Everything a buyer sees is produced and locked in during this window: the price, the photography, the floor plans, the video and the listing story. If you rush or do any one piece cheaply, it shows. You can swap photos or edit the description later, but buyers who scrolled past your first version have already formed their opinion. 

In a market where homes take over a month to sell, buyers are choosy, and a flat launch is hard to recover from.

During these five days, proper preparation means:

• A price set against what is actually selling: Not what a neighbour got two years ago, and not what you hope for. Recent sales of comparable homes in your neighbourhood set the price, and the photos and the listing story are built around it.
• Professional architectural photography and video: Show the home's scale, finishes, and natural light, not wide-angle distortion from a phone.
• Accurate, detailed floor plans: Buyers want to see how the home works before they spend an hour of their day visiting.
• A listing story that tells the real one: The mechanical upgrades, custom millwork and lot privacy that an MLS spec sheet leaves out.
• Handle every small repair up front: loose hardware, touch-up paint, and organized service records. Buyers who notice small things neglected start to wonder about the big things they can’t see.
• Neighbourhood pre-marketing: A “Coming Soon” sign on the lawn, so neighbours and buyers watching the street know something good is coming.

Your listing is now on Realtor.ca and the MLS. A Supra lockbox is on your property, not a $30.00 mechanical one, and it records which Realtor opened it and when. There is a sign out front, if allowed. Directional signs are up, and you’ve agreed to have your home available for buyers to see without too many time restrictions.

• On any day you have an offer, you can agree on the price, conditions and closing date. Read no further. Here is how an offer, negotiation and closing work.
• Days 1 to 5 on MLS: Your listing is at its newest. Buyers with saved searches and Realtors who check new listings every morning see it first, so showings should start then. If they don’t, the price or the presentation is telling you something.
• Day 14 on MLS: By now you should have had two full weekends, some showings and some feedback.
• Day 21 on MLS: How does your home compare to what has been selling? Is it style, condition, price, unusual weather or scary headlines in the news? Is it time to consider a price change, a better property description or, based on feedback, some touch-ups you can do?
• Day 30 on MLS: Decision time. Eight of the ten listings I’m tracking took longer than 30 days, so even when a home shows well and is priced right, it takes patience. I am not saying to drop the price. If you are aligned with the market, your home will sell. However, no amount of marketing will sell an overpriced home.
• There are always outliers. When I read the sold listings every morning, I see some houses and condos sell within five days. Don’t plan around them, and don’t read too much into them either. Your home can be well priced and beautifully presented, and the buyer still decides: who is looking this month, and how soon their own situation requires them to move. You control the preparation. The buyer controls the timing.