January's Open House Weekend !

The holiday season has passed, and buyers are beginning to plan for their open house routine to begin ! Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage recognizes the buyers need/want to get back out their and start viewing all their "possible dream homes", and this provides a great opportunity for our sellers as well.  

The weekend of January 24th their will be a record number of open houses to kick off the start of open house season for 2014 ! This is a great opportunity for sellers to take advantage of the extra advertising exposure from prints ads to the large amount of open house signs buyers will be seeing ! Buyers will have the ability to get a look at most homes that are currently on the market, so if you have been on the fence about listing your home NOW is the time to get it listed !

This blog is going to be all about strategies to help both buyers and sellers to get the most of this open house weekend !

Sellers:

• The most important thing you can do during this open house is LEAVE, your agent will be more than capable of handling the buyers and you don't want them rushing through your home.  Almost all buyers feel as if they are "intruding" on you even during an open house.  

• You should sit down with your Realtor and have a open conversation about where your home is priced. A lot of inventory comes onto the market during the New Year so taking a look at your competition to make sure your still appropriately priced is very important.  

• Give your home a quick once over, if you have lingering holiday decorations take them down and de-clutter your space.  You will want to also make sure that you keep things as minimal as possible to make sure your home shows its best, remember many buyers may be seeing your home for the very first time and you only get one chance at a first impression.  There are additional tips for sellers which can be found HERE ! 

• Allow your realtor to serve refreshments and perhaps a snack for buyers, this will help make them slow down and relax while viewing your home since they more than likely have a full day of homes to see ! 

Buyers:

• Speak with your Buyer Broker and decide on an itinerary of homes that you are going to go and see.  There will be a lot of homes to see so you want to make sure you have a list of your "must see" homes. Just like when your out on formal showings making sure you have a good game plan this is how you will get to see the most homes.  

• Prepare yourself to remember nothing, yes I know that seems odd but when you see more than 4 or more houses you will likely begin to forget certain things.  Keep each of the highlight sheets the agents give to you, and make notes before you leave the open house so when looking back it will help jog your memory.  If you did not make an itinerary of the homes you wanted to see with your agent, than you should make sure you keep all highlight sheets so you can share with them which ones you got to see. 

• You should also prepare yourself for a potentially long day, and take the proper steps.  Remember their is a certain amount of "Open House Etiquette that you should be following when your attending these open houses.  I have written another blog about this which you can find HERE. 

This is going to be a great weekend so if your interested in learning more about this National Open House Weekend, please contact me directly !