Can I limit showing times when my house is listed?

Yes. Showing windows are yours to set and they go in the listing instructions. Reasonable limits cost you almost nothing. Limits so tight that a working buyer cannot get in will cost you real money, so set them honestly.

Should I be home during a showing?

No. Leave every time. Buyers do not talk honestly in front of the owner, and the ones who feel watched cut the showing short. They need to picture themselves living there, which is hard to do while the current owner is standing in the kitchen. Go for a coffee or a walk.

What should I put away before showings?

Valuables and jewellery, prescription medication, mail and documents showing personal or financial information, spare keys and garage remotes, and anything small and portable that you would be upset to lose. Buyers are almost always accompanied, but a house full of strangers is not the place to leave any of that out.

Can I run security cameras during showings?

Recording people raises privacy questions, and recording what they say raises more than recording video. BC privacy rules are not simple, so get legal advice before relying on or sharing any recording. At minimum tell your REALTOR the cameras exist. And do not try to negotiate using something you overheard, because it tends to backfire.

What do I do with pets during showings?

Take them with you if you possibly can. Not because buyers mind a dog, but because a crated animal barking through a showing is what they remember about the house. Put food bowls, litter boxes and beds out of sight, and deal with any pet odour well before the listing goes live.

How much notice will I get before a showing?

Twenty-four hours is normal and you can ask for more. Understand the trade, though. A buyer driving in from Alberta or the coast for a weekend of viewings cannot always give you two days, and a notice requirement that rules them out quietly removes some of your best buyers.

Should I hold an open house?

It depends on the property, the price range and how much you mind strangers walking through. An open house can bring in buyers who are early in their search, but it is not a substitute for booked showings with qualified buyers. If you do hold one, put away valuables and personal documents first.

How do I keep a house show-ready while living in it?

Get the heavy declutter done before the listing goes live, then keep a short daily reset rather than a big clean before each showing. Beds made, counters clear, dishes away, bathrooms wiped, lights on. Keep a basket for last-minute clutter you can take with you in the car.

Showings while you still live in the house

By Dan Jones · September 12, 2026

Bottom line: most sellers live in the house the whole time it is listed, and it goes far better when the rules are decided before the listing goes live rather than each time the phone rings. Set showing windows a working buyer can actually use, because every showing you decline is a buyer who sees three other houses that day and not yours. Twenty-four hours notice is normal. Leave for every showing, because buyers do not talk honestly in front of the owner. Take the pets with you. Put away valuables, medication and anything carrying personal information. And if you have security cameras, be careful: recording people raises privacy questions, and recording what they say raises more, so get legal advice before relying on any recording rather than assuming it is fine.

I am Dan Jones, a REALTOR with Royal LePage Locations West in Penticton, licence number 1118346, licensed since 2004. Most of the sellers I work with are living in their homes throughout the listing, many of them downsizing out of a house they have been in for decades, and the showings period is often the most tiring part of the whole sale.

Decide the rules first

The worst way to handle showings is one request at a time, deciding each time whether it suits you.

Before the listing goes live, decide:

When showings can happen
How much notice you need
Where the pets go
Where you go
What gets put away, and where it lives while the house is on the market

Then those decisions go in the listing instructions and you are not negotiating with yourself every time.

Showing windows

Showing windows are yours to set. Reasonable limits cost you almost nothing.

What costs you is limits so narrow that working buyers cannot get in. If the only available slot is weekday afternoons, you have quietly reduced your buyer pool to people who do not work.

A pattern that works for most sellers: weekday evenings after work, and a generous window on weekends. Adjust it for your life, but test it against the buyer who has a full time job.

Remember who buys here, too. A lot of buyers in the South Okanagan are coming from somewhere else, Alberta, the Lower Mainland, the Island, and they often come for a weekend of viewings. Blocking out weekends or requiring days of notice can remove them without you ever knowing they wanted to see it.

Notice

Twenty-four hours is normal. You can ask for more.

Just understand the trade. The buyer driving over from Calgary on Friday cannot always book on Wednesday. A shorter notice window, even occasionally, can be the showing that becomes the offer.

Leave, every time

Buyers do not talk honestly in front of the owner.

They need to say that the second bedroom is small, that they would take out that wall, that the backyard is exactly what they wanted. They cannot do that with you standing in the kitchen, and buyers who feel watched leave early.

Go for a coffee. Go for a walk. Plan for it to take longer than the scheduled window.

Pets

Take them with you if you possibly can.

Nobody minds a dog. But a crated animal barking through the whole showing is what the buyer remembers about the house, and a cat that slips out the door is a problem for everyone.

Put food bowls, litter boxes and beds out of sight. Deal with pet odour well before the listing goes live, because you have stopped noticing it and buyers have not.

What to put away

A showing puts strangers in your home. They are almost always accompanied by a REALTOR, but that does not mean everything should be left out.

Put away:

Jewellery, cash and small valuables
Prescription medication, from bathrooms and kitchens
Mail, bills, bank statements and anything showing personal or financial information
Spare keys and garage remotes
Small portable electronics
Anything you would be genuinely upset to lose

This is also part of decluttering, which helps the house show better anyway. What to fix before you list covers the rest of that preparation.

Cameras and recording

More sellers have doorbell cameras and indoor security cameras than ever, and the question comes up regularly.

Recording people raises privacy questions, and recording what they say raises more than recording video. BC privacy law does not reduce to a simple yes or no for a homeowner with cameras, and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC publishes guidance on video surveillance that shows how much depends on the circumstances.

So my practical advice is this:

Get legal advice before relying on, keeping or sharing any recording of a showing.
Tell your REALTOR the cameras exist, so it is not a surprise to anyone.
Do not try to use what you overhear. Sellers who adjust their position based on a conversation captured on a camera tend to create more problems than they solve, including for the people representing them.

If you want privacy during showings, the simplest answer is often to turn indoor cameras off while buyers are in the house.

Staying show-ready without losing your mind

Living in a house that has to be ready at short notice is tiring, particularly over several weeks.

Do the heavy declutter before listing, so what is left is manageable.

Then keep a daily reset rather than a panicked clean before each showing:

Beds made
Kitchen counters clear, dishes away
Bathrooms wiped, towels straightened
Floors quickly done in the main rooms
Blinds open and lights on

Keep a basket for last-minute clutter, and take it with you in the car.

For downsizing sellers with decades of belongings, this is where starting early pays off most.

Saying no to a showing

You can. Occasionally you will need to.

But every declined showing is a buyer who sees other houses instead. If you find yourself declining often, it is worth revisiting the showing windows rather than carrying on turning people away.

Open houses

An open house can bring in buyers who are early in their search and not yet booking showings. It is not a substitute for booked showings with qualified buyers. Whether it is worth doing depends on the property, the price range, and how comfortable you are with a steady stream of strangers.

If you do hold one, the list of what to put away matters even more.

What happens after

Feedback from buyers’ agents tells you how the house is showing. If people are coming through and not writing offers, something they see in person is contradicting the listing, and that is worth hearing plainly.

When offers do arrive, read the whole offer, not just the price. The listing-period overview, including subject removal and what to do if the house is not selling, is at what happens once your house is listed.

Privacy guidance is for general information only and is current as of October 2026. Get legal advice for your own situation.

If you are getting ready to list and want to plan the showings period properly, email me at dano007@shaw.ca or call 250.488.0226.