Tips For Making Your Home's Open House A Success
When you’re trying to sell your home, one of the things your real estate agent will probably want to do is an Open House. Here are a few tips of things to avoid to help ensure your Open House is a hit.
1. Don’t attend your own Open House. More and more often serious buyers are attending Open Houses on the weekend with their real estate agents. These conversations will be about what they like and don’t like about the house, what they’d change, and so on. These types of conversations are part of the process of looking at possible homes to buy. These buyers want to have serious conversations and they are more likely to have these conversations if the owner is not present than they are if they are present.
2. Don’t create a distraction, but do make your Open House attractive. There is a fine line between offering hospitality to lure in prospective buyers and creating a party atmosphere that’s just a stop-over for people who are on the buffet circuit.
Some treats are designed to show your home in its best light or to relieve the discomforts of a long, hot day of house hunting and prompt target buyers to linger longer in your home and see more of its attractive qualities.
3. Don’t forget to highlight seasonal attractions. If your home has a swimming pool, your Open House will be more successful in the summer when the swimming pool can be highlighted with crystal blue water and surrounded by nice patio furniture or colorful chaise lounges. You can even serve drinks and snacks out by the pool under bright patio umbrellas.
Also turn the central air conditioning on high and be sure to showcase any energy efficient appliance or other features in your home.
4. Don’t hide anything from potential buyers. The reason it is called an Open House is so potential buyers can visit your home and see if it will meet their needs if they buy it. This means they will want to see everything your home has to offer. If you block off a closet or a room, that only means any potential buyer will have to come back to see it at another time, if they care to make the effort. This is not what you want from an Open House.
Also, if there are other Open Houses scheduled in your neighborhood, try and schedule yours for the same hours. This makes your home as accessible as possible for those buyers who are dedicating the only two hours they have available during the week to attending Open Houses.
5. Don’t forget the neighbors. It’s always a good idea to invite the neighbors to your Open House. It’s polite for one thing and they may turn into clients for your real estate agent. Also, they are very likely to know others who would like to live in your neighborhood.
Also, you really don’t want your neighbors to be caught off-guard by the traffic visiting your Open House nor do you want their son scheduling his rock band’s rehearsal right in the middle of your Open House.
These are some tips to help make your Open House a success so that you hopefully reach your target buyers and find that perfect match for your property.