One of the best ways to sell a home is by hosting an open house.
Note: an open house is a scheduled time when a property is available for public viewing. Its goal is to attract potential buyers by allowing them to walk through the house, usually guided by a realtor.
But if you’re a seller wanting to host an open house, you might have a lot of worries.
First, there’s a lot of organizing to do.
Then, you have to invite potential buyers over.
What if nobody comes?
To help you out, I’m going to list the 6 best open house tips for sellers. These tips are going to help you host a successful open house.
So shall we?
1. Schedule your open house on weekends
When hosting an open house, you want to make sure people will come. Otherwise, all your effort will have been for nothing.
Scheduling your open house on weekends, especially on Sundays, will help a great deal in driving traffic to the event. Since most potential buyers are presumed to be working on weekdays and kids have school, weekends are the best time to view properties.
According to a study by HomeLight, 75% of agents reported that Sunday is the best day to host an open house, simply because it is a nationally accepted rest day.
2. Use high-quality listing photos
For your open house to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible, you will need to use high-quality photos for your listings. Tell your real estate agent to hire a professional photographer, or get someone who can take aesthetically looking shots of your home.
Also, tell your photographer to highlight the best parts of your home. If you have a majestic living area, a pool, or a balcony view, make sure to include them in your listing photos to draw attention.
3. Drive traffic to your open house by posting your listing online
The best way to drive traffic to your open house is by sharing your listing online. More than three billion people in the globe use the Internet, and using that is a good idea to make your listing more visible, especially to interested buyers.
Have your agent post your listing in any one or a combination of these platforms:
- Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
The MLS is a no-brainer. It is a digital platform that agents and brokers use to share information about properties they are listing or showing. It should be the first place your real estate agent posts your open house listing.
- Social Media
Social networking sites have become an increasingly popular platform among real estate agents for advertising listings. They are user-friendly, and they help you expand your listings reach and make them more visible to potential buyers.
Facebook is perhaps the number one social media site for real estate listings.
- Online Real Estate Marketplace
Online real estate marketplaces such as Zillow are another effective way to boost your open house listing views. They usually partner with search engine sites to promote their advertisements.
Ideally, you will want to promote your listing at least two to three weeks before your open house.
4. Use signages
Direct people to your open house with signages. It is an old-school method, but it works.
Hardly anyone will go to your open house if it takes them hours to get to the property. So make sure you look for those close to the neighborhood as well.
By putting up signages, you increase the chances of getting people nearby to your open house. Even passers-by who might not have been aware of your open house but chanced upon the big red signage on the street may just be interested.
5. Clean and make your home tour-ready
Now, here’s the hard part – you have to clean, declutter, and make your house tour-ready.
You want to impress your potential buyers, so make sure it’ll be worth their visit. Just as you would clean when you invite guests over, make sure your house is in good shape.
Mop the floors, dust the tables, and wipe the windows. Fix anything that’s broken. Mow the lawn, clean the yard, and repaint stuff that needs to be repainted.
Also, remember to keep personal items, and other valuable items locked away in storage. Depersonalizing is essential in open houses because having things like family photos around will make it difficult for a buyer to imagine living in the home you are selling.
Use props, but keep it simple. Make the space feel like a home. Put some decor on display. Make rooms shine by opening up the curtains and letting natural light in.
6. Leave the rest to your agent
Finally, stay away from the property during the open house and leave the rest to your agent.
When your home is open for public viewing, the potential buyers will need to be comfortable and at ease. They should be able to provide feedback and have an honest conversation with your agent about what they liked and didn’t like about the property.
These can be difficult if you are around. Preparing for the open house is a handful already. Step back, let your real estate agent do the work, and trust in their judgment.
Also, allowing potential buyers to be candid in expressing their opinions or concerns will help you identify the areas you need to improve on.
Conclusion
Inviting strangers into your home can be stressful and overwhelming. However, hosting an open house is part of the process of selling your property.
An open house is an old yet effective way of finding the perfect buyer, but first, you will need to do it right.
Follow the tips above, and you won’t have to worry so much about your open house.