subject: Have An Open House Soon After Putting Your Home On The Market [print this page] More than once over the years I've held open houses in order to sell the homes I had for sale. If you are wondering how to sell a home yourself, and wondering what techniques have worked for others, take note. It's been my experience that holding and promoting an open house is a great marketing tool, and it is one everyone should consider, especially sellers who are learning how to sell your house.
Open houses are not the exclusive right of real estate agents or builders, although that is a common misconception. As it happens in a tough economy, many homeowners are choosing to market their homes themselves, and that includes scheduling and promoting at least one open house for friends, neighbors and others to come over and see the inside of the house if they are interested.
In order to draw the biggest crowd, you will want to do some advertising ahead of time, and by that I mean running ads in the newspaper, the local shopper and also online. If your local TV and radio stations have classified ad sections on their websites, check those out ahead of time. And of course craigslist and ebay classifieds are great places to post classifieds in the real estate for sale section, and make mention of your open house in the ad. I suggest only advertising one open house date at a time, even if you are thinking about having several, because that way people won't put it off thinking there will be another opportunity when selling a house.
So, how do you promote your open house in other ways besides posting online? Well, that's easy, I call them the old-fashioned ways because they are what we all used to do before the internet came along and changed everything. I'm talking about postcards sent by direct mail and door hangers and of course yard signs. These things might seem hopelessly old-fashioned to you, but the fact is that they still get people's attention, and in some ways they capture attention better because they are not digital.
You also have to make sure your home is presentable by removing all clutter and putting things in storage if necessary. Homes show best when the furnishings are very spare because that way visitors can picture their own furniture in the same space. It's harder to do that when a home is over crowded with belongings. Reducing clutter and making sure the home is very clean and presentable is one of the first things you learn about how to sell a home.
