Any tips for showing potential buyers around your house?

If it was me I wouldnt show them around. They've already seen it, so they know where everything is. I'd tell them to help themselves and look around as they please, and say you'll be in X room if they have any questions.

I was wondering this so you've confirmed what I was thinking, thanks Porkchop.

Yeh let them nose about on their own...they ened to chat about it without fear of offending you!! if theres locked areas (cupboards doors etc) give them the keys..

Good point about keys, I'll make sure the back door isn't locked, I think that's the only locked place.

Don't they say that having a cake or bread baking makes the house smell all homely. :-)

Have as few people in the house as possible. Give them permission to roam around and that you will be in the living room if they have any questions.

Some tips I've used in the past...

Buy a new set of towels and bath mat and only put them out when you have a viewing

Show photos of the garden at its best (probably in June when it all looks green and fresh)

Get some utility bills out for them to see the actual costs of running the house

Make sure all the cat/dog food/paraphenalia is put away

Lay and dress the dining table as if for a dinner party

Limit the number of personal items/photos on display

Thanks Mrs C, I was thinking of sitting in the dining room as we've a wood burner in the lounge which I'm going to light so they can see it in all it's glory.

AC, I'll try do as many of those tips as I can. I will be mostly hunting for utility bills and photos tonight!

QQ, if they ask why we are moving what should I say? I know I should be honest but I'm not sure total honesty will do us any favours. We moved into the house 3 years ago, we love our house, our road but we don't love the area. It's ok, nothing bad happens here, it's just not where we ideally want to bring children up so we are hoping to move first. We will be buying a bigger house, so do you think it's ok to just say that?

If I was to bake a cake or bread, the last thing it would smell of is homely. It would be more likely to smell of burning! I am not a baker.?

We just said that we were looking to upsize to a house (currently in a flat), I would maybe say that you are looking to move closer to family (bigger house implies that this one is too small)

That's what I was thinking. I was toying with the idea of saying that are moving closer to family, we aren't, but I guess there is no way of them knowing that.

I had to house sit on a few viewings when my parents were selling their house. Most of the time I started off taking people around, pointing out a few things then left them to have a good nosey. However if it's a second viewing they obviously will know their way around so I would leave them to it.

Oh and as well as the obvious things make sure your oven is clean! I went to look round a house last week and the inside of the oven was CAKED in burnt grease! In fact the kitchen as a whole had a bit of a greasy stickiness to it. Put me right off ?

Wasn't there an advert a while back that said the colour yellow makes people more likely to buy a house? Maybe get some yellow flowers.

Hmm, interesting. I could always buy some yellow flowers.

I read these tips somewhere when we were selling ours and some of these things certainly put us off when we were viewing houses:-

Get someone to look after any pets and hide away any pet stuff.

Hide away any smoking things and try and eliminate any smoking smells.

De-hair the plugs in the bathroom and put out a new unused loo brush, clean towels, mat and a new bar of soap. Also hide all your daily stuff such as hairspray, shampoo, razor, deodrant etc. Everyone uses them but we don't really like seeing other peoples!

Hide family photos - this apparently puts a lot of people off imagining themselves living there.

Make sure that if your house is advertised as having a garage that it can be seen as either a place where they can actually put a car (SO many houses with garages we looked at would not fit even a small car in) or if it is a small garage, show it as a useful extra storage space rather than somewhere to chuck junk!

Tidy away all kids toys including bikes and playstuff outside.

The one thing that put us off more than anything was the neighbours! We fell in love with one house but next door's dog barked continuously all the time we were there and there was no way we could have lived next door to that racket!

Good luck with the second showing!

Don't have any tips from experience as I have only ever sold an unfurnished, unoccupied house, but some things I've seen from watching far too many property programmes:

1. Make sure each room can be seen for its true purpose, e.g. if you're selling a three bedroom house, but you use one room as a study, put a bed in there so that they can see it's big enough to be a bedroom.

2. Clear away as much clutter as possible

3. Limit personal photographs or very unique pieces of art.

4. Ask someone to look after any pets

5. Make sure all storage areas are clear and organised e.g. under stair cupboards, so people can see how much they could get in there.

We are nowhere near selling our house just yet but I am taking all these tips down. We have had a few visits recently from Ofsted (when I was childminding) and going to be having a few from social workers...I have always got up that bit earlier and put the breadmaker on, carried out a last minute clean, changed the bins, put out fresh towels etc. As our SW will be visiting from November onwards, I intend on having the fire going, hopefully a nice homely feel going on. I heard fresh flowers, yellow or otherwise is a nice touch. Make sure the house is warm too, blast the central heating quick before they arrive, but don't leave it on as they will swelter. Set your beds up with cushions and layers of texture, I saw that in Style at Home once...

Thanks everyone. I've finished work a bit early today to clean it from top to bottom again, just to make sure it's spotless. Fingers crossed they like it tonight!

If you do show someone round let them enter a room first and either stand in the door way or against a wall to allow the room to feel as big as possible

Thanks for the tips everyone, they were here for half an hour and asked loads of questions so I'm hoping that's a good sign.

Sounds good to me!