Real Estate: Avoid These 7 Things at an Open House
by Arina Smith Real Estate 22 December 2020
If you’re looking to sell your house, having an open house is crucial to attracting prospective buyers. It may seem as simple as putting out an announcement, cleaning up, preparing some food, and opening your doors to the public, but there’s more to open houses than that.
A truly successful open house will potentially net you a host of interested buyers, and you may even have the luxury of raising up the price to see who wants your house the most. For a seamless open house experience that will leave a mark on attendees, there are pitfalls that you must avoid.
These are 7 things that you should avoid when hosting an open house:
Having unfinished work
Your open house should showcase the property in the best possible light. This means having to do extra work to make your house more presentable than usual, and creating a hospitable and pleasant environment for your guests. Preparing for an open house entails making the necessary repairs to have the house in tiptop shape.
Before conducting an open house, you should see to it that all the repairs in the house have been finished so that your guests wouldn’t have any qualms about purchasing the property. You wouldn’t want a portion of your house to look like a construction site, for example.
Having an open house means that you’re ready to have other people live on your property, which means that you must show your guests a finished product.
Cramming closets
It’s easy to get lazy when cleaning up all the clutter around your house and to just stuff all the clothes lying around and all the other unused things in the closets. It saves you way more time than actually sorting everything out and figuring out which things to throw away. Besides, you can decide on that once you move out, right?
While procrastinating can seem like the quickest way to have your house prepared as soon as possible, it could backfire once you have guests over. Potential house buyers will want to see every detail and every corner of the house that they might live in in the future, and of course, they’d want to see how spacious your closets are.
Letting guests see a crammed closet will not just hurt your reputation, but will also discourage guests from purchasing your house.
Leaving pets around
Having your pets around an open house may seem like a charming way to create a fun and laid-back environment for your guests, but that can quickly go wrong and leave you with a failed open house. Some pets may be too eager to have guests around and jump on your guests and perhaps ruin their clothes or trigger allergies. You wouldn’t want a single guest to have a negative experience at your open house.
It’s better to have your pets caged or taken care of by a friend in the meantime because even though they may bring a more joyous atmosphere to your open house, they’re definitely not for everyone. You want your open house to cater to as wide a crowd as possible.
Not tracking the weather
Picking a date is crucial when hosting an open house. You want to make sure that the day of your open house will have favorable weather to have as many guests as possible come by. Choosing to host an open house during a storm, for example, will probably not get you any buyers any time soon.
Being mindful of the weather will also help you put in some minor details that will enhance the guests’ experience, such as having a coat rack ready during the cold season, or preparing ice cold drinks for a hot day.
Doing too much
You may want to leave your guests a lasting impression by decorating every nook and cranny of your house and constantly telling them how great of a property it is, but the best open houses let the property do the talking.
Instead of trying too hard to impress your guests, just focus on creating a comfortable atmosphere that will allow your guests to appreciate your house and decide for themselves.
Neglecting the details
Sometimes, the smallest details can actually be the things that leave a mark on your guests. If you’re serving food, for example, make sure that what you have prepared caters to all diets, so everyone stays happy.
In terms of presentation, you want the furniture in your house to fit perfectly with each other and with the house overall. A simple repositioning of the couch to create more space, for example, can make a huge difference for guests.
Exposing valuables in the open
While open houses are supposed to be friendly events, you’re still basically opening your doors to all sorts of people. Providing a comfortable atmosphere doesn’t mean not taking precautionary measures to guard your belongings.
Your open house is not the time to showcase your jewelry and watch collection. Guests should only be tempted to purchase your house, not to take your belongings.
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