5 Tips for Making Your Home Open-House Ready

How you choose to present your home to potential buyers can be the difference between making a sale and watching them walk out the door. The right presentation should make a buyer feel like they can see themselves living in the space. Some people can do that without help. Others need more visuals. Consider these five tips to help you prepare your home for an open-house event.

1. Spend the Money To Stage

Staging your home means taking furniture and small accents with mass appeal to make it feel like a home when buyers walk through. The purpose is to give them a visual that makes it easier to imagine how their own things will fit in the space. It also simply paints a pretty picture. Research shows that staged homes sell better overall. If your goal is to generate more foot traffic at your open house and attract more buyers, staging is a great tool. It can even help increase the value. Remember to focus on the curb appeal to get people walking through the door. Utilize the natural light available in every room to create focus on your home’s best assets.

2. Give It a Light But Clean Smell

Avoid any potent odours in the kitchen before the open house. Give the space a good cleaning, including your stove, oven, sink, and all spaces in between. You can also create an attractive aroma with linen-scented candles that make the room smell like fresh laundry. If your rooms are smaller, try a scented wall plug-in to ensure that the smell isn’t overpowering. You could even bake a batch of cookies to offer a treat and make it smell like a home.

3. Declutter and Organize

Minimalism is always the best approach when preparing for an open house. Put away anything that can clutter the place. This includes the garage. Put things away in labeled boxes and keep small items out of view. A clean organized home creates a pleasant atmosphere for buyers.

4. Focus on Curb Appeal

The first thing a buyer sees is the outside of your home. It’s your chance to make a first impression, and it can be a major selling point. The inside may be stunning, but you will struggle to get anyone to step in and see it if you don’t make the outside enticing. A layer of paint, some light landscaping, and a unique front door can make a buyer curious about what the inside looks like.

5. Put Away the Personal Items

For two reasons, you should avoid leaving out any personal items for buyers to see during an open house. First, you want to keep your personal items safe. Anything of value should be put away because you will not be able to keep a close eye on everyone during the event. Second, you want people to visualize themselves and their families in the space, and having personal items everywhere can sometimes make that difficult.
Open-house events are designed to give buyers a chance to get a feeling about the home. They get to walk around and imagine their things in your space. The above tips should aid in that process. As a result, someone gets a new
forever home, and you make a sale.

It’s also a good idea for motivated sellers to complete a home inspection ahead of listing to insure there are no hidden deficiency surprises. High moisture readings in the closet ceilings or leaking pipes hidden behind drywall can hinder a smooth transaction.

Peter Coppard Real Estate can help you locate your dream home in downtown Vancouver. Check listings online or give us a call at 604-612-6392.