Should I Be Home During Showings?
No — leave, every time. Buyers linger, talk freely, and picture themselves living there only when the owner isn't hovering. Why it matters and how to manage it.
No — leave the house for every showing, ideally taking pets with you. Buyers cut visits short when the owner is home, won’t open closets or speak honestly with their agent, and can’t mentally move in while you’re standing in the kitchen they’re trying to imagine as theirs. An occupied showing is a worse showing, and worse showings cost offers.
The longer answer: what your presence actually does
Showings aren’t tours; they’re auditions for the buyer’s imagination. Three things break when the seller stays:
Buyers rush. Politeness kicks in and works against you. Visitors who’d otherwise spend half an hour opening cabinets, testing water pressure, and standing in the backyard will do an apologetic ten-minute loop and leave. Less time in the house means less attachment, and attachment is what writes strong offers.
Buyers stop talking. The most valuable thing that happens at a showing is the unguarded conversation between buyers and their agent — “the primary’s small, but I love the light,” “could we fit an office down here?” With you in earshot, that goes silent. You also lose the honest feedback your listing agent would otherwise collect afterward.
You will say something expensive. Sellers narrate. “We never use the back bedroom, it’s freezing in winter.” “We’re moving because of the schools.” “We need a quick close.” Every one of those sentences is negotiation ammunition or a disclosure-adjacent landmine. Anything material about the property’s condition belongs on your Form 17 disclosure — delivered deliberately, in writing — not blurted at a stranger by the stairs. (What belongs there: Form 17, explained.)
There’s a legal-ish wrinkle too: you can’t unsay things. An offhand comment about how flexible you are on price undermines your agent’s entire strategy in one sentence.
How to handle the logistics
- Be gone, fully. Not in the garage, not gardening out back. Coffee shop, errands, a walk. For open houses, plan to be out for the whole window.
- Take pets. Even friendly dogs make some buyers anxious or allergic, and a barking crate is a soundtrack nobody buys to. If removal is impossible, crate and disclose in the showing instructions.
- Secure the small stuff. Strangers walk through with limited supervision. Medications, mail, valuables, spare keys, and anything with personal data go in a locked drawer or with you.
- Depersonalize what stays. Family photos and name-laden items keep the house feeling like yours, which is the opposite of the goal — the same logic as prepping for listing photos.
- Set showing rules through your agent. Notice requirements, hours, lockbox arrangements — you control these in the listing setup. Make access easy: in a market where homes often get concentrated bursts of showings before an offer review date, every declined showing request is a possible offer that never happens.
What if I genuinely can’t leave?
Night-shift sleep schedules, mobility constraints, a home business — real life exists. If you truly can’t vacate, retreat to one room, tell your agent so showing agents can be warned, and say nothing beyond hello. But treat this as the exception to engineer around, not a comfortable default: the showings where buyers fall in love are the ones where they forget the house belongs to someone else.
Related questions
Should I be home during the buyer’s inspection? Also no — and doubly so. Inspections run hours, and the buyer is paying to scrutinize your house candidly with their inspector. Your presence helps nothing.
What about the appraisal? Either way is fine; appraisers are unbothered. Your agent may want to attend to share comparable-sale information.
Do sellers attend the closing in Washington? There’s no “closing table” here — you’ll sign your documents at escrow separately from the buyer, usually days before the sale records.
A listing agent earns their fee partly by running showings so you don’t have to — and those fees vary more than most sellers realize. Manaky Homes is a free marketplace where Greater Seattle agents publish what they charge, side by side. Get early access via the waitlist.
