Enjoy your vacation while your property’s for sale
Published on September 20, 2019
Yes, you can!
It’s true that selling a home requires a minimum amount of time and availability, even while you’re on vacation. But thankfully, today’s technology makes it easy to stay in touch even from a distance.
Here are a few tips on how to make the most of your well-deserved time off, while continuing to market your property.
Set aside a little time every day
We strongly recommend that you reply to every request you receive. If potential buyers don’t get an answer from you, they might just give up. But don’t worry: you don’t have to spend your whole vacation on your cellphone. Just have one time of the day when you check your messages.
Do you have voicemail? Record a message saying that your property is still for sale and that phone calls will be returned in 24 to 48 hours. If you’re outside the country and prefer to have people contact you via email, just say so in your message.
Get some help
Planning to be totally offline and away from your phone during your vacation? Ask someone you trust, like a family member or friend, to respond to potential buyers for you.
It’s simple: just temporarily change your listing so that your friend’s phone number appears there instead of yours. And, for anyone who might call after seeing your For Sale sign, simply leave your friend’s number on your voicemail message.
Give your friend the keys…
If need be, your friend can let people in to view the property. When you pass on the key, you might want to recommend that your friend schedule several visits at once, to minimize travel back and forth to your home.
… and the right tools
Naturally, you’re not asking a friend to sell the property for you, or to talk price or inclusions. So just print off some copies of your printable listing, making sure the “Description” section is well filled out. The document may answer several of your visitors’ questions.
A potential buyer can still submit an offer to purchase while you’re away. Note that, for security reasons, it’s best not to give information about how long you’ll be gone or why you’re away. Your friend can recommend to the potential buyer that a reasonable amount of time be allocated for you to look over the offer to purchase, for instance one week instead of 48 hours.
And finally, if you can’t find anyone to help you for the home visits, you can just say on your message that you’re not holding any visits at the moment but that you will be available later, perhaps the week after you come back from holidays.
We wish you a great summer and an enjoyable vacation!