I tried a new, though inadvertent, sales tactic today: locking the viewer in the house.

The realtor and her client arrive 20 minutes before the scheduled appointment, just as I was finishing my final “show prep” (which means turning on all the lights, and whisking from the couch the sheet I’ve been using to keep the cat hair from accumulating on the upholstery).

So I invited them in as I hurriedly shut and locked the downstairs windows, grabbed my purse, stepped out and locked the door behind me in a bit of a fluster.

One needs a key to unlock the door from the inside – and because I was still home when they arrived, the realtor didn’t retrieve the one from the lock box. The lock box on the outside of the front door.

The back door key, which I leave on the kitchen table during showings, works on the front door, too; luckily, the realtor thought to try that, and they escaped…fewer than 12 minutes after they arrived (I know this because I quickly realized my mistake and raced back home).

I’m estimating at least two of those minutes were spent trying to figure out how get out of the house. So…a whirlwind viewing and then locked in. I’m guessing today’s viewer is a firm “no.”