Eight Tips To Holding A Successful Open House

When you are looking to sell your home on your own, you will need to build a potential buyer list. A way to kick start the sales process is to hold an open house event. Open house events allow buyers to see the home and get answers to any questions they may have. These tips will help your home stand out of the crowd.

1. Location – Is your home located is an area where open houses work well? Areas that are good candidates include neighborhoods in cities, towns and suburbs where the housing market is hot with a steady stream of buyer traffic. Rural areas don’t work as well due to the lack of consistent buyer traffic. Many buyers will hit 5-10 open houses in a day and rural properties make it difficult to travel between open houses.

2. Repairs – Are you going to fix the home before you sell it? Repairs, particularly cosmetic ones like interior or exterior painting, should be complete before the open house is scheduled. Also, if you are going to make repairs, actually repair the items. Don’t just paint over problems hoping to mask them. These issues will likely be found during the home inspection anyway, so do it right the first time.

3. Spring Clean – Give the interior a through cleaning. Make sure any clutter is removed. Wash all the curtains, shampoo the carpet, polish the wood floors, and dust all the furniture. Be sure the kitchen and bathrooms are really clean. A dirty kitchen or bathroom is one of the number one reasons buyers decide not to purchase a home. It is also a good idea to consider staging the home. This can be done yourself or by hiring a professional stager. If your furniture is old, consider having it moved to storage and replacing it with new furniture.

4. Clean Exterior – Add some nice potted plants or hanging basket plants around the entry of the home. Get the grass mowed, shrubbery trimmed, and fresh straw or mulch added to the flower beds.

5. Brochures – Get some full-color brochures with several photos of the house made up. Don’t forget to include your contact information on the brochure. Pass them out to the buyers that attend the event.

6. Free Food – Free food is a big draw, especially come 4 o’clock and buyers have been out looking all afternoon. Having warm cookies or brownies made fill the home with great smells of baked goodies. If the weather is warm, plan a cookout with hamburgers and hot dogs in the front yard.

7. Sign in – Don’t forget to get the buyers contact information. Pass out sign in cards for follow up phone calls and thank you cards. Provide door prizes to get the contact information

8. Get The Word Out – Pass out advertisements to your neighbors and local businesses about the event. Put our yard signs promoting the event at intersections. You can place an ad in the For Sale section of the paper on the day of the event.