Open House Tips: 5 Strategies for Open House Success

Some believe open houses have become antiquated and are no longer an effective method to market your property.

However, I feel some new takes on an old idea can really help bring your marketing to the next level whether it’s a recent flip, a new listing or even when it comes time to selling your own home.

More exposure means more traffic, which means more offers and ultimately more completion amongst your buyers resulting in a higher price for you. Without further adieu…

The Top 5 Tips for Open House Success:

1. HD Photography and Video:

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth one million.

There is simply no substitute for having beautiful HD photography and or video for your home. These pictures will drive more traffic to your open house in multiple ways. Not only will the photographs generate more interest on the MLS, but in the neighborhood as well.

Why?

Because you will have a brochure in the front yard with flyers featuring your homes stunning interior in gorgeous HD. Any passerby’s that view the flyer will have their interest piqued and be anxious to view the interior of your home.

Many markets have businesses that are specifically geared towards providing this service for both investors and Realtors.

2. Online Syndicate Marketing:

Remember those HD photographs and video I suggested above?

Well now those images and video are going to come in handy as they will be featured on several major listing websites to drive your exposure to the next level.

“Syndicate marketing” is a popular term as of late, and for good reason. Your listing will be shown on several major real estate authority websites such as Realtor.com, Trulia and Zillow.

This tip is even more powerful if you pair it with creating a custom website specifically for the property your trying to market, for example www.123GreenwoodLane.com.

On the website you could show interior and exterior photos, amenities within the subdivision, nearby schools and shopping centers or any other information that is pertinent to the subject property.

3. Visit The Neighbors:

For this tip I recommend beating the pavement a little bit.

Get out in the neighborhood and start visiting the neighbors and let them know about your open house. Some of you might feel a bit uneasy about doing this, but trust me, just work out of your comfort zone for just a little bit and you will quickly become accustom to doing this.

After all, everyone likes to have a say in who will be their new neighbors.

This tip carries additional weight if you are a licensed Realtor. I suggest going from door to door in the neighborhood and introducing yourself.

The best part is these are not “cold” leads, you are approaching them letting them know you will be having an open house in their neighborhood.

Invite them to stop by and take a look as this may be a chance for them to select their neighbors, or they might just be curious to take a look around.

Additionally mention other benefits there may be if they attend such as serving refreshments and food, giveaways or door prizes. Not only can you utilize this to generate more traffic for your open house, but you can also fish for additional listings as well while visiting the neighbors.

Don’t make it a big sales pitch, perhaps just mention at the end of the conversation “Oh by the way, would you happen to know of anyone that might be interested in selling soon?” This will typically result in one of three responses, they will either say:

A. No, I do not know anyone interested in selling
B. Yes, actually I AM looking to sell my home soon
C. Yes, a friend of mine across the street is thinking of putting their house on the market

Not only will this help you generate more listings, but it will show the neighbors you are a hardworking Realtor. After all, which agent would they prefer to represent them, the one that just sticks a sign in the yard, or the one actively hunting for prospects in the neighborhood?

Obviously for this step a little common sense is needed, if your subject property is located in a warzone you may want to skip this step entirely.

4. Staging

Consider staging as well, it’s an additional cost sure, but think of the benefits it offers, which in my opinion, far outweigh the cost.

It has been shown on a national level that staged homes have an average days on market of 45, while non-staged homes average about 102 days on market.

By staging your home it will: sells faster, you have lower days on market, lower holding costs and the staging may help drive up the price on your offers.

Buyers are notorious for being unable to envision the final product. Even if you have a beautiful rehab, sometimes that is not enough, especially if your subject property is in an higher socioeconomic demographic.

Staging a house effectively turns the house into a home, and a home is something a buyer can easily imagine themselves living in.

5. Lighting and Mood

Take the time to make sure your house is well lit when buyers come to visit the house.

Ideally, the house should allow for natural light to shine through. In addition, you can use artificial lighting techniques (such as ice lights) to better showcase certain features of the home.

You can also set the mood with scented candles or soothing music playing in the background. As cheesy as that might sound to some of you, it works!

Of course all of the tips in the world will not save you if your house is overpriced. Please make sure to do your due diligence and price your home correctly before putting it on the market.

Do you have any tips that have helped sell your properties faster?

If so please share them in the comments below!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.