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The Best Open House Tips for Home-Selling Success
If you’re looking to sell your home, hosting an open house is a great way to get started. However, making the most of the event means carefully planning each stage. It’s a day you’ll want to prepare for weeks in advance. But don’t worry – potential buyers will immediately recognize that you’ve put in the extra effort, and the offers could even come in by the end of the day!
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Get an Appraisal or CMA First
Before talking with buyers, you will want to know exactly what you’re asking for your home. That’s where an appraisal comes in. Before an open house, you need an official estimate of your home’s worth. And before the appraiser shows up, you need to make your home as presentable as possible. Mostly, the appraiser will know what the house is worth based on sales in the neighbourhood and tax records, but an appraiser is still a person, and you want their overall impression to be good. This includes working on the curb appeal, minor fixes around the house, and ensuring everything is clean and decluttered. Taking care of these first will leave you better prepared when it’s time for your open house.
Alternatively, looking into a comparable market analysis (CMA), which your real estate agent conducts, would be best. This differs from the appraisal, as that is typically carried out by a third party on behalf of the lender. Also, a CMA is largely dependent on marketing trends, whereas an appraisal tends to look at previous sales of comparable properties.
Choose the Right Day
Try to schedule the open house for a convenient time for as many people as possible. Weekends are always best, according to Marketing You Plus, so schedule your event for a Saturday or Sunday. Remember that many people sleep late on the weekends, so set the time for the afternoon, for example, from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. You can use email marketing to drum up interest in your open house. Just be sure to avoid these mistakes, like overly long emails or messages without a clear call to action. You don’t want to turn off prospective buyers before they even arrive.
Stage Your Home
HGTV says staging your home is important for a successful open house. Many experts recommend decorating the home with fresh flowers and baking cookies for buyers to enjoy. Nothing says home sweet home like the irresistible aroma of baked goods. However, you should never try to mask objectionable odors with too much air freshener or scented candles. A lot of perfume in the air is a turn off and it may seem like you’re hiding something.
You, of course, love the pictures of your relatives, treasured friends, and animal companions. However, your buyers want to imagine their own photos sitting on the mantles and hanging from the walls, so remove these touches to open the rooms for their imagination.
Last but not least (as far as staging goes), you can give yourself an edge over the competition by using a free pamphlet template to make a pamphlet including information and pictures on the house that prospective buyers can take with them. Trust us: that will make a wonderful impression!
It May Be Time for an Update
Pay attention to the little things. Make sure handrails, door knobs, hinges, etc., are tight and polished. Create a focal point for each room to draw visitors’ eyes to its most appealing features. If you don’t want to mess around with buckets of paint, but your wall could use brightening, consider wallpaper. Today’s wallpaper is easier to apply, easier to remove, and comes in an endless variety of modern designs. You may enjoy wallpapering so much that you’ll do it again when you move into your new home. After all, with online tools that let you create your own designs, you can truly personalize each room of your new home.
Afterwards Bask in the Success
When everyone’s gone and you’ve got your house back, it feels good to relax in your clean spruced-up home. You may not have the energy to cook afterwards, so if it’s in the budget splurge on takeout or pizza and kick back with the family on the couch with a movie. You’ve set things in motion and it could be merely hours before the offers come in. An open house is a great sales tool. The effort you put in now could reap great rewards later.