Hosting an open house is one way to entice potential buyers inside to check out your home’s best features. An open house can also help get the word out about your home—the more people who have seen it, the more word-of-mouth exposure you can earn. But they can also be a two-hour waste of time. This chapter will help you determine whether open houses are for you.

Agents frequently host open houses not so much in the hopes of landing a buyer for the home being shown, but to meet folks who may not already have an agent representing them. Because you’re only interested in selling your home, you’ll need to consider whether opening your house to the masses is worth the effort.

Buyers love open houses because it’s an opportunity for them to visit homes on their own, without the formality of an agent tagging along or the inconvenience of scheduling a specific appointment. They can visit as many open houses as they like, coming and going at their own pace.

From the buyer’s perspective, there’s a lot to like about open houses. From the seller’s perspective, there are both pros and cons.

The biggest advantage of an open house is being able to show the home to several prospective buyers at once, rather than having to schedule separate tours. You save on clean-up and prep time, as well as host time. But you also get guests who have no real business being there.

Approximately 20 percent of open house attendees are friends and neighbors just dropping by to get a peek at your place, reports The Washington Times. On the other hand, your friends and neighbors are also your best sales agents, so having them visit may not be such a bad idea.

With condos and co-ops, be sure to investigate any rules regarding when and how units can be shown. You may be required to give ample notice to the condo board of your intention to hold an open house. There may also be rules about timing, length, and staffing. Requirements vary by building, so pull out your condo association guidelines before announcing your open house.

Holding an open house shortly after putting your home on the market is more likely to attract crowds than waiting a few weeks because there is generally more interest in a new listing than an older one. So as you plan to put your home up for sale, get ready to hold an open house shortly thereafter for maximum impact.

Traditionally, open houses are scheduled on weekend afternoons, typically on Sunday between 1:00 P.M. and 4:00 P.M., when people are thought to have more free time and are focused on finding a new place to live.

However, workers in the process of being transferred to a new job may come into town during the week to find a place. Holding an open house mid-week during the evening might attract more buyers who are on a tight timeline.

Before settling on an open house date, double-check schedules for holidays, major sporting events, community festivals, or other obligations that would keep buyers from attending. No matter how attractive your home is, you’ll see fewer buyers if you decide to hold it the weekend after Thanksgiving or on Super Bowl Sunday, for instance.

You may also want to host a neighbors-only open house, where families in your area are invited to stop by for coffee and dessert one evening. Showing your neighbors all the features you’ve enjoyed, just as you will potential buyers who tour your home, will help you practice your spiel and get your neighbors thinking about who they know who may be in the market for a home in their neighborhood.

After you decide on the day and time for your upcoming open house, announce it far and wide to make the most of your time. Place a classified ad during the week before the date, making sure it gets into the weekly real estate section of your local paper by buying a small classified ad. You’ll also want to have it appear in print the day of the open house, in case someone suddenly decides that is the day to begin looking.

To show your home at its best, run through the following checklist before the event:

Up to half of all buyers are either allergic to, afraid of, or don’t like pets, say the authors of Dress Your House for Success, giving you plenty of reason to take your furry friends and their paraphernalia off-site during any open houses. Yes, your pet may be anything but scary, but if prospective buyers simply don’t like dogs, cats, birds, pigs, or ferrets, for example, no amount of convincing is going to get them to tour your home if an animal is nearby.

Instead, ask a neighbor or family member to watch over Fluffy during the open house to avoid any negative reaction to your home. If you fear it will be difficult to arrange for last minute petsitting, you may want to look into boarding your pet at a kennel or animal hospital for the day. It may be less stressful for your pet to be in an unfamiliar place than to be home and watching strangers wandering through their space.

Although children are generally less scary to buyers than pets, it’s probably a good idea to have them off-site as well. Your attention needs to be on meeting and greeting potential buyers, which is tough to do if your toddler is on the loose or your teenager’s still in bed. Perhaps your spouse can entertain them elsewhere while you manage the open house, or hire a babysitter to keep an eye on them at their house. It will be less stressful for you to know they are being watched so you can focus on showing off your home.

Most buyers coming to check out your home are there for the right reason, but once in a while someone who is more interested in your home’s contents will also stop by. To prevent the loss of any items of real or sentimental value, tuck them away out of sight before anyone arrives. We’re mainly concerned here with small items, such as money, prescription medication, and collectibles, which can be easily placed in a coat pocket or purse while your back is turned.

While you’re at it, you may want to roll up any special rugs gracing your floor. It’s unlikely someone would be so bold as to walk off with one, but you can protect it from lots of dirty shoes by pulling it up before visitors arrive. Some homeowners put down plastic sheets near doorways or in traffic patterns to further protect floors and carpeting from open house wear and tear.

An open house isn’t very different from the personal tours you give potential buyers, except you may have several buyers inside at the same time.

Many visitors will walk quietly through the rooms in your home, perhaps pointing out something to others in their group or whispering amongst themselves.

If you’re leading a room-by-room tour, try to offer useful observations. By all means, don’t state the obvious, such as “Here’s the dining room,” unless it’s unclear that the room was designed to function as such. That would be the case for instance, if you’re currently using it as a home office or kid’s playroom.

A better approach is to point out each room’s best features, such as the brick fireplace in the living room, the massive amount of countertop space in the kitchen, or the skylight in the master bedroom. Talk about how much you’ve appreciated certain amenities, such as the Jacuzzi, the backyard lined with tall trees, or the walk-out basement.

Some people, generally the more interested buyers, will ask questions about the home and the area. Be prepared to answer them truthfully. You may need to brush up on your home’s history to do that, such as by checking old blueprints or pull out a year’s worth of gas and electric bills to calculate your average monthly expenditure, but any question left unanswered may prevent someone from continuing to consider buying your home. If you don’t know the answer, certainly say so, but if you could get the answer, offer to do that and ask for the individual’s phone number so you can reach them later with a response.

If you’re asked questions about living in your home, such as whether your neighbors are nice or the schools are good, answer those honestly, too, but always emphasize the positive. For example, the wood stove in the house will require you stock up on wood each fall, but it will also cut your heating bill by half, or whatever the percentage is you’ve seen. Your home may not currently have a deck on the back, so the new owners will have the opportunity to design and build exactly what they’d like.

Before your open house, try to anticipate what buyers may want to know about your home and neighborhood and have answers ready. For instance, how long does it take to get into the city from your place? If you don’t know, take a drive and find out, so you can confidently give an answer. Other answers to have at-the-ready include:

Help in learning more about your area can be found at www.foresalebyowner.com/reports (see the following figure). The link gives you profiles of cities and comparisons of school districts, demographics, crime, and weather.

There will be people who stop who have nothing better to do, or because they’ve always wondered what your home looks like inside, or maybe because they aspire to have a home like yours and enjoy imagining what it would be like to live there. After you recognize that they’re not serious, such as if they are more interested in admiring your window treatments than measuring the size of the rooms, don’t waste a lot of time talking with them. Be friendly and cordial, but focus on answering the questions of other groups who appear to have a serious interest in learning more.

Among those recreational visitors will undoubtedly be some real estate agents. Some will be there to scope out the place for their clients while others will be there to scope you out.

Some ambitious agents will get in touch to offer to help you, should you decide not to continue to try to sell your home yourself. While you may want to collect this information for future reference, don’t spend a lot of time with agents at the open house unless they seem to be inquiring on behalf of a client.

As you’re chatting with buyers about your home and your move, don’t mention personal information that could damage your negotiating effectiveness later. That is, don’t reveal that you need to sell by such-and-such date in order to close on your new home, or that you start your new out-of-town job in two months and are eager to sell.

Such information may lead buyers to believe they can offer far less than your asking price and still have a shot at buying your home because you’re crunched for time.

In talking with prospective buyers, be sure to treat all interested parties the same, regardless of their race, sex, handicap, religion, color, nationality, or familial status. The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to treat anyone differently based on any of these statuses, for instance, telling some people the home isn’t yet available (when it is), or quoting a different asking price depending on who has asked. Although you would never do this, make sure your buyers know that, too, to avoid any nasty legal action.

Now that you’ve set aside the time to show off your home, here is a recap of elements of a successful open house:

Learning more about buyers will help you tailor your responses to emphasize features and benefits they’re interested in. And the more you can convince potential buyers that your home will meet all their needs, the better your chances of getting a sale.

While an open house is one way to entice potential buyers into your home, it’s by no means the only way. If things don’t go exactly as planned, don’t beat yourself up. There are other tactics you can use to promote the sale of your home.

Visitors to your open house will be more relaxed and comfortable if you appear to be relaxed and upbeat, rather than anxious and desperate.

Sure, you may be feeling overwhelmed and stressed, but act like you’ve got all the time in the world to sell your home—it’s no big thing. Not only will it keep you in a strong negotiating position by suggesting you feel no pressure to jump on the first offer that comes along, but you’ll endear your open house guests to you, making them feel more positively about your home.

A few days after the open house, pull out your sign-in sheet and call the folks who toured your home. Ask if they are still considering it, or if they’re looking at other places. If they’re still considering it, ask what their concerns are, or if there were any questions they needed answered in order to seriously consider it. Be helpful and friendly, not pushy.

If they mention a particular area of concern, try to locate some additional information on that topic to send them a few days after that. Whether it’s finding a low cost mortgage or the ability to add central air to the building, try to find a reason to stay in touch.

Keep checking in every few days until the buyers tell you they are no longer interested or have bought another place. Until then, you’re still in the running.

Depending on how successful your open house is at attracting potential buyers, you may decide to try it again shortly thereafter. Or you may decide up front to schedule two open houses back-to-back, such as on a Saturday and Sunday. The advantage of open houses scheduled closely together are that you’ll have less clean-up and preparation to do.

Having two scheduled closely together may also help put pressure on folks who come and like what they see to put an offer in ASAP. Or it may encourage buyers to come back and take a second look, which is also a step in the right direction.

For more information about topics covered in this chapter, check out the following websites:

The Least You Need to Know