Who generally goes to open houses? Besides buyers, it's the neighbors. Now, you might have already shared this information with everybody on your block, but it doesn't mean they are happy about it. Because to sell as a short sale means you are selling for less than the home was once worth. If your home is worth less, the sale will quite possibly continue to drive down the value of your neighbor's homes, too.
Plus, not everybody wants their nosy neighbors poking around in their personal financial business. Maybe you don't want to broadcast to every person on your block that you are struggling to make your mortgage payments. This might be private information that you would prefer to keep to yourself.
But let's say you don't give a hoot. You want the house sold as quickly as possible. You've come to terms with the fact that your home needs to sell as a short sale, and you're eager to sign an offer.
Is Your Short Sale a Good Candidate for an Open House?
Not every home is a good candidate for an open house. If your home is far off the beaten path, and there is very little drive-by traffic, it might not be a good candidate. If there are a lot of homes on the market and the inventory seems high, there might not be much interest among buyers to go to open houses. If your neighborhood is not a high demand area, you can hold it open but perhaps nobody will come. Except the neighbors.
Still, if you're not holding it open yourself, why do you care? It's your agent who will get bored to tears, sitting inside a home that no one comes to visit. So, it's probably worth a shot if you are game.
Top 5 Tips for Holding Open a Short Sale House
While you might be tempted to play down the short sale factor, it's not a good idea to disguise it. That's because buyers will have to wait for short sale approval. If they are not willing to wait, it's better to find out upfront than when you are holding the approval letter from the lender.
- Clean the house from top to bottom. Just because it's a short sale doesn't mean buyers don't expect the home to be in move-in condition and clean. Pride of ownership shows if you care. If you don't care, don't hold it open.
- Turn on all of the lights. Open the blinds, the drapes and pull back those curtains. Turn on every light fixture in the house, including range hood lights over the stove and under cabinet lighting in the kitchen.
- Have plenty of property flyers on hand. While you don't need to splash short sale in big, fat letters on the flyer, make sure visitors get a flyer before they leave. A flyer will contain the sales price, a few photos, and basic information about your home such as age, square footage, number of bedrooms, baths and any cool features. Buyers might be excited over the price, but they still need to fall in love with your home.
- Ask your agent to blanket busy intersections with directional signage. Many open houses are advertised online or in print, but in some neighborhoods, visitors come from open house signs placed strategically at high traffic corners.
- Leave the house. Leave early and come home late. Go do something else fun. Do not hang around and talk to buyers who come through. Your real estate agent is a professional who has insight into the profession that you do not possess. Let your agent do the job of an open house agent, which means you, skiddaddle.
At the time of writing, Elizabeth Weintraub, DRE # 00697006, is a Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate in Sacramento, California.
