Getting The Word Out About Your Open House

When selling your home, you have to get the word out to buyers in the area. The Internet is a great method for doing that, but traditional methods are really the way to go.

Part of the selling process for a home is conducting open houses. Many sellers cringe at the idea, but having an open house viewing is vital. Sooner or later, you have to let buyers actually walk though the house. Consider it a necessary evil, but it is the single best way to find a buyer. Indeed, the process is so important that many sellers now employee home staging professionals to whip their houses into shape before the showing.

Part and parcel to an open house are those signs you see all over the neighborhood each weekend. Are they tacky? Yes. Do you really need to put them up all over the neighborhood? Yes. Do they work? Yes! These signs are simply critical when it comes to getting buyers to your home.

Once you have committed to conducting an open house for potential buyers, you need to get the word out. While there are lots of interesting strategies to do this, tradition carries the day in this area. So, where do you get signage and where do you post them.

You can purchase signs at most hardware stores including Home Depot, Lowes or your favorite place to buy supplies for weekend projects. Do not buy one. You want to canvas your area with multiple signs, so plan how many you need before going to the store.

The number and placement of signs is entirely dependent on your neighborhood. Obviously, you want to place them on the corners on both ends of your street. Make sure to ask neighbors if this okay to avoid any nasty comments.

In addition to your street, you want to place signs on the corners of any major intersections around your neighborhood. If you just place signs on your street, you are limiting your exposure. You want to sell the home, which means you need to get the signs out where lots of people will see them. This means major intersections as far as five or six blocks away.

Marketing homes for sale has been revolutionized over the last few years. Planting signs around your neighborhood, however, is still the best way to get word out in your neighborhood.

The National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA, who solely represent buyers in the realty business) has suggested that as much as 82% of buyers are sidetracked from the important issues by a well-staged house. This organization also concedes that home staging nets more cash and faster sales - so it works!

Buyers are urged by the NAEBA to be cautious and to remember that when the house is sold, the stage is taken away. The tricks of home staging do not improve the floor plan, or the square footage of the home or the quality of the neighborhood, and these are the qualities that you will be re-selling at a later date.