Tidiness of home for meeting with potential realtors?

[Betsy Mowry]

My brothers and I will be putting our parents' home on the market. The house itself is marketable and has had some solid updates in recent years. However, we've been pulling things out of closets, organizing and sorting; it's a bit cluttered and messy right now.

I have meetings with two potential realtors scheduled at the house in a couple weeks. My older brother doesn't think we should have any realtors into the home until it's all tidied up. I would rather get going on finding someone sooner so we can plan ahead and get suggestions on what we need to do to fix up with the place. Note that almost everything will be cleared out by the time the place actually goes on the market.

Will meeting with realtors in the cluttered home interfere with their ability to judge the house based on its actual value? (I realize it' not ideal, but anyone who's cleaned out their parents home knows how much stuff there can be.) Should the mess be a problem when we're still just selecting a realtor?

Thank for your insights.