Ways that Open Houses Help Sell Real Estate

With today's real estate market, it's challenging at best to sell your house at the asking price. Even the savviest homeowners are finding it difficult to find buyers. But, with these helpful tips, you can make your open house work for you, accelerating the process and getting the offer you deserve.

First, capitalize on your great neighborhood. Look around--what makes your neighborhood stand out above all the others? Great schools? A nearby park? Annual amazing block party? Once you've noted these strengths, summarize them and put them on a flyer. Make these flyers available to all the visitors at your open house, thus ensuring that they will take a piece of your home away with them, and that your home be among the more memorable homes they visit that day.

If you're a pet owner, find the pets a place to stay for the duration of the open house. Not everyone loves your animal as much as you do, and you want to keep the buyer's attention focused on your house, not your pet. Remove any evidence that you have a pet. Get rid of crates, bowls, toys, litter boxes, and, while you're at it, clean up the yard. Nothing will put a buyer off faster than dog doo on their shoes. Creating a positive olfactory experience can be helpful, too. Lighting candles or baking cookies just before the open house is an old real estate agents' trick for a reason--it works. Good smells put people in a positive frame of mind as they look around your home. Positive buyers could equal a sale!

Brighten up your home. If you look at a real estate magazine, the homes featured within always look very bright and airy. You can make this affect work for you, too. Wash windows and open curtains and blinds, and be sure that windowless areas are brightly lit and inviting. Make sure the house has been cleaned from top to bottom, too. Tackle the projects that you've always meant to do; wash the baseboards, wipe the doorknobs, clean the grout in the bathtub. Dirt can be a huge turn-off to a potential buyer. You want your home to look its best so that buyers are enticed, and you won't impress buyers with a dark, gloomy house.

Finally, be sure that you are not on the premises during the open house. It's inhibiting for the buyer, and when the buyer's uncomfortable, they're likely to leave before they can form a distinct impression of your home. You don't want to sabotage your sale simply because you're curious to see what people are saying about your home! Make it fun--go to lunch, see a movie, go to a museum, just make sure you're not at home. If there's something to report, your real estate agent can let you know.

Selling your house can be an arduous process, and with the new technology that offers "virtual" tours of homes, it's tempting to skip the open house altogether. However, it's been proven time and time again that an open house is the best way to generate offers on your home. People are tactile by nature, and nothing can replace the gut feeling you get when you enter a house and know it's the right one for you. So, follow the tips listed above, and make your open house as successful as possible!