Open House Mistakes

If you’ve ever hosted an open house as a seller, you know it’s harder than it sounds.  It seems like it would be an easy job.  Just let people traipse through your home, see how great it is and wait for an offer.  Any Montclair NJ realtor knows there a lot more to it than that.

Great Expectations
An open house can be a great tool to generate leads and interest in your home.  It is not necessarily going to “sell” the house.  Some sellers do get lucky and find a buyer with an offer in hand at an open house, but more often than not it takes a bit more work afterwards.  An open house is a great way to attract buyers’ agents and build some good buzz for your property.  Keep your expectations reasonable.  Remember, this is just one tool of many in your realtor’s arsenal.

Not Ready for the Close Up
Do you think that the worst thing that can happen at an open house is for no one to show up?  It’s not.  The worst thing that can happen is that tons of people show up and house is a shambles.  This will wreck your home’s “reputation” among both agents and buyers.  Make sure your house is spotless from top to bottom, staged to perfection and ready to be scrutinized in every nook and cranny.  This means you have to pack up the clutter and about half the furniture, organize every item and scrub the entire house.  Don’t forget to remove medications and valuables, too.  Open houses sometimes attract more than just potential buyers so be careful with your possessions.

Attracting the Wrong Crowd
Sometimes sellers want to pull out all the stops to attract people to an open house.  They will hold raffles or give out door prizes, put flyers in every corner shop and coffee house and invite all the neighbors.  While a creative approach is great, this kind of marketing blitz may not be the best idea.  A raffle or door prize might get people in the door, but are they really potential buyers or just there for the freebies?  Think carefully about how many people you really want wandering about in your home.  Let your Glen Ridge NJ realtor advise you on how to best market to the right audience.

Insufficient Marketing
A mistake in the opposite direction would be not marketing enough.  If you just pop a sign in the dirt at the corner, you won’t generate interest past your nosy neighbors.  Work closely with your realtor to ensure that the right people are invited to your open house.

An open house can be a great way to market your property.  Ask your realtor if this approach is best for you.