If you're selling your house as a "FSBO" (for sale by owner), there are a few things you will want to consider in order to help you sell your home quickly. In addition to setting appointments with prospective buyers, you may want to hold an open house. Here's how to make it successful.
Basic Open House Steps
1. Hire a babysitter or dogwalker. If your children are small, have them visit a friend or relative during open house times. Children may be underfoot or demand attention when you're trying to conduct business with a potential buyer. In addition, children may blurt out something that you'd rather a prospective buyer not hear. Pets are also a concern. A cat might escape, or a dog might bark and scare a visitor. Best to find a friend or a dogwalker to take them for a few hours.
2. Anticipate buyers' questions. Think about buyers' practical needs and questions ahead of time and have your answers ready. For example:
- Estimate the walking or driving time to the nearby commute train or bus, even if you don't use public transportation. Get fare rates and schedules and have them at the ready.
- Go through your home with a view toward its potential - for example, adding a room in the basement, remodeling the bathroom to add a stall shower, enclosing the porch, or whatever might strike a buyer's fancy - without representing the feasibility or cost of improvements.
- Understand your legal obligation to disclose material facts about the property. This may mean having copies of pest or inspection reports ready. For more information review our residential disclosure form.
3. Be on time. If your open house is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m., have your open house signs in position by 1:45. Why? Because people will probably start arriving as soon as they see the first sign or as soon as the appointed hour strikes, whichever comes first. You don't want to keep your public waiting.
4. Have a sign-in sheet ready to accompany your property fact sheets. Remember, you are exchanging facts with your visitors. If they have the right to enter your house and learn things about it, you have a right to know who they are. A sign-in sheet will also help you evaluate the effectiveness of your advertising.
Ask visitors to provide the following information on a sign-up sheet:
- name
- address
- phone number, and
- how they learned about the house.
5. Be prepared for people who aren't serious buyers, or worse. You're bound to meet some "lookie-lous" who just go looking at houses for the fun of it when they have no intention of making a purchase. Then there are the "nosy nerds" - neighbors who look at houses in their immediate neighborhood, in order to pat themselves on the back or console themselves concerning their own homes - even though they have no intention of selling in the near future. Be polite; after all, if they like your place, they may call a friend who's house hunting.
In the worst case, your house may be visited by people whose only interest is to pocket some silver, cash, keys, prescription medications, or your ATM card. Hide or lock away all valuables.
6. Be prepared to talk with potential buyers. Make small talk about neutral subjects, such as family and neighborhood. Don't go overboard praising your house or its amenities or overwhelm prospective purchasers with energy or enthusiasm. Too much praise may seem phony. Many people look at hundreds of homes; others check out houses as a hobby and don't ever really plan to buy one. If one person doesn't seem clearly interested, concentrate on someone who does.
7. Don't volunteer personal information that may be used against you in negotiating a sales price or contract. For example, don't tell prospective buyers that you're incredibly anxious to sell because you're starting a new job out of state soon, or that you need to get your kids into a new school district before autumn.
8. Listen carefully. Buyers' questions and comments will offer clues to their underlying interests. For example, if prospective buyers seem intent on verifying district boundaries of local schools, they obviously have or are planning to have children. Not only should you talk about the school district, but mention other child-related attractions, such as a nearby park or day care center, light traffic on the streets, other children in the neighborhood, or whatever else.
Draw the buyers out as to their needs and preferences - entertaining at home, which means maximizing the living-dining area; doing lots of cooking, which means a serviceable, bright, and cheery kitchen; and the like. These conversations can help you frame a subtle sales pitch geared toward the buyer's interests and practical needs - for example, if the potential buyer mentions that he took a recent bicycle trip, mention the nearby bike paths. If he says that bread is his favorite food, point out that three bakeries are in the area.
9. Learn to look at your house as if you were buying it. Think about:
- probable down payment, closing costs, and monthly costs of ownership, including taxes, insurance, and utility costs
- neighborhood conveniences and services (school district, parks, shopping, transportation, and the like), and
- local zoning ordinances, including restrictions about adding on to a house.
10.Keep your sense of humor. Many buyers look at houses the way they look at used cars - they search for every major and minor flaw. Apparently, they believe that emphasizing the negative will get the seller to accept a low offer. Often, however, this "exaggerate the flaws" approach does just the opposite because it makes the seller mad.
Try not to take negative comments personally. Just remember, people who don't want to buy your house are not rejecting you. They probably want a larger yard or more bedrooms or just don't want an all-electric kitchen. Finally, don't take it to heart if the buyers don't fall in love with your home; remember, there's another buyer out there for your house, and the perfect match is yet to be made.
How To Prepare Your House
Before showing your house to prospective buyers, you'll want to make it look as attractive as possible - it may mean the difference of several thousand dollars in your pocket. Sweep the sidewalk, mow the lawn, put some potted flowers on the front steps, clean the windows, fix chipped or flaking paint, and clean and tidy up all the rooms. Be sure the house smells good - hide the kitty litter box and bake some cookies.
Check for loose steps, slick areas, or unsafe fixtures, and deal with everything that might cause injury to a prospective buyer. Take care of eyesores, such as a cracked window or an overgrown front yard. Don't overlook small, but obvious problems, such as a leaking faucet or a loose doorknob.
Look for ways to improve the look of your house without spending much money - a new shower curtain and towels might really spruce up the look of your bathroom. Flowers will make other rooms look welcoming. Reducing clutter - in fact, removing any furniture or objects that won't be missed - will make the rooms and closets look bigger. Consider storing some items temporarily in a rental storage facility if your house appears small or cluttered.
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