When selling your home yourself you need as many advantages as possible. Without a doubt you will be fighting an uphill battle in the advertising department as realtors typically have large budgets to spend on the advertising of homes. So it stands to reason that your home needs to stand out in other ways in order to garner the attention it needs to sell quickly and for the right price. Two ways this can be done is through the use of a professional stager and holding your own open houses. The latter may be time consuming but you needs to get the word out about your home.
Home stagers are a new breed of home professionals. In recent years the practice has evolved out of the designer field and specializes in the preparation of a home for selling. This usually involves a large amount of shuffling of furniture and in some cases the outright replacement of items that will not benefit the show. Getting rid of mess and clutter is a big part of staging as is the strategic use of available space. Many homes are a bit too cluttered for a home showing and home stagers are experts at deciding what can stay and what needs to go to make the home more presentable. It is really amazing what a home can look like before and after a proper staging. Many people hardly recognize their own homes!
Holding your own open houses can be a trying event. It can be gratifying to hear the positive remarks that people make about your home but conversely it can be heartbreaking to hear the negative comments as well. Remember you can't please everyone. Also, don't be afraid to invite realtors to your open house. Just because you aren't using one to sell your home does not mean that you can't benefit from their clientele! In fact you may want to consider holding an open house explicitly for realtors. The more people that know about your sale the better. Another thing that any FSBO seller should seriously consider is a flat-fee MLS listing. Traditionally one major drawback to FSBO selling was the fact that FSBO homes did not have access to the Multiple Listing Service. As anyone in the business knows a MLS listing can make the difference between a sale and a missed opportunity.
Todays overall assesment of the real estate market is split when it comes to the merits of having an open house. Some real estate agents think that this strategy is not very effective when it comes to selling a home, and in fact that it may be not so productive. The logic behind this thinking is that open houses dont necessarily bring in people who are actually interested in purchasing your home instead, they attract people who are just interested in taking a look at your house
Maybe you think that holding an open house is really the effective way to get prospective buyers interested in your home, and have chosen to take the plunge and try holding one yourself. Well, it could be very successful indeed, but the key will be in attracting a truly targeted audience. Here are a few ideas.
Throw out traditional media. Most of the time, people will depend on putting their open house in the classifieds or on television spots in order to promote your open house. This is a great way to attract not really interested buyers, but rather people out to kill time on a Saturday afternoon. Not only does this fail to really serve your purpose, but you also run the risk of excluding truly interested buyers due to a lack of room.
Use the web. Instead of using traditional media, try taking a look at listing your house online. There are several sites which list open houses in specific areas. The difference here is that these sites are not typically used by casual browsers; instead, they attract a highly targeted traffic that are really interested in your home.
The Internet also offers a whole new level of open house in the form of the virtual tour. Not only do you only show your house to truly interested potential buyers, but you dont have to have anyone physically in your home to do it! In addition, you are always showing your house in prime condition.
If you are considering holding an open house, make sure to address their shortcomings by focusing on a more targeted traffic. One way to do this is to take advantage of the opportunities available online.
Both Kevin Bilberry & Thomas Tooma 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.