Open House: Three (3) Reasons Why You Should Scratch Open House Off Of Your List, from a Seller’s Viewpoint

Holding an open house has been proven to be effective since time immemorial. As it is open to everybody, the opportunity to attract several different people is huge – buyers who are new in the area and perhaps have not settled yet; neighbors who happen to walk by streets and would like to see what’s happening next door; and brokers who want to team up with you as a seller. It provides more exposure too if combined with social media or digital marketing efforts such that of Facebook’s, Twitter’s and Youtube’s.

Why You Should Not Hold An Open House

There are also disadvantages in hosting an affair such as this one. If you are having second thoughts yourself, here are three (3) of them.

1.       Agents tend to benefit more than the homeseller. Putting your real estate property in the Philippine market is a gamble. Just like any other game, you could either win or lose. Winner you are if you are able to get the amount you wished for or maybe even higher, loser then if all efforts went for naught and nobody gave a reasonable offer. In the latter case, it is the agent who benefits more. He gets to meet prospective clients and possibly lead them in to the other properties he or she is trying to sell. So if you are going to pursue this idea, find someone you could trust on this matter. Ensure that you have an agreement with the realtor that such behavior like “pirating” is completely discouraged. After all, it’s your home that is being sold.

2.       Not every visitor is a potential buyer. Due to the variety of people present during the event, there is no assurance that you’ll get bids for your new house for sale. Some of them could be merely browsing and doing point by point comparisons to their #1 choice. Others could be looking around just to see what the hype is all about. And there are those who are out there simply to find a broker to assist them on their own sale.

3.       It offers too much stress. Needless to say, hosting an open house needs a lot of preparation, time and effort thereby it is certainly a stressful activity for the homeowner. There’s the first impression to think about, frequency as to how many times do you need to hold this and security concerns such theft.