Open House 101: How to Hold a Successful Open House

Open House Success – Simple steps will help lead to a successful open house.

Whether you are doing a for sale by owner or just now entering the real estate market as a newbie agent, the thought of holding an open house can be daunting. Here is a couple of recommendations to help boost your open house’s success and potentially sell a property faster.

Although many real estate professionals will tell you that open houses are largely a way for real estate agents to connect with potential clients, the fact of the matter is that many of the people visiting an open house have a genuine interest in a home. Thinking positively and expecting a buyer to walk through that door is essential to presenting a property in the best light possible! A large majority of buyers search for homes online during the week and take note of open houses scheduled for the upcoming weekend.

This brings us to our next point – marketing your home online. Over 90% of home buyers search for properties online. This means that if your home is not on the web, you’re most likely invisible. You may get some open house traffic from signage that you or your real estate agent have put up, but you won’t get nearly the same exposure as you would if you were marketing online. One advantage of working with Nick Sadek Sotheby’s International Realty is that your home is not only marketed to local buyers and posted on the most popular real estate websites, but also circulated through national and international media outlets.

Apart from posting your home and the open house schedule online, you should take the following steps to ensure your home shows well.

• • Reduce Clutter – Nothing kills a good first impression like a cluttered home. Excess furniture and items often makes a home feel smaller and less appealing. Make the space feel as open as possible by moving your clutter to the trash, a temporary storage unit, or gifting it to friends/family. An added benefit of emptier rooms is that visitors can enivison their personal items in the home more easily.
  • Clean Until YOU want to Buy Your Home Again – Focus on making sure carpets and bathrooms are as spotless as you can make them. If potential buyers see dirty carpets, they may think about the costs associated with cleaning or replacing the material. Each stain could be costing you thousands in potential profit! Also, clean bathrooms are a must. Does that even need to be said?
  • Hide or Remove Your Valuables – Get rid of any jewelry boxes, watch collections, or sentimental trinkets. Strangers will be walking through your property and despite you or your agent’s best efforts, it’s often difficult to supervise every visitor’s actions.
  • If You’re the Homeowner, Don’t Host Your Own Open House – Reach out to a local real estate agent, a family friend, or anyone who is emotionally detached from the property. You may feel that you’re the only one who can convey a home’s true value to a potential buyer, but in most cases, it’s more likely that you are scaring buyers off than attracting them to purchase your property. Visitors to your open house need to have the freedom to walk the home and take in both the positive and negative qualities of a property. Your presence may intimidate them and cause them to rush through their tour.If there’s technical specs you absolutely MUST share with visitors, type them up, print them out, and include them on the back of a real estate flyer.

  
  
  
  
  That’s pretty much it -Put up lots of signs, advertise online, bake or buy some cookies and have fun. Be social and make some friends! Oh, and contact a Nick Sadek Sotheby’s International Realty agent to make this process a whole lot easier!

  
  
  
  
  
  

  Thank you, Pete Deliivanov, for writing this great article from your experience of holding open houses for sellers.
  –Nick Sadek Sotheby’s International Realty