Lights on/off when showing your place to potential buyers?

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Hello. I'm selling my apartment (I think that's a condo in US English) and one consideration potential buyers will have is "how much light is going to come in?". This is because it's on the ground floor and surrounded by 4-5 story buildings. When we have a viewing (where multiple people come and look around), our agent tends to put a lot of lights on, even though it's 1pm and plenty light enough without.

I think people will take this the wrong way and think "oh dear, you need the lights on at 1pm if you live here...". And people will be too shy to play around with the lights. What do you think? Lights on or off? Our agent is only a nipper, and a second opinion would be much appreciated!

thanks for your time,

partyfiend.

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Re: Lights on/off when showing your place to potential buyer

partyfiend wrote:

I think people will take this the wrong way and think "oh dear, you need the lights on at 1pm if you live here...".

IMO, you are over-thinking things. Most buyers are looking to see what the rooms look like - the condition of the floors, walls ceilings, etc.. and the layout. Having the lights on allows them to do that without having to do anything else

Having the lights on for every showing means everyone looking gets the same view and it also (indirectly) tells the buyer that there isn't anything being hidden.

If someone is actually concerned about the amount of natural light getting into the rooms they can turn the lights off and check.

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When welooked at the house that we bought, the realtor had all the lights on. When we moved in, we realized that the living room faced north, and got very lttle natural light. We never noticed it the first time that we saw the house.

It turned out well, but we did put in two skylights!

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Thanks for the useful comments, guys. Smile

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Maybe it helps to add that 'agent' = 'realtor'. I'd forgotten about that one!

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From what I have read, not only lights on but put higher wattage lights in to give more light. Unless you are trying to sell to Dracula, most people want well lit places.

"agent" I knew right away. I had to stop and think about "nipper" before realizing it probably meant a young thing of an agent.

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I sold real estate for 25 years.

LIGHTS ON...EVERYWHERE!

And some good smells. You can't cook bread or apple pie every day...but you can create those smells. Or just fresh air. But consider the possibility of smells you may be use to.

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Another nice touch is to cook popcorn before prospective
buyers arrive. The smell of popcorn or apple-cinnamon
is positively familiar to almost everyone, and add a homey
feeling.

Fresh flowern make also a positive impression.

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Frank and I had the same idea Wink

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Great minds...

..and all that!

:wink:

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Exactly!

I'm no Betty Crocker either, so I just had put some Apples
with Cinnamon in a pot and there it simmered for a while,
and the smell was just divine.

Believe it or not, that's how I sold my previous home
to a bachelor. Mr. Green

(Okay, it was a great place too)

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yes, a nipper is a young lad. thanks for the aroma advice!

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Nix on the popcorn!

I suspect partyfiend comes from a land where popcorn is not that common (e.g. here!). The language sounds like Oz!

If I walked into an apartment for sale, and could smell popcorn, I'd wonder what pong they were trying to hide. Bread, cakes, though - mmmmmm!

Lights, yes!

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Hi margo, the last time I tried to make popcorn it all went horribly wrong and I nearly had to throw the pan away, so maybe I won't risk it Smile

I'm actually from the UK but I'm living in another northern European country, but not for long...!

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For the scent of fresh bread, we bought a candle that smelled similar - we lit it for a while before showing the place. And yes we had all the lights on!

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CalamityJane wrote:

Another nice touch is to cook popcorn before prospective
buyers arrive.

You made me chuckle CalamityJane. I hate the smell of popcorn, makes me think someone ate a bucketful of cabbage and dirty sock soup and farted right after. Shocked

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I put vases of fresh flowers in the dining room, master bedroom and the bathrooms. I used fragrant flowers such as star lillies in the bathrooms. I haven't bought cut flowers since, but I bought them twice a week when my house was on the market.

Also, we kept the lights on - you never know when there will be cloud cover.

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Update: it's sold now. Price not great, but sold at least. Thanks for all your advice. We ended up buying some more lights to make the place a bit less studenty and a bit more grown up.

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Lights on/off when showing your place to potential buyers?

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