Spruce up the home before the open house starts. Pick up things that are lying around and toss them into closets. Straighten the bedding and the couch cushions. Consider getting the house staged or soft staging it yourself. Play some music although opinions on what kind is best varies among Realtors. If you have access to snapshots, set up a board of pictures of the home in every season. This is especially useful when selling a home in the midst of a Canadian winter and the home has a spectacular garden or a welcoming backyard sitting area.
Have a sign-in sheet for open house attendees to fill out. Ask for their name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and how they heard about the open house. Many Realtors have unique sign-in sheets made up for open houses. Claudette Coutts, a Realtor with CIR Realty in Calgary, uses a similar tactic, “Every individual that enters the home is greeted at the door and asked to sign a guest book - for security purposes.”
If sign-in sheets or guest books aren’t working for you, consider a door prize. Everyone who enters the drawing gets a chance to win the prize; the possibility of winning a Starbucks or Tim Hortons gift card is often enough to get people to write down their particulars.
Treat Attendees Like Guests
Treat all of the attendees as if they are guests, not as potential clients. Make them feel welcome and avoid sales pressure. In the summer, offer a glass of lemonade and a light snack. In colder months, consider a mug of hot chocolate or coffee. If you are inspired, fire up the barbecue and get some hot dogs roasting to serve as you chat on the back deck. To bring more people in, get a local celebrity to attend the open house to sign autographs (advertise the heck out of that beforehand!), have a car wash going in the front yard, or give the guests a thank you gift for coming to your open house.
Having information on hand is essential when dealing with today’s savvy buyers. Coutts’s open houses always include information regarding the market and other statistics. She also has a stack of professionally done feature sheets of the listing. Compile a packet of information about the area – amenities, schools, shopping, recreation facilities, churches, etc. Have a list of homes that have sold recently and what they went for. Financial data that shows potential buyers what their options are and how much their monthly mortgage payment will be will come in handy. House documents such as blueprints, appraisals, inspection reports, major repair receipts, and the like will be helpful.
Scentsational House
The house’s odour is an integral part of any open house. Coutts shares her thoughts, “Regarding the scent, I usually use one of the liquid oil scents with the bamboo sticks. They are very subtle, not overbearing at all. I have found that the linen scent smells fresh and clean. How many depends on the square footage of the home - one per floor on an average 1100 sq. feet radius. The scent MUST be subtle. The oil in the bottle with bamboo works for me and so far I have not had any negative feedback." Another Realtor I spoke to takes a batch of raw cookie dough on a baking sheet to open houses and bakes them in the oven; the scent lingers and the attendees get a warm snack.
Coutts has another point, “I have been in some home where they use way too much (scenting products) to mask bad odours, usually cigarette smoke, cats, and mouldy odours. That being said, you can still smell the odours anyway; they are very strong scents you cannot mask. The overbearing smell usually just makes people angry.” Skip the artificial air fresheners as not only are some people allergic to them, people may think the spray was used to hide a problem.
Open House Advertising
Now that you’ve vamped up your open house, make sure people attend! Consider the following options to kick-up your open house advertising:
- A day or two beforehand, knock on the neighbours' doors and invite them to the open house. Tuck an open house notice in the door if no one is home. Even better, have formal invitations made for the closest 20-30 homes and hand-deliver them.
- Put up open house signs a few days before the event and at least a dozen signs the day of the open house. Some Realtors say using up to 30 or so signs with balloons, arrows, or flags on them is even more effective.
- Email open house details to your database.
- Advertise the open house on as many web sites as possible; many of them allow you to post for free. Don’t forget to post it on your own web site.
- Invite Realtors to your open house who have listings in the area.
Productive Open House
On a productivity note, use open houses to your advantage. When there are no people traipsing through, use the uninterrupted time to make phone calls, do thank-you notes, tweak your marketing plan, or organize your files. Even better, call people in the neighbourhood to invite them over.
While you are putting all this extra effort into your open houses to kick them up a notch, remember one of the main reasons you are doing the event. Claudette Coutts sums it up best, “Open houses are held to do some prospecting for qualified buyers. Keeping them in the property so you have time to meet them and bond is really the goal.”
Toby Welch - Toby is a full-time freelance writer who specializes in magazine articles, online writing, e-books, and manuscript editing.
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