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There has been some media commentary lately about a style of parenting humorously labelled ‘helicopter’ parenting. ‘Helicopter’ parents hover anxiously over the activities of their offspring, exercising the level of control they feel is appropriate. Like helicopter parents, many vendors are so emotionally involved with their property they find it hard to hand over control of the sale – even to an professional. Unfortunately, the effect on the sale process can be surprisingly negative.

For a start, many vendors insist on taking part when purchasers inspect their property. They do this with the best of intentions, thinking their knowledge and input are essential to presenting the property’s best features. After all, no one knows the home like they do. But their subjective, detailed commentary often has the opposite effect to what it was intended to have.

In most cases, direct contact between vendor and purchaser results in lost opportunities, especially when purchasers are put off the property by too much information too soon.

It is not uncommon for vendors to anticipate and answer objections before they are voiced and in so doing highlight negatives purchasers have not even thought of.

For example, vendors conscious of the fact that their home is near a school might say: “We hardly ever hear the children. They’re only outside for half an hour before school, during recess and an hour at lunchtime. It’s nothing.” The purchasers, in reality, might not have paid much attention to the school’s proximity, especially since it is not recess or lunchtime at that moment and because they are still at the stage of picking up a more general impression of the house itself. Their attention is drawn from the general to the specific before their emotional connection with the property is fully established. They are asked to concentrate on features - negative ones at that - at a time when they are still in the initial stages of embracing or rejecting the “feel” of the property. Even if they noticed the school in passing, they may not have thought about the specifics of how that might affect them. And in spite of the school, the house might still be the right home for them, just as it was for the current owner, but if they don’t “connect” with the home and imagine themselves living there before facing the practicalities, they are unlikely to move on to the next stage.

Vendors who hover during inspections can also make buyers uncomfortable. It is harder for them to ask the agent for the very details they do want to know. They are less able to make themselves at home and their attention is sometimes on small talk rather than on the property. And it is much harder to imagine themselves as proud owners while the current owner is looking over their shoulder.

Of course it is important for home sellers to be connected with the selling process and even more important that they can see that their agent is doing the right thing on their behalf. The best way for vendors to stay involved is to choose an agent they can trust to show their house to the best advantage - and one they know will communicate with them every step of the way.