GP, most likely your agent has told them that you are packing up and the house isnt at its best. Your house should be clean, but there is no way you can be "show room show".

Is this a FSBO? If I had a realtor, I want them to do it. I don't think I'd want the contact personally. Read the thread about wicker shelf.

I've always been used to the walk through either the day of closing or a day or two before closing. Several years ago when selling a home in Colorado the buyers called up my realtor and requested a walk through two weeks before closing, they wanted to measure for carpet. I explained to my realtor that I was in the midst of preparing for a sleep over I was hosting for my daughter and didn't have the time right then. She told me they'd only be in the home for 20 minutes tops and persuaded me to let them come by. The carpets hadn't been vacuumed yet and the kitchen was being used heavily at that point. I met the buyers and their realtor at the door and explained I was in the midst of party preparations and the couple and their realtor came in quickly and were gone quickly, just measured the master bedroom and left. So if it's possible and you get enough notice, make sure the home is clean and presentable, but if you're given short notice, they have to understand you're living in the house. Greet them, be polite and let them and their realtor walk through the home alone.

We didn't sell FSBO, we have a realtor, as do the buyers. The buyers realtor will accompany them through the house, I just have to let them in... and somehow keep my dogs separate from them, but that's another issue!!!

I don't expect any items to be contentious(Though I suppose no one ever does!)everything they wanted was clearly spelled out in the contract, right down to the colour, make and model of the appliances that are included!!

Thanks for the opinions... I'll make sure it's clean, but I won't worry about the stacks of boxes and things then... just make sure they have clear paths through all the rooms! :)

Oh to be settled again! ;)
GP

Does the contract require you to make any repairs or changes? If so, the most important thing is to be able to show progress on those.

If not, clean and somewhat orderly is all that anyone can expect.

No, no repairs or changes were needed, thankfully! But thanks for mentioning it, I wouldn't have thought of that.

GP

Personally I think the having no contact with the buyers thing is BS, well, unless they were a horses behind through the contract process. We were here when our buyers did their walk through and had we not been there were many things they wouldn't have known about AND we had the opportunity to meet a delightful couple. It made saying goodbye to this house even easier. It was pretty clean for the walkthrough, but not close to show ready.

If the entire contract process went smoothly I wouldn't worry too much about picking up, cleaning, etc. ... but my experience was that at every "walk through" (our buyer did 5 of them) more and more things were nitpicked, griped about, negotiated, etc. If I had it to do all over again, I would say yes to one right before closing and NO NO NO to all the rest. After all, the house is still your property, you still live there and the walk throughs can be disruptive, and one final, informal walk through to ensure the property is still in the agreed upon condition is generally all that's necessary or required by the contract (from my experience).

BTW, I was there for every single excruciating "walk through" (except the time our buyer chose to come measure for her curtains when we were having a back up open house -- we had said "no" to her coming to do so the day before so I guess she saw her opportunity and took it) and I have never been so uncomfortable, defensive, or felt so out of place in my own home in my life. Of course, by that point in our process the buyer had shown what a you-know-what she was, so YMMV.

UGH *shudder* never again

When I bought my first house, the sellers met me there for a walk-through. I had a few questions for them about the house, and it was nice to be able to get answers straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak, rather than secondhand through the realtor. Everything went very smoothly. The house was empty and clean (it was empty the first time I saw it). My DH and I did a walk-through of our new house last week. It's been empty since February. The sellers were not there. We just wanted to see it one more time before finalizing the deal. We'll walk through it again a couple days before we close to make sure the repairs we asked for have been done. I haven't heard if the sellers will be there or not, but I doubt it. We don't expect them to clean it. It hasn't been lived in for almost five months, so it shouldn't be too terribly dirty. We'll want to clean it anyway after we get moved in.

well, unless they were a horses behind

I don't want to find out the hard way and be ambushed on a walk through about things - unless I'm going fsbo in which case I have no choice

The walk through is a legal inspection of property to be sold. You should not have anyone there but you and/or your realtor. You should not give the buyer any reason to make you fix/clean/repair or change a thing before the actual settlement table. Get someone to clean your house, floors, carpets, bathrooms and kitchen. Sweep the garage out and cut the grass and then let them come to inspect. Once that is over get your check and go to the bank. Don't complicate anything, nothing good can come from it.

I think my current plan is to load up my daughter and dogs in the car, let them in when they arrive, tell them to take their time and to drop the key in the mailbox when they go and that we're just going to sit out in the car, up the street a bit. Solves my issue of keeping the dogs out of the way and helps to minimize contact and hopefully keep any potential problems at bay.

And this isn't their final walk through right before closing (we dont close on this house until july 5) its their walk through to "measure". (Measure for what, who knows? I think its just what people say to get another look!!)

Thanks for the input and the opportunity to see all the different scenarios!

GP

Hey, we did a walk-through to measure! Should I be offended by that? :)

Really, we did -- the new-house room configuration was much different from old-house, so we measured several rooms for furniture placement, where the electrical outlets were, how wide a fridge could we fit in that spot, and so on. We also knew we would replace the window treatments immediately in a couple of rooms, so I got the dimensions for them at the same time.

oops! Sorry deeje, didn't mean to offend in any way! I guess I was just commenting based on the other posts that seemed to imply walk throughs = possible problems.

I'm sure most buyers that say they want to measure are legitimately measuring :)

I'm just nervous about the whole process and want to close on the new and old houses with no bumps! I know I ask a lot.

GP

In my area, I guess the home inspection serves as the time to walk through for measurements. When we sold our previous house, I felt the house should be cleaned and staged for a subsequent visit so that they liked it as much as they had the previous time. I left a nice note on the kitchen counter offering drinks in the refrigerator.

Our buyers were not demanding, but I would go out of my way to be nice and accommodating to the buyers regardless.

The way I look at this is
1) its still before closing
2) comes from all the opinions on this forum about how home owners who are selling FSBO or are at home during showings talk to much about the house
3) stories about buyers with last minute or even post closing requests

The walk through today went well, as far as I know. I loaded everyone into the van and waited in the driveway until they arrived. They brought both sets of parents and their realtor. I handed them a key and an envelope and told them if they were done before I was back to just put the key in the envelope and put it in the mailbox.

We were back before they left and just waited up the street a bit until they came out. Once they were in the driveway chatting, I pulled in and unloaded everyone to the house.

They said "thank you" and got in their cars and left.

Glad that's done... ony one more walk through before closing, yay!! :)

GP