9 minute read
Kim once walked a buyer into a home in Cape Coral that was completely blacked out. The listing agent had not come by to open the hurricane shutters. The seasonal owners had put every panel down before heading north for the summer. Our buyer stood in the doorway for about ten seconds and turned around. Beautiful home, the right floor plan, the right neighborhood. None of it mattered. Natural light makes or breaks the first impression on a SWFL home, and a single missed showing-prep step can cost a seller a real offer.
This post is the Hawley Team's playbook for showing prep in Southwest Florida. The 24-hour checklist (the night before). The 1-hour checklist (right before). The 5-minute checklist (as the agent's car pulls up). The SWFL-specific items that buyers from Ohio or Michigan have never had to think about, hurricane shutters chief among them. And the three-part rule we ask every Hawley Team seller to memorize: lights on, music on, blinds open.
AT A GLANCE
- Sellers lose buyers in the first ten seconds of a showing, and a single missed prep step is enough to do it. Kim once lost a strong full-asking buyer because the hurricane shutters were never opened, and the home later sold for $12,000 under ask.
- Memorize the three-part rule for every showing, every time: lights on, music on, blinds open.
- Run three checklists: the 24-hour (deep clean, AC to 72, linens, outdoor, pet plan), the 1-hour (every light on, every blind and shutter open, ambient music), and the 5-minute (final scan, take the kids and pets, leave the home, do not hover).
- In Southwest Florida specifically: get every hurricane shutter UP, set the AC to 72 to 73 for the 95-degree walk-in, sweep the lanai, skim the pool, and skip candles or plug-in air fresheners that read as masking something.
The Hurricane Shutter Story (Why This Post Exists)
The home was beautiful. Well-priced. Right neighborhood. Our buyer had her preferences dialed in and the home was a strong match on every objective filter. Kim scheduled the showing two days in advance and confirmed with the listing office.
The owners were seasonal. They had closed up the house in May and headed north. Before they left, they had lowered every hurricane shutter on the home. The listing agent had not driven out to the property to open the shutters before the showing.
Kim and the buyer walked through the front door into pitch dark. Every window was covered. Every room was a cave. Kim turned on every interior light she could find. The buyer walked through three rooms in the dim yellow incandescent glow, walked back to the foyer, and said, "I'm sorry, I can't tell anything from this. Can we go?"
The home sold three weeks later to a different buyer at $12,000 below the asking price. Our buyer, who would have been a strong offer at full asking with quick close, never came back. Sellers lose buyers in the first ten seconds of a showing. A single missed prep step is enough.
This post is the playbook that prevents that.
The Hawley Team Three-Part Rule
Before we get to the checklists, memorize this.
Every showing. Every time. No exceptions. If your home is being shown and one of these three things is not true, the seller is leaving money on the table.
Lights on warms the home and signals welcome. Music on creates ambient feel and covers the awkwardness of strangers walking through your space. Blinds open lets in the natural light that is the single biggest selling point of a Southwest Florida home in the first place.
The buyer walking in needs to feel, in the first three seconds, that this could be their home. Cold, dim, silent rooms do not feel like home. Warm, bright, softly-soundtracked rooms do.
The 24-Hour Checklist (The Night Before)
The night before a confirmed showing, run this list. Most of it is one-time per showing prep that pays off every showing that comes after it.
Walkthrough. Walk every room of your home as if you were a buyer. Take pictures. Look for clutter, dust, scuffs, dead plants, anything that breaks the spell.
Deep clean kitchen and bathrooms. Counters cleared. Sinks shining. No dishes in the sink. Toothbrushes and personal items put away. Trash emptied.
Floors. Vacuum or sweep every hard surface. Mop kitchens and baths if needed.
AC. Set the thermostat to 72 to 73 degrees. SWFL buyers walking in from a 95-degree afternoon need to feel the cool wash over them. A warm home in July reads as "the AC is undersized" even when it is not.
Linens and towels. Fresh on the beds. Fresh in the bathrooms. Folded display-style on the bathroom counter, not stuffed in the towel bar.
Outdoor. Lawn cut. Lanai swept. Pool skimmed. Hurricane shutters confirmed OPEN. Patio cushions in place.
Lights. Replace any burned-out bulbs throughout the house.
Pets. Confirm pet care plan. Crate. Boarding. Friend's house. The crate by the front door must be cleaned and tucked into a closet if you can.
Personal items. Family photos can stay if they are not overwhelming. Religious or political items, large hunting trophies, and anything that could distract or alienate a buyer should be considered for removal during the listing period (your listing agent will guide you).
The 1-Hour Checklist (Right Before)
One hour before the showing, the home gets staged.
Turn on every light. Every lamp. Every ceiling light. Every undercabinet light in the kitchen. Every closet light if you have them. SWFL homes can have surprisingly dark interior corners; you cannot turn on too many lights.
Open every blind. Raise every shutter. This is the Kim-and-the-blacked-out-home prevention step. Every single window must let light in. Hurricane shutters in particular: if you are a seasonal owner who has lowered them, get them up before the showing. If your home is being managed by a property manager or trusted neighbor while you are out of town, this is on their list.
Music on. Set the TV or a smart speaker to a soft instrumental or low-volume jazz station. Not silence. Not the news. Not anything with lyrics that could distract or alienate.
Last-minute kitchen sweep. Coffee mugs put away. Crumbs wiped. Dishrag hidden.
Bathrooms. Lids down. Wastebaskets emptied if they were not the night before.
Take the dogs out one last time and put them in the car or the crate. If you cannot remove the pet, leave a clear note for the buyer's agent on what to expect.
Take out the trash. Especially the kitchen trash and any diaper pails.
Fresh air. Open a window briefly to let any cooking smells, pet smells, or staleness clear out. Then close it back up and let the AC run.
The 5-Minute Checklist (As the Agent Pulls Up)
You should not be home when the buyer arrives. Plan to leave 5 to 10 minutes before the scheduled showing time. As you are walking out the door:
One last visual scan. Every light on. Every blind open. Music playing.
Front porch. Sweep if there are leaves. Doormat straight.
Take the children with you. No one wants to tour a home with a 6-year-old following them and explaining where the dog's water bowl is.
Take the pets with you, or confirm they are properly contained. Even friendly pets are a distraction.
Lock anything you need to lock. Jewelry safes. Home offices with sensitive documents.
Leave the home. Get coffee. Run an errand. Go to the park. Do not sit in your car at the end of the driveway watching the showing. Buyers can feel a hovering seller and it kills offers.
SWFL-Specific Items No Out-of-State Seller Thinks About
These are the items that get missed in Southwest Florida specifically.
Hurricane shutters. Get them up. Every single panel. Every single time. This is the lesson from Kim's story above and the single most important SWFL showing prep item.
Lanai screens. Check for tears. Sweep the lanai of any palm fronds or leaves. The lanai is often the second-strongest selling feature of a SWFL home after the lot itself. Treat it like a second living room.
Pool. Skim, brush, run the pump. A pool with leaves floating on it tells the buyer the seller does not care, even though they always have a pool service the next morning.
AC at 72 to 73 degrees. In SWFL summer, a buyer's first physical sensation in your home should be relief from the heat. A 78-degree home feels broken.
The mailbox area. SWFL mailboxes are often community clusters at the end of the street. Check that the box near your home is not overflowing.
Hurricane prep items in the garage. If you have plywood, sandbags, generators, or hurricane shutters stored, organize them. A garage full of disorganized hurricane prep tells the buyer the home is exhausting to live in.
Lovebug season cleanup. If you are showing during a lovebug bloom, run your car through a wash before the showing so it does not sit in the driveway covered in dead bugs.
Pets, Children, and the Friendly Neighbor
Three specific situations come up in almost every Southwest Florida showing.
The dog. Ideally out of the house. If that is impossible, crated with the door open in a quiet room, with a note on the front door explaining the situation. Aggressive or anxious dogs are a hard no. Find a friend or a daycare for showings.
The cat. Cats can usually stay if they are contained to one room (often a primary bedroom or office) with food and water. Leave a note for the agent. Most buyers are fine with a cat that is out of sight.
The kids. Take them. No exceptions. Kids interacting with the buyer's family during a showing is the fastest way to create awkwardness that no agent can recover from.
The friendly neighbor. Some neighbors love to come over and chat with the buyer about how great the neighborhood is. Do not let this happen. Ask your nearest neighbors in advance to please not approach buyers during showings. Most are happy to comply if asked nicely.
What NOT to Do
A few specific don'ts that cost sellers offers.
Do not light candles or use plug-in air fresheners. Strong scents are a buyer-side red flag. Many buyers assume the seller is masking something. Fresh air and a clean house are enough.
Do not be home during the showing. Hovering sellers kill offers. Even sellers who do not think they are hovering are hovering if they are in the home.
Do not leave the TV on a news channel or talk radio. Soft instrumental music or jazz only.
Do not leave dirty laundry in the laundry room. This sounds obvious but is missed constantly.
Do not leave the toilet seats up. Lids down, every toilet, every showing.
Do not leave a note critiquing the buyer's agent feedback from a previous showing. Yes, this has happened on Hawley Team showings. Yes, the buyers saw it. Yes, the offer did not come.
After the Showing
Within an hour of the scheduled showing time, expect a feedback request from your listing agent (or from us if we are your listing team). Reply honestly and quickly with anything you noticed: a smell, a scuff, a maintenance item the buyer mentioned, a question you could not hear clearly. Feedback compounds. The seller who makes one small improvement after each showing is the seller whose home sells fast at full asking. The seller who does not is the seller who sits.
The Takeaway
Showings are not about the home. They are about the feeling the buyer has during the first ten seconds in the foyer.
Lights on. Music on. Blinds open. Hurricane shutters up. AC at 72. Pets gone. Family gone. Counters clear. Doors open. A home that feels warm, bright, and lived-in but uncluttered is a home that gets offers.
The Hawley Team walks every seller through this checklist before the first showing, and we are happy to do it for you too.
How We Can Help
Kim has shown thousands of homes in Southwest Florida over her career. Martin has prepped thousands of his own listings for showings. We have seen what works and what does not. If you are listing a SWFL home this summer and want a second set of eyes on your showing prep, we will walk through with you. No charge, no obligation. Sometimes a fresh look at your own home from a buyer's perspective is the single best investment you can make in your sale.
If you are buying in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Naples, Bonita Springs, Estero, Lehigh Acres, Sanibel, Captiva, or Fort Myers Beach, we will also tell you what to look for on the other side of the showing, the small details that reveal whether a home has been well-cared-for or just dressed up for the camera.
Call or text us at (239) 420-9027, email martin@teamhawley.com, or visit teamhawley.com.
Kim and Martin Hawley are Realtors with The Hawley Team at Keller Williams Fort Myers and the Islands.
Disclosures
This post reflects general showing-prep best practices as applied to Southwest Florida residential listings, based on the Hawley Team's experience. Specific recommendations vary by home, listing strategy, and seller preference. Always coordinate showing prep through your listing agent.
Hurricane shutter operation should be performed by someone familiar with the specific shutter system on your home. Some shutter systems require keys, manual cranks, or electrical activation. Coordinate with your property manager or trusted neighbor if you are out of state.
The story in this post about the seasonal owners' blacked-out home is anonymized and is recounted to illustrate the consequence of skipped showing prep. No identifying details about the homeowners, the property, or the listing agent are included.
This post is not legal, financial, or staging advice. Consult a licensed Florida real estate professional for guidance on your specific listing. Each Keller Williams office is independently owned and operated. Equal Housing Opportunity.
