How do you prepare for an open house? When you are getting ready for your open house, turn it from a stressful time to an enjoyable time by planning ahead and making your home look like a must-buy for any potential purchaser. Preparation is the key for any open house.
Here are suggestions for you to prepare your home so that all of the potential buyers will think your house will be their next dream home. Follow these helpful suggestions:
- Eliminate the clutter so that your house looks clean and spacious. You can always rent a storage unit for a couple of months to hide your belongings.
- Make sure that your front door is either new or newly painted. Since all of your guests for an open house will be utilizing the front door, it needs to be appealing and welcoming. This also goes for the front door mat as well as the numbers on your house. The cleaner and newer that everything looks, the more attractive the house will be to potential buyers.
- Make sure you take all of your personal belongings out of the picture, no pun intended. Potential buyers do not need to see your family pictures or your kids’ soccer and baseball pictures. They also don’t need to see your framed college diploma. They want to picture themselves in the house with all of their personal items, not yours. Remove these and remove all of the excess artwork that doesn’t fit with the style of a potential new owner.
- Clean like you have never cleaned before. This means from the baseboards to the ceilings to the windows. Everything. And make sure that all rooms are staged properly, whether it is the bathroom furniture or the lamps in the basement. Everything needs to be dressed up neatly and nicely so that it makes the potential buyers want to put an offer in before they leave the property.
- Any minor repairs that can be fixed easily should be taken care of well in advance of the open house. Potential buyers do not want to see cracks or holes in the wall, and they don’t want to see chipped paint throughout the house. These are projects that can very easily be taken care of in advance so that your house is in tip-top shape when the day comes for the open house.
- Make sure that your house smells clean and fresh. Buy air freshener to take away any potential smell from pets or from the regular wear and tear. Open up the windows days in advance to help the fresh air come in and make the rooms smell inviting.
- A nice little added touch to any open house is to bake cookies or treats. Not only will they appreciate the gesture, but it will also help the house smell better and make the potential buyer picture themselves making dinner and desserts for their family in their new home!
- Make sure that you have enough packets that lay out the entire house plan. You don’t want any potential buyer to have to do extra work and go online to check on things when you could have very easily taken the time to print a few extra copies. This is imperative because if they want information quickly, they need to have it at their fingertips.
Author: Doug Chapman is a staff writer for HomeDaddys, a stay at home dad blog. He specializes in diapers and sippy cups, but is a successful real estate investor on the side.