As a seller you’ll want to make sure you decide upfront whether you want to do open houses or not. These open house tips along with the pros and cons of hosting an open house is what we’ll discuss in this article. If you do decide to host open houses then you’ll want to make sure you properly execute an open house plan to get the most out of showing the home. The key to a successful open house is prior advertising and hype as well as proper scheduling.
Agents and sellers alike have mixed opinions about open houses. Some believe they are a contributing factor to the sale of a home while other believe it’s just not safe to have people through your home you don’t know. Regardless of people’s opinions you’ll need to determine the best course of action for you and your home. There are definitely some positives and negatives of hosting an open house and we’ll cover some of those in this article.
Open House Tips & The Pros & Cons
The positives and negatives of an open house are really quite simple. On one hand you have a day that you can host an open house with multiple interested parties visiting your home all at the same time. Some sellers like open houses even over showing the house privately because sellers only have to be inconvenienced with scheduling, keeping the house clean, etc for maybe one day a week. On the other hand while open houses can bring a slew of interested people in your home you really don’t know if they’re just interested or actually qualified and believe me there’s a HUGE difference. Not very often is a home sold from a buyer that visits an open house, which brings us to a thought that if buyers really aren’t being found through open houses, why would a seller open their house to people they don’t know are even qualified to buy their home or any home for that matter at all?
If you do decide to host an open house make sure you use these tips to ensure it’s a success. First off, plan it and schedule it in advance, if you’re hosting the open house on a weekend (by the way its the best time) then schedule and promote it at least 3 days earlier. Proper promotion of the open house may include online and offline adverting; to be more specific you can create an event on Facebook, post it on Zillow.com, Realtor.com and Trulia.com for buyers looking to visit open houses. Additionally it’s a good idea to have extra fliers on hand for people visiting and when they do arrive to your home ask them politely to sign in on a sign in sheet. This allows you to follow-up with them later for feedback and if anything happens like missing valuables. On the day of the open house, pass out flyers to the neighbors around your home and post signage with arrows directing traffic to your home.
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