When you are looking to sell your home on your own, you will need to build a potential buyer list. A way to kick start the sales process is to hold an open house event. Open house events allow buyers to see the home and get answers to any questions they may have. These tips will help your home stand out of the crowd.
1. Location - Is your home located is an area where open houses work well? Areas that are good candidates include neighborhoods in cities, towns and suburbs where the housing market is hot with a steady stream of buyer traffic. Rural areas don't work as well due to the lack of consistent buyer traffic. Many buyers will hit 5-10 open houses in a day and rural properties make it difficult to travel between open houses.
2. Repairs - Are you going to fix the home before you sell it? Repairs, particularly cosmetic ones like interior or exterior painting, should be complete before the open house is scheduled. Also, if you are going to make repairs, actually repair the items. Don't just paint over problems hoping to mask them. These issues will likely be found during the home inspection anyway, so do it right the first time.
3. Clean Interior - Make sure the interior is clean and free of clutter. You may even consider having a professional stager come in and assist you in staging the home. If your furniture is old, why not have it removed and replace it temporally with some nice furniture. The stager will have access to some furniture you can use on a temporary basis or you can rent it for a few weeks from a rent to own store.
4. Curb Appeal - Mow the lawn, add some pretty flowers in pots around the entry way, and put fresh mulch or straw in the plant beds will help add curb appeal to the home.
5. Brochures - Get some full-color brochures with several photos of the house made up. Don't forget to include your contact information on the brochure. Pass them out to the buyers that attend the event.
6. Hot Food - People love hot food. Have some warm fresh cookies, cake or brownies made. They create a warm environment and make the home smell nice. Other good option is to grill some hot dogs or hamburgers outside under a tent in the front yard.
7. Sign in - Get your prospective buyers to fill out a sign in sheet or comment card. Offer prizes to get buyers to provide the information freely.
8. Get The Word Out - Pass out advertisements to your neighbors and local businesses about the event. Put our yard signs promoting the event at intersections. You can place an ad in the For Sale section of the paper on the day of the event.
Comments on this entry are closed.