Make sure you have advertised the open house in all the local papers and that you have plenty of open house signs and flags set up through out the neighborhood. You may need permission for the placement of some of your signs so do your homework before the day of the event. It's a sad thing to go to the bother of an open house and have no one show up. Sign placement is very important.
Today is the day. Turn on the lights in all the rooms and open blinds and/or curtains to let in as much light as possible. Have soft background music playing in as many rooms as you can. Crank up the fireplace if you have one. Park all those cars away from your house. Get them out of the garage too. Water the lawn front and back just prior to the open house starting. If you only have concrete water it. Just dirt, forget it! Keep pets secure and out of sight. Better yet, take them to your sister's home for the day. Bake a batch of cookies or something that smells homey during your open house but don't make a mess.
Put a guest register set out in the entry and have every potential buyer and/or warm body that comes through the door fill it out. Including the nosey neighbors. You need this information. It is a good idea to call each one later to get feed back, inquire about their intentions, or to call them back in the future when you have lowered your price. Just kidding. However, that is not a bad idea if you do change the terms.
Immediately after your guests/neighbors sign the register you should at that time give them the flyers for your home. This is very important. You must have two flyers. One quality flyer about your home and it should have a few pictures taken after you cleaned it up and before the kids got home. The other flyer should contain financing options. You can actually have both on one sheet if you can figuar out how to put them in the copy machine so the top is the top on both sides. You must have both and here is why.
Home flyer. When people shop for a home by viewing open houses on a Saturday or by traveling with a real estate agent, after the third home, they get details confused between the homes they have viewed. It is a fact. That is why you need a quality home flyer and it should have pictures of both the inside and outside.
Financing options flyer. People in the market to buy a home are interested in two things: how much their payments will be, and how much cash they need for the down payment and closing costs. If you are a For Sale By Owner you can get free help from a mortgage broker. Many have free FSBO programs and will actually create both flyers for you.
One more thing. It doesn't happen a lot but it does happen. Be aware of thieves and degenerates. Put your valuables away and keep them out of sight. Even better, keep them at a friend or family member's home. Remember, you are inviting strangers into your home.
Holding an open house can be productive so just roll up your sleeves and do it, but do it right. Enjoy.
Most realtors will tell you that home sales tend to hit their peak between April and August as parents take advantage of summer vacation to move their kids while they're out of school. This is mixed news for buyers, who are facing more competition for the available houses, but excellent news for you if that's when you choose to sell your house. Because there are more buyers looking, you can usually get a better price for your house. It's the old law of supply and demand.
The later in the season it gets, the easier it is to get a higher price when you sell your house. As school days near again, buyers are motivated to get the sale over with and have everyone settled before school starts again. On the other hand, according to many real estate experts, spring and summer brings out a lot of less serious buyers - people who are 'just looking', so you may need to weed prospective buyers out a little more selectively.
Autumn has fewer buyers, but they're likely to be more 'motivated', according to realtors. If you sell your house between Halloween and New Years', chances are that you'll get your house sold faster and closer to your asking price. Generally, according to realtors, autumn buyers have either waited through the busy season in hopes of a better deal, or they're facing their own time constraints - a house that's sold without a house to move into, perhaps. Another reason that people are eager to buy toward the end of the year is the desire to take advantage of IRS regulations. People who sold their own homes in the spring are now trying to close a deal on a sale in time to take advantage of a tax break. Under IRS guidelines, a home seller has 180 days to close on another sale if they want to defer taxes on the profit from their sale.
Besides seasonal considerations - the time of year and holidays - there are many other things that can affect home sale prices. When interest rates fall, for instance, house sales go up. When interest rates are lower, people are willing to finance larger amounts and are more likely to meet your asking price. Obviously, if the local economy is depressed, you won't be able to sell your home as easily.
If you keep your ear to the ground, you may be able to take advantage of local business trends. If a large company is closing, for instance, it can be good news for buyers as people caught in the whirlwind try to sell their homes, or prepare to relocate. On the reverse side, the few months on either side of a local business opening can bring buyers in from other areas of the country that are looking to buy the home you're trying to sell.
At its simplest, the breakdown looks like this:
In spring and summer, your house will fetch a higher price because parents are trying to move before school starts again.
Between November and January, your house will probably sell more quickly, and close to your asking price as people try to buy before the end of the year and take advantage of tax breaks.
Falling interest rates bring out serious buyers, making it easier for your home to sell.
Anything that improves the local economy will help your home sell.
Anything that depresses the local economy makes it a good time to buy - bad time to try to sell your home.
Both Connie Sanders & Brian Shelton are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Connie Sanders has sinced written about articles on various topics from Gardening, Writing and Mortgage. Connie Sanders understands that if you are selling your home yourself even little things can be a challenge. That is why she owns a For Sale By Owner web site that is free. Connie Sanders's top article generates over 12100 views. Bookmark Connie Sanders to your Favourites.