So, you’re thinking of putting your home on the market. One question we have for you: have you considered hosting an open house? We recommend it if we feel it’s appropriate, but we can’t deny how huge of a help it can be when trying to find buyers. Perhaps you’ve been to one before. From a viewer’s perspective, they can be really exciting, getting to walk around a potential home and feed off people’s energy for the place. So, let’s go through the steps of presenting your house for the world to come see and fall in love with.
First off, arrange a date that you wish to open up your doors. Weekends are normally when people are free to come down for these types of things. If you set a timeframe of about two hours, that will give interested parties enough time to get a feel of your home. In our experience, we find that this is done about a week in advance, earliest! We will want to give ourselves plenty of time to arrange everything.
With a time and date locked in, the hard work begins! You only get one chance at a good first impression, so make sure that your house is cleaned and tidied from top to bottom. Everything from freshly painting inside and out if necessary, landscaping the garden, removing weeds in a driveway. As for the inside: clean, clean, clean. If you can think of it, do it!
Anything that you could consider ‘clutter’ should also be temporarily removed for the opening. If your rooms have too many pieces, they can distract from your house’s best features. If you streamline the spaces, it will make it so much easier for buyers to visualize your current home as their future one. Pets should also be elsewhere while this is all happening. As much as we love them, we want to minimize distraction for viewers. When you seek the help of a realtor, we will help out immensely in setting everything in your home right for delivering an amazing first impression.
All while this is happening, your real estate agents will be working towards promoting the open home as much as possible. Half the battle is sometimes getting the word out, and realtors know all the best ways to do this. They can strategically place advertising signs in onlookers to spot, invite would-be buyers who we know are in the market for a house just like yours, and the top ones will harness the power of social media to a wide audience interested in attending your open house.
Now that the word is out and the house is prepared, the final piece of the puzzle is to play host to the incoming guests. We find it’s often best that this is left to us, which means you get a great opportunity to go relax and hang out with friends or family while we make visitors feel welcome. We’ll be on hand to answer any questions, rave about how great your home is and listen to their feedback.
At the end of the day we’ll do everything in our power to make your open house a success. If you are interested in hosting one, or have any questions for us, please feel free to get in touch!