How To Plan A Successful Open House

Published: May 15, 2021

Once your home hits the market, it’s time to start preparing your home for an open house! Your real estate agent will assist you through this process, but you are responsible for executing an event that’s absolutely flawless and draws out potential buyers. Granted, planning an open house isn’t as exciting as gathering inspiration and cool ideas for a birthday party or baby shower, but the process is fairly simple.

Want to make sure your open house ends with you scoring offers for your home? This comprehensive guide goes over everything you’ll need to make a fantastic first impression! From tidying your home’s exterior to deeply cleaning places you haven’t touched in years, we’ve got you covered.

Give your entire home a deep cleaning:

Spend some time deeply cleaning each room in your home. When’s the last time you wiped down your baseboards or cleaned the top of the refrigerator? You should focus on the spots you usually forget to clean. If you don’t have time to clean your entire home, consider hiring a professional cleaning service. How do your carpets look? You don’t want buyers walking through the door and noticing your once-white carpet is now dingy gray. You should think about professionally shampooing your carpets.

Declutter and organize your belongings:

Don’t distract buyers with too much clutter in your home. Fold the laundry pile on the floor, throw away all junk food wrappers, and shred any mail you no longer need. You should also remove excess furniture that doesn’t fit well into the space. You don’t need to give the furniture away, just place everything into temporary storage until you move into your new home.

Once you’ve finished decluttering, it’s time to depersonalize the home. Go through and pack away your family pictures, memorabilia, religious items, and children’s artwork. You want buyers to visualize living in the home, but they can’t do that when they look around and see pictures of you everywhere.

Buyers often look at homes with ample storage space. So, if your home has plenty of closets, cupboards, and pantry space, you definitely want to show them off! Don’t leave these spaces overflowing with too much stuff. Take some time to clear out most of your belongings and pack them away. 

Make necessary repairs to your home:

Buyers are going to look at your home through a magnifying glass, silently pointing out all the repairs the home will need. They expect to see your home in pristine condition, which means you’ll need to make some repairs before the open house. Spend a weekend patching all the holes in walls, upgrading old and broken appliances, fixing any cracks in windows, and repairing leaky faucets. 

Now that all the repairs are completed, make some minor upgrades will make a huge difference in your home. Consider giving your home a fresh coat of paint, pressure-washing your driveway and sidewalk, and planting some colorful flowers. Even small upgrades - like changing out your old mailbox and purchasing new house numbers - will make buyers fall more in love with the home.

Promote the open house:

Don’t forget to list the open house on multiple listing services and classified advertisement websites. 

You should even post about the event on Facebook for any family and friends who are looking to purchase a new home. Hang some flyers throughout the neighborhood as well. 

Place ‘open house’ signs at major intersections in the area and your home’s front yard. Tie some colorful balloons to these signs so people can easily spot them while driving or walking their dog.

Have proper open house etiquette:

You want to wow buyers from the moment they pass through your front door. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, have complimentary masks and small bottles of hand sanitizer handy. Sadly, having food and drinks out in the open is a bad idea right now, but you could always bake some delicious homemade cookies and individually wrap them. Buyers will definitely take note of the extra effort you’re making.

No pets are allowed at the open house! Don’t assume everyone is a pet person. Once you make arrangements for your pets, make sure you clear away all their belongings as well.

Pack away all your valuables and medications! Sadly, thieves love open houses because you’re giving strangers full access to your home. Prevent yourself from becoming a victim of robbery and theft.

Don’t let buyers walking away empty-handed. Create a flyer or brochure that includes information about your home, such as the listing price, important details, and key features. Provide some pictures of your home as well. You might have some buyers that aren’t from the area, so you should consider adding some additional information about the school system and community events.

Once your open house is over, you want to hear honest feedback from buyers. Just leave some feedback cards and pens near your cookies so buyers won’t be able to miss them.