The Seller’s Guide to Open Houses
If you’re thinking of selling your home, you may be considering an open house as an option to attract buyers. We’ve talked before about the ins and outs of open houses as they pertain to buyers and sellers, but this time around we’re going to look at them strictly from the seller’s point of view.
So what’s the verdict? As a seller, is an open house a good call or a waste of time? Unfortunately, the answer is, “it depends.” Like so many other aspects of real estate, whether or not an open house is right for you depends entirely on a few things that will vary from seller to seller.
Most sellers will each have a unique situation, so unfortunately there are no one-size-fits-all suggestions here. There are, however, a few things you should keep in mind:
“Open house” means “open to the public.”
It seems obvious, but it’s worth emphasizing: you’re effectively putting your home on display and opening it to the public at large, so think very carefully about your comfort level here. Do you live in an area where there aren’t many homeowners, meaning you might waste a lot of time talking to potential buyers who aren’t all that serious? Also keep your community and the season in mind; if you have an open house during the summer, are the neighbors’ kids going to drop by just for free cookies?
Manage your expectations.
Even though you’re taking on an expense of time and money in order to put on an open house, remember that the idea is to get feelers for interested buyers. You’re likely not going to close the day with an offer on the table, so manage your expectations. This is an instance where you’re looking for credible leads and saving yourself the trouble of constantly fielding showing requests by knocking it out in one day.
Keep the big picture in mind and don’t forget about realtors.
Speaking of leads, realtors are going to be a veritable fountain of them. Buyer’s agents, especially busy ones with several clients at any given time, will have an interest in checking out open houses that they think might suit their clients’ needs. Just as you’re putting out feelers, so are they. Remember, both when advertising and when allocating your time to interested visitors: don’t forget about the realtors.
Manage your time.
This is relatively easy if you just have a trickle of interested parties coming through a few at a time throughout the day, because you won’t run the risk of taking too much time speaking to a lukewarm potential buyer at the expense of neglecting a much more interested one. If you have a real blowout, on the other hand, you’re going to need to do your best to A.) divide your time as equally as possible among visitors initially, and B.) discern between which visitors are more interested or serious than others.
Manage your risk-to-benefit ratio.
The final thing to keep in mind is whether or not your time and money are well spent on an open house. Keep track of expenses and time and what the results turn out to be. The situation is different for every seller, but risk-to-benefit is a universal concern across the board. When deciding whether or not to hold an open house, consider what you’re likely to need to invest and what you can reasonably expect to get out of it.
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