Tehama Country Real Estate

Tehama Country Real Estate – 3 How To Prepare Your Home For House Open Real Estate Spotlight By Alex Mason elling your home is a positive experience most of the time, especially when you take all the steps to ensure smooth sailing from start to finish. S Preparing your home for an open house is a key factor toward proper presentation and one area of the real estate sale where you should take every measure to get it right. AVAILABILITY Your home should be available for buyer browsing every weekend for the duration of the sale. If you are able to vacate the home for a mid-week open house, all the better for rapid results and a sale. Proper handling of the open house is to hand the keys over to your listing agent for a full day of show- casing two to three days a week for an occupied resi- dence. Be sure your listing agent is marketing the open house in advance and uses plenty of signs to point the way from the main boulevards to your front door. Web site marketing and local ads in the newspapers create greater exposure to make your open house venture a prosperous one with dozens of home buy- ers responding to your listing agent's efforts. PRESENTATION Your home should be sparkling clean to include baseboard scrubbing, the removal of cobwebs, and taking excess furniture and personal effects away from the main frame of the home. Store toys, books and anything else that takes away from the spatial orientation of the interior. In addition, if you are presenting the home with a dining room, be sure the area is set up for that pur- pose or contains nothing at all. To have an office or gym in a designated dining area may confuse the buyer as to the actual living space in the home. Your experienced listing agent will help you pre- pare your home for market with the proper usage of each room in the house. Lawns must be maintained and backyards should be open and clear of unused items that will make the outdoor living space appear smaller. REGISTRY Your listing agent should be diligent when present- ing your home. However, he or she must also be responsible and take care of your home security. The agent will have a guest registry to sign for each wishes to roam through your home. If a potential buyer refuses to sign the registry or seems to be com- bative in any way, a good listing agent will show him or her the door. The seller's security must not be com- prised by lookie-loos who have no intention of buy- ing the home or have not been pre-qualified for fund- ing. After each open house, be sure you or your agent bumps every window and checks every back door to ensure they have not been opened during the show- ing and that you have complete security after hours. STEP OUT FOR THE DAY There is no written rule that the home owner must not be present during open house. However, if you want your buyers to be comfortable, vacating the premises is a sound plan of attack. Many home owners get emotional over their prop- erty or make judgement calls about the potential buy- ers, both of which can undermine the efforts of a strong listing agent. When you are having an open house, plan to be gone for a good eight hours to max- imize the showing options and make the day pro- ductive. Vacating may be uncomfortable at times, but it is a part of the professional selling process and will serve you well in the end. Alex Mason is a former real estate agent and mortgage bro- ker living in Los Angeles. per- son who

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