7 Keys for a Successful OPEN HOUSE!
Categories: Chattanooga Real Estate News, For Home Sellers
By David Israel, Business Manager Andy Hodes & The Scenic City Team
I have written several articles for our blog and one of the most important items I have stressed in almost every Real Estate related article is you only get a 1st Impression one time. Please keep this in mind when you are preparing your home for an Open House. There are several websites that can assist you further.
1. Pay attention to the Outdoors - From the time a buyer walks in to the time they leave, they will be coming and going 
through your entire house. Make sure that all items are put away or in their proper place. Clean off the doormat or purchase a new one. Don’t leave anything at the front door that would distract a potential buyer.
2. Clean your home - Whether you do it professionally or personally. Go through the entire house and thoroughly clean the house from top to bottom. Dust the entire house, sweep and mop the floors. You want your home to sparkle like a diamond. Clean off the counters, but don’t shove things in cabinets, buyer will open cabinets and closet doors. Buyers don’t just look around, they feel around they want to know how a door opens and closes. It is their first “Test Drive” of the home.
3. Bake Cookies - Sometimes if you bake chocolate chip cookies in the morning, the house will have that incredible aroma throughout the house. Baking shows that the home is being used and the smell will tell their senses to keep looking. In the kitchen, place the cookies on a nice plate for visitors to enjoy.
4. Stage Your Home for a Party - One of the best tips is to set up your dining room table as if you were having guests over for a dinner party. Put out your china and crystal and make the table look inviting, purchase flowers with lots of color as a centerpiece. Take care of your indoor plants, have they been watered and take away any brownish color leaves. These subtle ideas will make the home seem inviting to the potential buyers.
5. Lock Up Your Valuables - This is not a scare tactic, it is just a reminder that not everyone in the world is honest and when we come home from a hard day we tend to leave stuff around. Since your home is being shown on a regular basis, it is important to make sure that these valuable are put away. “Prevention is the best Medicine”.
6. Send Pets to a Neighbor - If you own a pet the biggest mistake is having that pet at home during an Open House. Agents and buyers are looking at your home, not looking to watch out for your loved pet. When you home is being showed, it is a different story, but an Open House is a two to three hour event with lots of traffic and no way to insure that your pet will be looked after. Your animal might not be happy having to leave, but you will be happy that he/she will not be lost.
7. Leave - There is no reason for you to be at an Open House. Yes, you have lived there and know the house better than any agent, but that is a distraction to the buyer and they want to look around by at their pace and at their lesure. Make an afternoon and go see a movie or meet a friend or spouse for a walk through the park. The biggest way to ruin an Open House is to be present. You should get feedback from your Realtor towards the end of the day or the next day.
Just a little preparation will make a good open house a great one!
This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Chattanooga Real Estate News, For Home Sellers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Such simple things, but so many sellers ignore them.
Good information!
This should be printed out and given to every seller before an open house. Terrific information.
A few more ideas:
Light a very light scented (vanilla is good) candle. DO NOT use plug-ins. Open a window or two on a nice day for fresh air. Hide medicine - I had an open house visitor steal Vicodin from a seller who had just had surgery. Put away toys.
Have a great open house!
Thank you so much for the information. I am going to follow your advice for my upcoming open house!!