Real Estate Agents of Cyprus and he is a registered Property Valuer in the Technical and Scientific Chamber of Cyprus (ETEK). He is the author of our “Why we need your house keys!” and is a certified advance negotiator.