Open House Tips for Realtors – Make Sure To Provide Drinks to Your Open House Guests and Other Tips!

It’s a never-ending debate that has become more heated in recent years. Do open houses provide any real value as buyers spend more of their house hunting time online? Some practitioners dismiss the open house, saying it’s an outdated custom that’s carried on mainly to placate home sellers. Other real estate pros remain devoted to the method. Their track records show that open houses can, and often do, get the property sold. Open-house enthusiasts can attest, orchestrating a great event isn’t easy. From getting people to show up to following up after the event, every open house requires careful prep work, excellent conversational skills, and a positive attitude. 

Show Some Hospitality

Remember to treat the people coming to the showing like they are guests in your own home! Make sure to provide refreshing drinks like Coffee and Smoothies at your open house. You will stand out and it’s a great ice breaker. Most mobile beverage caterers are very reasonably priced.  

Technology and an Open House

There are many real estate sites, make sure your agent uses the latest technology to market your house. Agents can advertise your open house on a host of popular sites such as, Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Zillow .com and portals on Yahoo and Google.

Where Do Buyers Start Their Search

Most buyers start their searches on computers; you need a professional presentation online. That means more than a few token photos. Post a good number of photos and make sure the pictures are of good quality and rally show the home well. Realtor. com has a free real estate app for consumers. It finds and lists all of the open houses within a certain radius, with maps and directions to each. It includes asking price and number of bedrooms. Before technology, real estate agents prepared brochures about your home. Now your agent needs to take the extra steps to get the open house to appear on the app. People are more likely to read the material online. Most of the attendees have reviewed the info before they come to the open house.

Update Your “For Sale” Sign

A sign called a rider that rides on top of your “for sale” sign, the attachments are available from home improvement stores and you can usually get them pre-printed with “Open House Saturday or “Open House Sunday”. Update that “for sale” sign with this open house rider exactly one week before your big event. So for just a few dollars anyone driving by will know that they can come back Sunday and your home will be open for viewing.

Get Your Neighbors to Help

You may think the last thing I want is for my neighbors to nosing through my closet. But that’s actually not such a bad thing. The neighborhood people are the most important sales people for the house. They are the people who want their friends to come move into the neighborhood. They can be your scouts. If you want to make the most of it, send an invitation to invite the neighbors. Just do a flier or send an email.

Get the House Ready

There are two schools of thought on this from different real estate agents. One may tell you to get rid of anything political or personal such as family photos, drawings on the fridge. This thought is that the potential buyer wants to look at a blank slate and this helps them picture themselves in the house. Another may take the opposite view, they say the potential buyer want to live in the house and want to know that human beings have lived in it and that connects with them. Both ways close all the toilet lids and get rid of those fuzzy lid covers. Also consider removing area rugs in favor of bare floor. You want buyers to see the floors. It gives them a feeling of space that is not chopped up.

Please keep Valet Coffee in mind when you are planning your next open house or other event! Specialty coffees and smoothies are always a hit and appreciated by your guests.

Contact us (859-409-1628) for a free consultation!


logoAbout Valet Coffee

Valet Coffee is a full service, mobile espresso and smoothie bar. It’s a unique way to impress customers, appreciate employees and kick up any special event to the next level. Our professional baristas will bring the taste and feel of an authentic European coffee house. We do all the work, all you have to do is entertain. Valet Coffee’s mobile espresso and smoothie bars are one of Greater Cincinnati’s best marketing tools.
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