Open House: Three (3) Advanced Tips To A Successful Open House

Holding an open house takes considerable amount of time and preparation for both the homeseller and the realtor. Some of the basic things to prep on include cleaning and de-cluttering the residence, providing adequate lighting on it and setting the ambience with soothing music. And then of course, there’s also finding the right real estate agent to partner with and compiling all the materials needed such as schedules, hand-outs and sign-in sheets.

How To Have A Successful Open House, Advanced Tips

Discover a few guidelines that will ensure a successful event and PH real estate sale. Here are three (3) ways to show you how.

1.       On marketing. One of the secrets to winning this lie within the marketing strategy. After all, the bigger the hype, the higher the number of people who will check out your offer.

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·         Create a prominent signage within your premises. In order to get this to work, you need to catch the attention of prospective buyers. Putting up a huge sign that shows the schedule of the affair is a good way to start. Be precise with the copy. If there’s a “For Sale” poster before, replace that with “Open House Saturday” or “Open House Sunday”.

·         Position multiple signages strategically. Increase foot traffic by situating a couple in the busiest corners of your neighborhood, then another two leading to your residence. Attach arrows so the viewers from different areas will know how to reach your place.

·         Setup a sched for locals. If regular viewing starts in the afternoon, allot a few hours beforehand for the natives in the area, perhaps in the morning. In this way, you can target bigger and wider audience.

·          Advertise on local papers. If you have extra budget, get it published on daily newspapers. 

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·         Get it listed on different directories.  Depending on your location, there are websites like Craigslist.com that allow event listings. Find out what’s available in your area and list it up.

·         Promote through Facebook and Twitter. Social media are great avenues to market different types of residential properties ranging from Makati condos, QC apartments, Cavite family homes and many more. On Facebook, use Events to announce that you have a property viewing on a certain date. On Twitter, tweet the timetable and tag or mention the users who you think will be interested to attend.  

2.       On the day itself. It is advisable to stay elsewhere during the course of the showing. This will make the homebuyers feel at ease while touring around your property.

3.       On security. The number of attendees can be unpredictable which brings to the subject of security. In that sense, here are some tips to apply:

·         Ask for identification, e.g. driver’s license, prior to them entering your premises.

·         Keep your bathroom closed as a safety precaution.

·         Remove all valuables in plain sight. Store them in a secure location.

·         Get the buyers paired up or to form into groups so that they will have an escort during the tour.

Open House: Quick Checklist For Real Estate Agents

The role of the realtor in an open house event cannot be understated. While it is a joint effort together with the homeowner, the tasks and responsibilities of an agent is distinct and separate as he focuses more on the promotional side and ensuring that the affair will be implemented properly.

How To Prepare For An Open House If You Are A Real Estate Agent

Below is a quick checklist for PH real estate agents. Regardless if you’re new in the industry or this is your first time to host such affair, get to know your to-dos to help deliver a successful result for the team.

1.       Conduct a research on the neighborhood. More often than not, the attendees will have no idea about the community where the property is currently located. It is your job then to get all the information needed to catch the interest of prospective buyers. Pattern the data you will provide to the visitors with the goal you and the homeseller are both aiming for. Are you looking to target families instead of single individuals? If this is so, learn the pros and cons of the current location of the home. How near or far is the PH property from school, health center and park? Is the grocery store within walking distance? How quick can the fire or police department respond in case of emergency?

2.       Create a fact sheet about the details of the home. Just imagine how it’s going to be like on the day of the event. Many people will surely ask the same questions over and over again. How many bedrooms are there? Is the kitchen and dining room separate? Is there a bathroom for the kids? When was it constructed? How’s the power or water system? How big is the residence in terms of square meters? Instead of answering them one by one, you can avoid this scenario by preparing a simple leaflet that states all the basic info they will surely be interested in knowing about.

3.       Do online and offline promotions. Next step is to make sure that many people will know that you have some properties up for sale. Reach a bigger audience by promoting it on the web. Get it listed on Craigslist and put announcements on several social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Advertise on local newspapers and put a signage on the front yard to alert passing drivers. Make it as interesting as possible. Put balloons and add colors into it to catch more attention.

4.       Coordinate with the person-in-charge for food and entertainment. If the owner has a housekeeper, arrange for a few snacks and bottled water for the guests. Adding a little background music will certainly make a difference as well.

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.

Open House: Four (4) Things You Need To Know About Open Houses

If you’re a homeowner who’s looking to put up your real estate Ph property, you have several avenues to explore in order to get it up in the market. Among the most time-honored strategies include holding open houses. Learn the basics and see if you can maximize this approach to gain potential buyers.

Here are four (4) things you need to know about open houses.

1. What is an Open House? This is basically an event where people gather around to check out the residential option in hope to purchase a house for sale. It is a long-standing tradition that has been proven effective in the past as prospective homebuyers experience first-hand the look-and-feel of the home without the pressure of having to arrange an appointment with a real estate guy or take care of necessary paperwork just schedule a viewing. This is normally held during weekends where future buyers are free from work.

2. How it works. The owner employs a real estate agent to sell his land. Depending on the strategy of the latter, he or she can give recommendations whether it would be wise to open it to the public with various factors in mind such as marketability and location. For instance, it could be effective to hold one if the place is located in a neighborhood that is easily accessible to visit. Once the title-holder decides to go ahead and move forward, the realtor can start the advertising regimen like putting out signs on the street corners to draw traffic, posting a newspaper ad to bring in more clients or having it over the web for bigger target audience. When the day arrives, the agent would present the house, ensure that each person sign in their information – name, address, phone number, and later, see to it that they carry a fact sheet containing details about the realty as well as his or her business card. Interested parties could come back for a private or second tour.

3. What to prepare.  There are several items to prepare to guarantee a smooth and successful open house. On the part of the realtor, the materials needed to implement his or her marketing tactics must be readily available ahead of time. On the other hand, proper home staging to improve its total appearance is just one of the things the seller needs to set up.

4. Another alternative. The best ones are usually those that are exclusive to real estate pros wherein only brokers and agents attend the affair. Since they understand their clients’ preferences more, time and effort is comparably well-spent hence this saves money in the long run.