Selling Your Home, Step #11 Open Houses
A few days before your “Open House” go over the home selling steps already covered in this series. Create the right home selling environment for buyers. We will cover how to advertise your home for sale to maximize buyer attendance to your open house.
Step #4 Marketing Methods to attract the widest range of buyers that may be
Marketing Your Home correctly will help buyer's find Your Home First!interested in your home.
Step #5 Property Descriptions, you will not be handing your property descriptions to every buyer that comes through the door, but those interested in your home. Survey of the property, included, if you have one.
Step #6 Preparing the Outside of your home for sale. It is always good to take another look before hosting your open house. Sometimes newspapers and other debris blows into bushes. The forgotten yard tool left out is found. This is also a good time to decide on parking, if you have more cars than fit in your garage.
Step #7 Preparing the Inside of your home for sale. Make sure you home is ready, one more time. Look at child proofing your home. Children reach and grab small items. Having one of your a prized possessions broken in not a way to create a home sale with an embarrassing situation.
Brochures Were not discussed in detail, it is time to make sure you have a handout of your property with photos and property description. This helps buyers remember your property. I know many real estate agents do not use brochures. Better for me, as are real estate agent, that helps me sell my clients homes. Buyers have a reminder of your property and feature in front of them, when reviewing the homes they seen for sale. They also have something to hand someone else, if they are not looking to buy a home themselves. Remember friends and family many times go to open houses looking for relatives and friends moving into the area. Parents will preview homes for sale, helping their children buy a home.
Step#10 Financing, we reviewed home financing, many buyer’s look for a
Hosting an "Open House" can help you generate more buyer exposure and Sell Your Home.house before taking the time to discuss getting a home mortgage with a lender. If you have several home loan options ready to hand them, this can speed up the home selling process. It takes a decision out of the hands of the buyer. They don’t have to decide where to go and have a good idea of the mortgage payment, if they buy your home.
Hosting your “Open House”. The first issue is advertising. Making sure you do your advertising far enough in advance to allow for buyers to plan their schedule to see your home.
Most real estate agents host open houses, if you are hosting your own open house, you have decided on a limited service home selling plan or are selling your own home.
Greeting Buyers, Do’s and Do Not
“Do”
- Greet Buyers at the front door, if possible.
- Have a brochure of your home ready to hand them.
- Create small talk, weather, live close? Your goal find out something and create rapport. Put buyers and yourself at ease.
- Show buyers through your home in a guided tour format.
“Do Not”
- Do Not Hover, let buyer’s talk between themselves or have a bit of space if it is a buyer alone.
- “Do NOT” point out flaws your home has, that only you know about. If these flaws are structural or significant you have already listed them on your disclosures.
- Do Not be defensive, buyers do not have the right to be rude. If they are, you do not have to be rude back. Remember the home may not be right for them but they might have a buyer friend, who thinks your home is perfect!
- Do Not let buyers split up and go off by themselves. This could be a ploy to steal. You should have a second person in your home. They do not have to do the presentation or tour but it is always wise if you are new to hosting an Open House.
- Security, make sure you have secured your medications and jewelry. A non-see-through plastic container works great. Safes should be covered so people that are looking for an easy target, do not see anything to break-in and steal later. (this is just a precaution)
Make sure you advertise your home, use direction arrows (if allowed) place an open house sign in your yard, displaying time and date. You should have this out 3-4 days in advance. Buyers do drive-by’s to preview homes before seeing the inside. If they did not see your advertising they will see you are hosting an open house. Make sure your Open House is also displayed on the local MLS (Multiple Listing Service) to attract real estate buyer agents and clients too!
In case you missed the previous home selling steps links to each step to sell your home are below. Step 12 will be active tomorrow.
- Estimating your homes value.
- Who is your homes competition?
- Deciding to sell with a real estate agent or without.
- Marketing Methods to expose your home to the maximum number of buyers
- Property Descriptions, survey and narrative details
- Preparing the outside of your home for sale.
- Preparing the inside of your home for sale.
- Photos, the visual details to attract buyers
- Showing your home to potential buyers
- Financing
- Open Houses.
- Negotiating Your Homes Sale
Ask for a "FREE Seller's Checklist" if you are in the Grand Rapids Real Estate Market and considering selling your home. Expose your home to a wider range of buyers using todays most up to date real estate technology and selling methods.
Thanks for Stopping By and Leaving a comment.
Gary L. White, Associate Broker
CRS, GRI, ABR, ePRO, AHS, SFR
Phone: 616-784-2360
Email: GaryWhite@FlexitRealty.com
Website: www.FlexitRealtyGrandRapids.com
Videos: YouTube.com/FlexitRealty
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Gary - These are some very helpful tips. Open Houses can be very productive if properly planned and effectively conducted. Thank you for the great reminders.
Hi Tony, thanks for your comments. Most people do not know the value of a planned open house. Planning is the "KEY". Thanks again for your Comments Tony.
Another excellent post in this series! Open houses when done right at an appropriate property can bring positive results.
Hi Gary, I do quite well with open houses, I make sure I market well in advance. Thanks again for the comments.
Always good to review those important steps before open house.
Gary good job on the presentation. Open houses in my market are very important. We get many people viewing for themselves, relatives or friends. Thanks for the tips!
This is a very thourough list for a great open house. The little details really help make homes shine. Great series!
Hi Michelle, thanks for the comment, doing the little thinks make hosting an open house attended. Thanks again for the comment Michelle.
Hi Jim, that is very high praise coming from a veteran real estate seller. Thank you for the comment Jim.
Hi Allen, thank you for your comments, nobody knows more than agent and brokers selling homes how important preparation is when hosting an open house.