Holding an open house is one of the most effective sales tools available to sell your home. Open houses allow you the opportunity to get buyers interested in the home. These buyers can browse through the home and ask you questions while on site. Open houses allow you the opportunity to let your home shine like a star. There are a few keys to holding a successful open house event.

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. Print Some Flyers – Print up some flyers with your contact information, all the details about the house and neighborhood such as school districts, parks, etc. Include about 5 to 10 pictures of the home on the flyers.

6. Free Food – Free food is a big draw, especially come 4 o’clock and buyers have been out looking all afternoon. Having warm cookies or brownies made fill the home with great smells of baked goodies. If the weather is warm, plan a cookout with hamburgers and hot dogs in the front yard.

7. Sign in – Don’t forget to get the buyers contact information. Pass out sign in cards for follow up phone calls and thank you cards. Provide door prizes to get the contact information

8. Advertise – Hand out flyers to all the neighbors about the event, put out signs at major intersections, and run ads in the local paper.

Hubert Miles is the founder of Waterfront Houses USA, an internet advertising service that offers River Properties For Sale and River Property For Sale in the US and Canada.

categories: river property,real estate,property,land,home,house,business,finance,open house,family

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