When you’re trying to sell your home, hosting an open house is a great way to market your place to a wider audience. Check out these valuable tips to ensure your home appeals to everyone in attendance:
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Hire a Cleaners Before You Host Your Open House
Whether you typically keep things tidy or not, hiring a professional to clean your home will likely be worth the investment. Not only does it free up time for you, but it also ensures the job is completed very thoroughly. Ask around for recommendations of companies that do an especially good job for a reasonable price.
Use Technology to Market Your Open House
According to Bankrate, one of the best ways to market your home and the open house is by using technology. Post some quality pictures online to cultivate more interest and ask your professional real estate agent to post details about the open house on real estate websites. You might also want to consider using social media websites, like Facebook, to advertise to more potential buyers.
Print Info Sheets for When You Host an Open House
Self-promotion of your open house doesn’t get any more basic than handing out informational flyers to interested folks. Basic as it is, though, handing out flyers is a time-tested technique for promoting, well, everything. It’s perfect for getting the word out about your open house! Below are a few methods to pass out as many flyers as possible.
- Give flyers to all of your colleagues at work. If they’re a friend, give them several and ask them the favor of giving some out for you also.
- Take flyers when you go shopping and hand them out to other shoppers.
- Hand out flyers wherever you go for services like the dentist, spa, salon, and so forth. Also, ask if they will take a few to hand out for you. (Bribe them a little with some cookies or donuts!)
- Leave several flyers on the tables at your local library.
- Leave your flyer on community bulletin boards at your work, school, church, and grocery store.
Utilize Lawn Decorations for Hosting an Open House
Most homes have a front yard, and many have side yards too. Decorating the yard with balloons, banners, and announcements will catch the eyes of everyone that passes. The more you decorate, the better the response. That’s due to the FOMO effect; Fear Of Missing Out. A wildly-decorated front yard makes it look like something fun, and exciting is happening inside your house! Fear of missing out on the good times will persuade passers-by to stop and come inside! It might sound silly, but it really does work. In fact, it’s FOMO-tastic!
Go the Extra Mile: Rent a Bounce House!
If you want to attract a crowd for when you host an open house, rent a bounce house or inflatable water slide! That will bring in the kids and, with them, their parents. (Retail stores and restaurants do the same thing when they open a new location.) We’d suggest checking with your local government to inquire about any legal rules and local ordinances. Also, you might want to hire a teenager or two to keep an eye on the kids. (Or ask your own kids to do it if they’re mature enough.) One last suggestion; announce your plans ahead of time wherever you can. Social media, work, neighbors, clubs you belong to, etc. The more places you get the word out, the better.
Hire Someone to Greet Pedestrians
Depending on how much traffic passes by your home, hiring someone to greet passers-by might work like a charm. That way, they can ask questions, get information and quench their curiosity a little. If you genuinely want to leave an impression, have your greeter give passers-by cookies or some other treat. Speaking of cookies, having a greeter for your open house during the holidays is perfect! It will make passers-by happy and happy people talk about what made them happy! Greeters for your open house work for other holidays too, like Valentine’s day,4th of July, and Halloween.
Hire Caterers While You Host Your Open House
The idea of having your open house catered is, admittedly, an expensive one. On the other hand, having your open house professionally catered would undoubtedly create some buzz in your neighborhood. Here’s the thing; everyone likes getting free food (especially those little hors d’oeuvres!). Offering free food gives buyers a significant incentive to drop by your open house.
Yes, having your open house catered will cost a few bucks, no doubt. (For some, it might be out of the question entirely.) However, if you have a large, expensive home, catering your open house might well be worth the extra cost. It’s the sort of thing with a certain “wow factor” that can impress some buyers. If your home is impressive, catering your open house might work like a charm to sell it.
Stage Your Home When You Host an Open House
When you have an open house, you’ll want your property to look incredible. Having your home staged can be a great way to appeal to a high number of buyers. Hire a professional stager or consider doing the job yourself. When staging a property, you’ll want to ensure your home appeals to as many buyers as possible. Remove any clutter, large or cumbersome furniture, and family photographs. When interested buyers can envision themselves living in a home, they are more likely to make an offer. Store any belongings you don’t want out during the open house in a storage unit to ensure they are safely stowed away while showing the home. Head to a local SecurCare Self Storage facility and ask about current deals on storage units today!
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This post was published on 10/2/15. It was updated on 1/17/22.