Selling your home ‘For Sale By Owner’ brings with it a list of important as well as legal steps that you’ll be responsible for. Selling your home on your own will become your second job. To sell your home in the quickest amount of time you’ll be responsible for: making repairs, staging, updating, pricing, marketing as well as completing all the legal documentation required. 

So you understand the numerous ‘hats’ you’ll be wearing. Now what? First and foremost, you need to get buyers through your front door. And when you do, you need to WOW them. Will it be easy attracting buyers to your home? No, but it is possible. 

When I’m selling my client’s homes I use the Central Wisconsin MLS, a website I create, open houses, mailers, AdWords, business cards plus almost a dozen other websites that. Which of these can you do? You can definitely hold an open house.

An open house is an excellent opportunity for your neighbors as well as other interested parties to walk through your home. Many people are to apprehensive to make an individual appointment because they feel they may waste your time, or they’d be to uncomfortable walking through your home with you there.

By holding an open house you take away those fears, because a buyer now knows your home is ‘open’ from 1 – 3 pm this Saturday, and they’ll feel more comfortable stopping by. As a FSBO, your greatest opportunity to sell your home is to increase the number of buyers who tour your home.

So, hopefully, you’re considering holding an open house. Following are 15 steps that you can use to hold a productive open house:

  1. Which day or days of the week do you want to hold your open house? Saturday is the most popular day in our area. But maybe that means you should go against the grain. What about Sunday after church, as people are heading home? Are you close to a major employer (Riverview Hospital, Renaissance Learning etc.) where many employees walk during their lunch time? Becoming popular is holding an open house during the week just after people finish work, so they can stop by on their way home.
  2. Schedule your open house at least one week in advance.
  3. Restrict the total open house hours to between 1 and 4, to reduce your frustration of having to wait for buyers. Limiting your open house to one or two total hours increases the odds of people visiting simultaneously. This may be a bit hectic, but it enhances the sales atmosphere by creating interest when one prospect sees another looking at your house the same time they are.
  4. Place directional arrows from all major intersections toward your home.
  5. Place a very visible open house sign in your front yard.
  6. Leave space for visitors to park.
  7. Remove all debris from the front of your home. If your home doesn’t have curb appeal the likely hood of buyers stopping decreases dramatically.
  8. Your front porch and entry way should sparkle. You got people to stop, what a person sees now is going to dictate how they feel as they walk through the rest of your home. Remember, first impressions…
  9. Turn on all the lights, including closets. Also, open all draperies. Flooding your home with light will make it appear larger and more inviting.
  10. Place a brochure or other printed material in the entry area.
  11. Have extra clean bathrooms and close all toilet lids.
  12. If your home features extra organized or large closets, open a few for inspection.
  13. Verify that valuables have not been left where accessible.
  14. Tune in soft music from the same radio station in each available room. Keep your TV turned off.
  15. Consider a guest registration book for visitors to sign so you can follow up with them. It’s a must to follow up with any buyer who leaves their information.

Their you have it, 15 tips that will make your open house go smoothly. If you have any questions about holding an open house, or anything related to selling your home please feel free to contact me at 715.572.8372 or holberga [at] firstweber [dot] com.