11 Jun 6 Summer Showing Prep Tips for St. Louis Home Sellers

Selling a house in a St. Louis summer means showing it in weather that works against you. The National Weather Service puts the normal July high at Lambert at 89.6 degrees, with a normal low of 71.1, which means the house never really cools off overnight, the basement sweats, and the west side of the house bakes from three in the afternoon until sunset. Buyers feel all of that the moment they walk in.

The good news is that summer buyers are motivated, often trying to close before school starts in mid-August, and most of what makes a house comfortable in July is cheap to fix. Here are six things we ask sellers to handle before summer showings start.

1. Get the basement dry and the smell gone

Almost every St. Louis home has a basement, and in summer almost every basement smells a little. Buyers read that smell as water problems whether or not it is one. Run a dehumidifier around the clock starting in June, set to drain into the floor drain or sump so nobody has to empty it, and aim for the relative humidity to read under 50 percent on a cheap hygrometer. Pull up any damp carpet remnants, run the exhaust fan in a basement bath, and make sure downspouts discharge well away from the foundation. If there is a sump pump, test it with a bucket of water and make sure the lid is on.

A dry basement in July is a selling point, because buyers know what a wet one looks like in a St. Louis thunderstorm.

2. Set the thermostat lower than you would for yourself

Set the AC to 72 or lower for the entire showing window, not just an hour before, because an older system in a brick house cannot catch up quickly. If you have a smart thermostat, schedule it around your showing times. Change the filter, have the system serviced in late spring if it has not been in a couple of years, and leave the service invoice on the counter. The condition of the AC is one of the first questions summer buyers ask, and the inspector will run it hard.

South City and Dogtown brick homes hold heat in the masonry and radiate it back into the house all evening. In those homes, keep the AC running and use ceiling fans in every room where you have them so the air moves during a showing.

3. Tame the west-facing rooms

Afternoon sun through a west-facing picture window can push one room ten degrees above the rest of the house. Close the blinds or drapes in those rooms during the afternoon, and consider a reflective window film on the worst window, which is inexpensive and invisible from the street. Keep the rest of the house bright; the goal is to block heat where it comes in, not to make the house dark. Open blinds on the north and east sides and turn on lamps for evening showings.

4. Keep the lawn alive through July

Most St. Louis lawns are cool-season fescue, and fescue wants to go dormant in July heat. Water deeply two or three mornings a week rather than a little every day, mow high, and do not fertilize in the heat. Fresh mulch in the beds covers a lot, and a few heat-tolerant plants like lantana or coneflower in pots by the door look intentional. Trim shrubs back from the AC condenser so it can breathe, and keep the gutters clear before the next storm. A brown lawn in listing photos is the summer equivalent of a snow-covered roof: buyers assume it hides something.

5. Make the patio usable, which means dealing with mosquitoes

Outdoor space sells in summer, but only if buyers can stand on it. Dump anything holding standing water, including saucers under pots, kids’ toys, and clogged gutters, because that is where mosquitoes breed. Run a fan on the patio during showings; mosquitoes are weak fliers and a box fan does more than citronella. If the problem is coming from a neighbor’s pool or a drainage ditch, St. Louis County’s Vector-Borne Disease Prevention program takes service requests for standing water and mosquito activity in unincorporated areas and contracted municipalities, and the City of St. Louis Health Department’s Vector Control office handles the same complaints inside city limits.

Then stage the space: wipe down the furniture, add a couple of cushions, and put the grill cover on. Keep it simple. Buyers want to picture a Cardinals game on the radio and a cold drink, not a catalog.

6. Stage the garage and porch, and time the photos for the light

Two spaces buyers walk through in summer and sellers forget: the garage and the front porch. A garage that is swept, with the lawn equipment along one wall and the car pulled out, looks bigger and cooler than one packed to the door. A South City or Webster Groves front porch with a clean floor, a chair, and a plant gets used in the listing photos and is where buyers pause to talk before they go in.

Shoot the exterior photos in the early morning or the last hour before sunset, when the light is soft and the lawn is not washed out. Midday summer light flattens brick and blows out windows. If your house faces west, shoot it in the evening; if it faces east, shoot it early. Interior photos should be taken with the AC on and every blind open, and a short walk-through video helps out-of-town buyers who cannot tour in the heat.

One more thing about summer showing times

In our experience, a large share of St. Louis summer showings happen between about 5 and 7:30 in the evening, when buyers get off work and it is still light out. That is also the hottest part of the day inside a west-facing house. Plan for it: the AC schedule, the closed blinds, the fan on the patio, and the lamps on should all be set for the after-work window, not the morning. Keep a cooler of bottled water on the counter with a note. It costs nothing and buyers remember it.

If you are getting ready to list this summer, you can see what your competition looks like right now on Wizah’s St. Louis home search. Our agents will walk your house with you, tell you which of these six items matter most for your street, and put together a selling plan built around summer showings. Schedule a consultation and we will get started before the heat does.