Recent homebuyer here!
Things we looked for when hunting:
1. Pictures! Obvious, but the more the better. As Jami said, get a bunch of interior pics, particularly the kitchen/dining room, bathroom(s), and main living area. And make sure they're recent (and in focus
). It was always a turn off to walk into a home and everything looks different than the pictures.
2. As for the staging, we actually didn't like staged homes. We preferred them empty as can be so we could see every nook and cranny. It was nice to smell the bleach in the air and the smell of a recent carpet cleaning rather than an aromatic candle. It was easier to be able to picture the house/layout of furniture the way we would want it when it was empty as well. But that's just our opinion.
3. It's pretty much the norm for buyers to ask sellers to pay closing costs around here. Nearly every home offered it actually when we were hunting, so we didn't have to ask.
4. If you're having a showing, please put the other realtors cards away. It felt really tacky to be walking around a house, then to walk into the kitchen to find a stack of realtors cards from other people checking out the house. Kind of felt like we were just getting the sloppy seconds....
