Should I be at showings of my own house?

No, you should not be at showings of your own house, apart from a few narrow exceptions. Leave, take the dog if you can, and let the buyer have the house to themselves.

That is the short answer and most sellers have heard it. What they have usually not heard is the reasoning behind it, the exceptions that are genuinely legitimate, or the part that has become important with the spread of doorbell and indoor cameras: what Utah law says about recording the people walking through.

Why buyers need you gone

A showing is a buyer trying to picture their life in a house. That is hard to do with the current owner standing in the kitchen.

What I see when a seller stays is predictable. Buyers move faster. They skip the closets and the cupboards because opening them in front of the owner feels rude. They do not say what they actually think to their own agent, so their agent leaves without the information that would have produced an offer. And they leave early, because a showing with the owner present feels like a visit to someone’s home rather than an inspection of a house for sale.

The seller rarely means any harm. They want to point out the new water heater, the sprinkler timer, the reason the third bedroom is a good office. All of that is useful. None of it is useful from the seller’s mouth during a showing. It belongs in a one-page sheet on the kitchen counter, where the buyer can read it at their own pace.

The legitimate exceptions

There are a few situations where being present, or nearby, is reasonable:

• Health or mobility. A seller who cannot easily leave the house, or who has someone at home who cannot, should not be pushed out. Arrange showings around it, and have the seller stay in one room or on the porch rather than following buyers around.
• An animal that cannot be left or moved. Covered below, but sometimes the answer is that someone stays with the animal, out of the way.
• A rural or unusual property. A house on acreage with a well, a septic system, outbuildings and water shares may need someone who can walk a buyer’s agent to the wellhead. In most cases that should be your listing agent, not you.
• Selling without an agent. If you have no listing agent, someone has to open the door. Even then, open it and then step outside.

Notice what is not on the list. “I want to hear what they say” is not an exception. That instinct is exactly where sellers get into trouble with cameras.

Cameras, audio, and what Utah law says

Most Utah houses now have at least a video doorbell, and many have indoor cameras. Video is one question. Audio is a much more serious one. Showing logistics aside, how long it takes for a listing to show up on Zillow explains why your first days look quieter than they are. The neighbors are a different question, and why agents invite them covers why that is deliberate.

Utah’s Interception of Communications Act makes it an offense to intentionally or knowingly intercept an oral communication, and also to disclose or use the contents of a communication you know was intercepted unlawfully (Utah Code 77-23a-4(1)(b), checked October 2026). A violation of that subsection is generally a third degree felony (Utah Code 77-23a-4(10)(a)), and the same section provides for civil action as well.

Utah is often described as a “one-party consent” state, and that is accurate, but it helps less than sellers assume. The law allows a private person to intercept a communication “if that person is a party to the communication or one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent” (Utah Code 77-23a-4(7)(b)). When you have left the house and a buyer is talking to their own agent or their spouse in your living room, you are not a party to that conversation, and nobody in it has consented. One-party consent does not cover you.

The open question is whether that conversation counts as an “oral communication” under the act. The statute defines it as one uttered by a person “exhibiting an expectation that the communication is not subject to interception, under circumstances justifying that expectation” (Utah Code 77-23a-3(13), checked October 2026). Whether a buyer touring a stranger’s house has a justified expectation of privacy is not something this post can settle, and it is not something I would want a client to test. A buyer quietly discussing their budget with their agent in a back bedroom looks a lot like someone expecting not to be overheard.

What I tell clients, in practical terms:

• Turn off audio recording on indoor cameras for the period the house is on the market. Most systems let you disable the microphone while keeping video.
• Disclose every camera. Put it in the showing instructions so buyer’s agents know before they arrive, and put a visible note inside the front door. A disclosed camera removes the surprise, and it is simply the decent thing to do.
• Never point a camera at a bathroom or a bedroom being used for changing. There is no version of that which looks good.
• Do not talk to buyers through the doorbell speaker, and do not relay anything you overheard to your agent to use in negotiation. Using what you heard is a separate problem under the same section.

It is also worth assuming buyers know. When I represent buyers, I tell them to assume they are being recorded and to save the conversation for the car, which is the same advice given in what not to say when touring a house. So the information you hope to gain is shrinking anyway, and the legal exposure is not.

Pets during showings

The best answer is to take the pet with you. A dog barking from a crate in the laundry room makes buyers hurry through the rest of the house, and some buyers are allergic or afraid.

If you cannot take the pet, crate it in the room least likely to matter, put a clear note on the door, and say so in the showing instructions. Never leave a dog loose and assume the buyer’s agent will cope. Cats that roam need a note too, so nobody lets one out the front door.

After every showing, check the yard and the gate. Buyers walk out the back to look at the lot, and gates get left open. Is Herriman a good place for dogs covers the HOA fencing rules that decide how secure a south valley yard actually is.

Leaving the house well

Leaving is half of it. The other half is what the buyer walks into.

Lights on in every room, including closets and the basement. Blinds open. Thermostat set to something comfortable for the season, because along the Wasatch Front a cold house in January or a hot one in July is the first thing a buyer notices. Beds made, counters clear, laundry out of sight. Valuables, medications, keys and documents put away, because a showing is still strangers in your home.

Have somewhere to go. Sellers who have a plan, a park, a coffee shop, a regular errand, leave on time and do not drift back early. Sellers who sit in the car at the end of the street tend to pull back into the driveway while the buyer is still in the kitchen.

Showing feedback, and how to take it

Feedback comes through your listing agent, from the buyer’s agent. That is the right channel and the only one you should use.

A few ground rules make it useful rather than painful:

• Do not contact a buyer’s agent directly to ask what their client thought. It puts them in an awkward position and they will rarely tell you anything new.
• Look for patterns, not single comments. One buyer who disliked the paint color is a person with taste. Five who mention the dark basement is information.
• Do not argue with it. Buyers are not wrong about how a house felt to them. You can disagree with the conclusion and still use the observation.
• Expect most feedback to be about price, even when it is phrased as something else. “The kitchen needs updating” often means “not at this price.”

If the feedback is consistent and the showings have slowed, that is a pricing or presentation conversation, and why isn’t my house selling in Herriman lays out how to tell which problem you have.

What to do next

Leave for showings, disclose your cameras, switch off the microphones and give the buyer the house. It is the easiest thing a seller can do to help a sale and the only one that costs nothing.

I am Kelsey Earl, a Realtor with Keller Williams South Valley, and camera disclosure and showing instructions are part of every listing setup I do. If you are getting ready to sell and want a plan for showings that fits your household, pets and all, let’s talk.

Note: This is general information about Utah’s Interception of Communications Act, not legal advice. Whether a particular recording is lawful depends on the facts, so speak to a Utah attorney before you record audio of anyone in your home.