Having An Open House To Sell Your Home

The most common day to choose for an open house is Sunday. Sunday is relaxed, the errands are done and people can see the home during the day. It is an excellent time to find people in a buying mood.

Put an announcement in the paper earlier in the week, as well as Saturday and Sunday. Your ad might read as follows:

Be sure to give an indication of what size or type of home they are viewing as well as price and area. These are typically the criteria that most prospects make their judgments by. Leave out any other details since you’d rather they just come and see for themselves.

You should list a phone number in case an interested prospect can’t make it to the open house.

If you miss the deadline, put out an open house sign in your yard anyway. You should be able to find one at your home and garden center or a sign shop. You may be able to pick up traffic from browsers as they drive around the areas they’re looking for a home.

Now that your advertising is done, get everything ready for scrutiny. Most of the tasks of repair and maintenance have already been done in preparation for putting your home on the market. Some people, however, forget the last minute upkeep that will strongly influence a buyer’s perspective.

Final Preparation

Put away the dishes, make the beds, vacuum the rugs, clean the bathrooms and maybe even add some flowers and put on the coffee. Your house is now the statement of perfection.

Will this help? Well, little touches and flourishes are nice, but a clean home is a necessity. You might consider when prospects come through they are not necessarily coming to admire your décor (although we’ll come to that later), but they will certainly notice if your home looks as though they interrupted the family in the middle of supper.

People will be looking for lights in each room, especially if it’s in the evening. Improve the look of the room and avoid having your prospects fumble for switches by using table lamps or track lighting. This will portray your rooms better than a bright, overhead light will.

You might also try adding some mirrors to increase the brightness of a room (always a sought after feature). Also clear the fridge of excessive magnets, pictures and notes.

Consider having children and pets staying away with family or friends while prospects are viewing your home. The extra chaos and excitement might be too much for visitors, and if they don’t like pets it’s just best not to throw it in their faces that yours is a pet household.