Now that your home is on the market, you’ll probably need to leave every once in a while so your house can be shown to a prospective buyer. There’s also a good chance that you’ll also have to deal with an open house or two during the course of the sale.
Some sellers don’t really see the point in an open house. After all, pretty much everyone who buys a home today starts their search online and does a lot of preliminary research about the properties and neighborhoods. However, someone looking in a particular neighborhood might feel more comfortable going from open house to open house during the course of a weekend afternoon. Seeing your home in person might be enough to get them interested.
Open houses serve as an announcement to the market, real estate professionals and your neighbors that you’re selling. Many times, neighbors will visit the house just to compare it to their home, but they may also have a friend or relative looking to move, and this gives them the motivation to recommend the house. Word of mouth is never a bad thing in the real estate game.
An open house has some nice benefits for your listing agent, as well. They have the chance to meet with possible future clients, but it also allows them to talk to those neighbors and get some perspective on the area that maybe you left out.
Historically, the sales probability from an open house is relatively low, so you shouldn’t expect to get an offer that night, but it does set some things in motion and gets people buzzing about what they’ve seen.
Open houses can also provide some valuable feedback on the home about the price, condition and other important things that you may not have thought of. This insight can help with the sale going forward.
That’s why it’s up to you to make the house as perfect as possible before an open house. That means cleaning to the nines, decluttering and repairing anything that needs fixing. This is a good kick-in-the-butt way of getting your house in market ready shape.
