Tips for Open House

                TIPS FOR SETTING UP YOUR HOME FOR OPEN HOUSE

1. Clean up your Act, Repair anything that’s broken

First thing you need to do before you start planning on your open house, clean your stuff up, dust off the tables, make em shine, clean the curtains and rugs, get rid of any awkward smells, fix that porch, and everything that’s messed up around the house, if there are scratches on the door handles or frames that are apparent fix those, if there are any easy to spot things wrong make sure to fix them up first thing.

1. Get rid of all the Clutter, Remove your presence

After your Clean up your house , make sure you put all your stuff in lock and key, make it look like it’s a recently refurbished home that hasn’t yet been moved in, it will give a sense of ownership to the people who visit your home during the open house, and that connection with the house helps makes sales.

1. Honey what’s that smell?

Smells will make your place memorable, now it’s your choice if you want to make it a good memory or a bad memory.

Awkward and nasty smells, pets, or mold or any weird odor, might cause buyers to lose interest and distract them from making up their mind.

If you have pets, move them out of the house a day before and let the house air out before you actually start opening your door, and a light scented air freshener also helps goes a long way, make sure it’s a really light scent, not sharp enough to be noticed, but just enough to please the senses.

1. Leave out Treats for the Visitors

Put out some chips and dip, and some other snacks out in the sitting room, some Hors d’oeuvres won’t be amiss here.

It’s as much about your hospitality as it is about giving them a great experience, a few small goodie bags with scented soaps or something low cost you picked out, with a small card of a really good picture of your home with something cheesy written on it like, welcome to the home of your dreams or some such line would go a long way in creating a memorable experience for your visitors.

1. Ambiance and Mood

Remember the ambiance of your home is the key, they are planning to live here, so give them a good first impression, keep the curtains open if everything outside the windows looks like something from a soap like desperate housewives, if you live in a nice suburban area.

If  there’s litter on other people’s lawn and other stuff that could put off visitors, make sure to keep your curtains shut tight and turn on all the lights, have a little bit of light music playing just enough to make a feel but not enough to distract the potential buyers

1. Talk to the buyers personally, tell them the good stuff

Try to personally greet everyone at the door and prepare a brief show around you will take them on, give them info that’s not apparent, for example if your house has good insulation that might not be readily apparent, or if it’s close to the marketplace, any feature your might think might not be readily apparent.

Make sure to tell them what will and what will not be included in the sale, or better leave out small post it’s on the stuff you will include in the sale, keep those things empty of your stuff so they don’t accidentally mess up your stuff looking around.

1. Take their comments, and then plan a follow up.

A Good way to keep a record of all your visitors and gauging how their experience was is to take their comments about their experience, and their thoughts on the house, try to take their contact numbers with the comments card, it’s gonna go a long way into helping you follow up with them.

Send a small fruit basket or seasonal flowers to the people who fill out your comments card the very next day, sure it’s kind of like throwing money away, but remember you’ll make your sale faster and the more they’re impressed with your personality, the more you get an edge for negotiations.