The operative word is “effort” because if you ask those people who work in sales and marketing they’ll quickly tell you products don’t just fly off the shelves. Background work includes promotions, fliers, radio ads, discounted coupons, brightly coloured bunting hung around the displays – lots and lots of “Come and look!” That’s the marketing side to pull the person in. Once he’s standing with the product in his hands, the product now will sell itself – if it’s good.

Your advertising campaign will need to be put into place. However your house has its own inherent promotional aspects. That’s what you’ll use in your open house.
The house has to be in the best possible shape you can afford to get it into. Clean, wash, re-paint, scrub, trim, neaten. Scrutinize and when you do, be critical. Look, look and look again for points that can be improved. That’s what your buyer’s eyes will be doing – every time they see a negative they’ll log it as a cross in their head. The open house method is requesting that people come in and see that the house is worth what you’re asking, so make sure it is.

This may be your first bash at selling your home and all this might make you feel a little at sea but remember this, as a consumer you’ve had lots of experience with marketing ways. As a buyer of goods you know what’s appealed to you and what you hated.

As a home owner you can benefit from the entire product peddling blurb you’ve been listening to for years. If you want to get the best price an important rule is:

Exposure!

Expose your house to as many buyers you can. Expose the house not just the advertising campaign. The more people that tour your home the more you improve your chances of obtaining a “sold” sign on your front lawn at a price you’re delighted with.

If you have never sold a home this way then throwing your home open and allowing strangers to waltz in to prod and poke may sound a little nerve wracking. If you feel this way then look at it from the purchaser’s point of view. You need to think like a buyer.

For example, if you want to buy a new car how much time do you spend on research? Once you’ve narrowed down your choice to a few on a short list what do you do next? Visit the dealer? Take the car for a test drive? Do you lift the bonnet and inspect the engine? Grill the salesman on fuel consumption, safety features and maintenance issues? Most buyers do. They are use to hearing the adverts, seeing all the, “Rar rar look how wonderful this is!” surrounding the product, then going in and investigating the merchandise - thoroughly! It’s a familiar scenario in their minds and probably yours too.

Women are especially good sleuths when it comes to purchasing expensive or important products. They like to inspect, compare, inspect again and then decide. Watch your wife or partner the next time she goes shopping for that important or unusual something. Women will almost always ask a tonne of questions about any new product and they’ll have a slight suspicious air about them until the salesman has allayed those concerns by answering all the points they raised. Now extrapolate that knowledge about them into buying a house. See? That’s why letting people touch, feel and experience is a workable method in selling.

Using an open house strategy invites the female component of the buying committee to inspect away. Her husband may want to check out the garage or the study but the rest of the house is usually the woman’s domain regardless of her type, taste or background. You as the seller want your buyer to get a feel of the place. You want them to move around the kitchen, see if the family logistics will fit. You want them to go out into the back yard and see where their children can run around or go upstairs and stand for a few minutes admiring how the light comes streaming through the windows. They can’t do this if you’re hovering downstairs, anxiously looking at your watch because you need to collect the groceries or bath the children or make dinner or…or…or.

Yes, your house could eventually sell without all the marketing and promotional hoopla but when you’re dealing with such an enormous asset, you’d certainly want to do the most you can to see the best return on this investment.

By using the open house method you are satisfying those requirements that buyers feel are important in a purchase of this size. The “Please come in and browse,” option. Usually they take you right up on your offer and that’s why a house on show versus one that’s not, can have the edge.