Can I open cupboards and closets at a showing?

Yes. Closets, the furnace room, the electrical panel and under-sink cabinets are all fair to look at, and they tell you far more than a staged living room. Leave personal belongings alone, and if something is locked, ask rather than force it.

How long should a showing take?

Long enough to stand still in each room and to walk outside and look at the street. A quick pass through can be enough to rule a home out, but before you write an offer you want a slower second visit, ideally at a different time of day.

Should I look at a home twice before offering?

If the timing allows, yes — and go at a different hour. Evening light, school traffic, weekend parking and neighbourhood noise are all different on a second visit. In a fast-moving segment that may not be possible, which is one more reason to be pre-approved and ready.

Calgary Answers · Buying · Showings

What Should I Look Forat a showing?

You get a short visit and no second chance to form a first impression. Spend it on the things a listing cannot show you, not on the things an inspector will find anyway.

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What the photos will never tell you

This is where your time is best spent, because it is the information that only exists in the room:

Light and orientation. Which way the living space and the yard face. In Calgary that decides whether a back deck is usable in the evening and whether a driveway holds ice all winter. Which way should the backyard face →
Sound. Stand still and stop talking. Traffic, a train, a flight path, the neighbour's furnace, footsteps upstairs in a condo.
Smell. Damp, smoke, pets, or an air freshener working unusually hard.
Flow and scale. Wide-angle photos flatter everything. Walk the route you would actually walk with groceries, or with a stroller, or up from the garage.
The approach. Park a little away and walk up. The street, the neighbours' upkeep and the parking situation are all part of what you are buying.

Open a few things. Closets, the electrical panel, the furnace room, a window that faces the neighbour. Sellers do not mind, and the rooms nobody staged are the honest ones.

What to leave for the inspector

You are not there to assess the furnace, the roof or the foundation, and a confident guess at a showing is worth nothing. Note what you notice, then let a licensed inspector price it properly during your condition period. What you are deciding at a showing is whether this home is worth an offer at all.

Which findings actually matter → · Choosing an inspector →

Take notes you can still read next week

By the fourth home they blend. Photograph anything that puzzled you, write one sentence on what you liked and one on what you would have to live with, and send both to your REALTOR®. That second sentence is what sharpens the next search.

What Should I Look Forat a showing?

What the photos will never tell you

What to leave for the inspector

Take notes you can still read next week

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