Two weeks ago, shortly before our switch to daylight savings time, a great house came on the market that suited one of my customers. I encouraged them to immediately come for a showing as a good house does not linger in the current market. As expected, they were very excited and gave me selected times for a showing with the caveat that all the options were after sundown.

In realtor “school” they emphasize the following rule: Always show a house during the day. Sunlight is your friend and makes everything look better, brighter and cleaner! I would say this is true in most cases and we always try to arrange showings during daylight hours, but sometimes a buyer just doesn’t have that luxury. I arranged an evening showing for my customers and learned a most interesting exception to the daylight showing rule. In the case of a home where the finer details have been cared for rather than overlooked, a night showing can actually be beneficial. You see, sunlight, while being bright and cleansing, also washes away many of the details that are hiding in plain sight. A family room with large windows, and sunlight pouring in, has the detailed trim work around the windows and doors obscured, as opposed to the same room bathed in warm electric light after the setting of the sun.

Quite the “aha moment” ensued. I recalled two things almost simultaneously, both providing evidence for what I was experiencing. One was a warm childhood memory of the Bedikat Chametz ritual, where right before Passover, Jews check their homes for unleavened bread and counterintuitively conduct this search at night. With a candle. Why purposely wait for night if the whole point is to actually find the bread? Wouldn’t that search be more fruitful in daylight?

Before we answer, let us jump to the second memory, of a home inspection with a really great inspector. The type of inspector I would use personally if I was buying a house for my kids. The first thing he does when entering a home is turn the lights off, even in the basement. Out comes the flashlight and the inspection begins. He saw the inquisitive look on my face and offered the following explanation: “Everything we are looking for is always right there in front of us. But it’s also hiding. Hiding behind all the other things distracting us in the room. Rather than looking at walls to see if they are straight and aligned, and free from cracks, we glance at the family portraits and the pretty window shades. My job is to turn my flashlight on and point at all the places I know need to be inspected. This way my eyes will be focused on the job at hand.”

This is almost exactly the same answer that the commentators in the Talmud give to the question of why we are told to do the bedika (search for bread) at night, with a candle. It is in order to hyper focus our eyes and see what is otherwise hiding in plain sight.

Who knew that nighttime could make some houses shine! They loved the home, especially the finer details, and decided they had finally found a place to call home.

Nechama Polak is the broker of record and owner of V&N Group LLC, located at 1401 Palisade Avenue in Teaneck. Send your thoughts and comments to
nechamapolak@gmail.com or call 201 826 8809.