If you’re preparing to sell your home, you may be left wondering if you should host an open house. While in years past open houses were the “go to” way to get traffic through your door and try to boost your changes of receiving offers, in current Real Estate markets this isn’t necessarily the case. Traditional open houses are still being used by some seller’s however a newer way of hosting tours is becoming the more normal approach within selling Real Estate.
Instead of putting up a sign and allowing for walk ins, appointments are starting to be required by many Selling agents. So, while your selling agent may indeed be at your home for a full weekend that is chalked full of showings, the showings won’t be walk in’s and will have set a pre-determined tour times prior to the day of the showing. This is beneficial for many reasons, for both the buyers and the sellers.
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For buyers, setting appointments allows them the space needed to truly tour the home, taking their time to visualize what their life could look like within the walls, without the pressure of having other buyers also perusing through the halls. Additionally, most of the time when appointments are made, this ensures that the potential buyers have already conducted some research and deemed the property worthy of viewing which could in turn translate to an offer as they’ve already shown a high level of interest in the property.
For seller’s, having appointments is a great way for them to plan how long they’ll need to be out of the house, as well as the exact amount of foot traffic that their listing is receiving. For example, if only 2 appointments were made for the Saturday of your “open house” then you know that you have a problem somewhere within the listing, whether with the price, photos, description, etc. With the way the current market is trending, you should be scheduling a fairly long list of tours for the dates that you set as “open” within the listing. If this isn’t the case your agent will be able to find, identify, and fix the problem to help boost views and result in more showings and tours.
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Finally, while the typical just show up and walk in idea was once highly popular and many buyers would scour yards for open house signs, by only showing via appointment is also adds a layer of safety. As many buyers are still apprehensive to gather in areas with multiple households, they can rest assured that social distancing precautions have been taken and feel a little safer when touring a house knowing that they have the space to themselves for their designated appointment time.
If you’re currently searching for a new home, are ready to sell your home and need a qualified and local seller’s agent, or if you have any questions regarding Carolina Real Estate, please feel free to contact our office at any time.
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