There are many advantages to having an open house including:

Managing Your Time: People who sell privately need to minimize the time spent on the sale of their home. Open houses can be a great way to do this. Not everyone has the time to keep their home clean all the time or to show their home on a Wednesday night when they are trying to put their children to bed. You can use Open Houses to manage your time by inviting all buyers to come to your open house on the weekend. You can spend the morning of your open house cleaning and preparing for your visitors and then devote 3-4 hours concentrating on showing your home and talking with buyers.

Weekends Are For Buyers: Just as you can be busy during the week, so are buyers. Most buyers will search online during the week and then spend the weekend visiting homes and open houses. Making your home available during the weekend is an important way to reach buyers.

Open House Signs: Signs are one of the most important factors to selling a home. Imagine a buyer going to see an open house around the corner from your home. If you do not have your open house signs up, there is a chance that they might miss your home. Open houses allow you to place temporary signs in your neighbourhood on the weekends when all the buyers are out shopping for their next home. What an excellent opportunity!

Creating a Buzz: Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. One important factor of inviting all the buyers to come during a certain time frame, is that they will hopefully see other buyers interested in your home and this will show them that they will need to take action if they are interested, because it will soon be sold!

Here are some tips to make your open house go great…

Be Prepared: Your Home

You can spend the morning before an open house making sure your home is in perfect condition – clean, vacuum, remove the clutter, remove personal photographs, light come candles for a pleasant aroma (or bake some cookies), set the table, make the beds… The goal is to make your home look clean, open, and simple. Basically, try to make your home look like a brand new model home. This is your home’s time to shine!

Be Prepared: Your Information

Feature Sheets: Your buyers will most likely be looking at a few homes over the weekend. You want to make sure that they receive a feature sheet with your photos and info. After looking at 5-10 homes, some buyers might forget the special features of your home. You want them to have something tangible that they can take home and look at later. The Private Real Estate feature sheets will have a link to your listing so that the buyers can go online and see the photos and info again and again as well as a buyers guide that will show them how to purchase your home!

Your Knowledge: Buyers will look at 20-30 homes before they buy. They will most likely be knowledgeable about what is going on in the neighbourhood. This is also your chance to show them that you know what’s going on. If you are prepared, you can discuss other properties in the neighbourhood. You can ask the buyers about other properties they have seen.

An Open House is your time to shine as a private seller! It’s also your home’s time to shine and get sold!