A few tips on how to hold a successful Open House in Charlotte or elsewhere! The Open House technique seems to run about the same throughout the country. The difference is in how many homebuyers show up and actually buy the house. In Charlotte it would be fair to say that less than 2% of homes get sold from a visit to a Charlotte Open House. Nonetheless, it continues to be used by agents to attract prospective home buyers so that they might use the Realtor on a home purchase-any house. So, for those of you planning on holding an Open House in the Charlotte area, here are a few tips and scams for you to be aware of.

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Claude Cross
704-975-1733
JCross

Jane Francis Cross 704-608-0228

Resources:

6420 A1 Rea Road Suite 359, Charlotte NC 28277

Licensed in both North and South Carolina-

Serving Charlotte Real Estate Needs Since 1994

Charlotte Open Houses and Open House Tips

Tips for Successful Open Houses

It's a very rare occurrence that we hold an open houses for our clients. It really depends on the homes location. Those that are more rural, tend to have less, if any traffic.

Each area of the country is different on how well their Open Houses are attended.

If you are planning on holding an Open House, make sure to follow some model home builder guidelines.

     Have the house shined up top to bottom.

     Offer ice cold water bottles and a bowl of cookies or
candy.

     Make sure your home doesn't smell of last night's fried fish and that it is at a comfortable room temperature.

     All lights on, blinds and such, opened as would be appropriate.

     Pretty up the bathrooms and kitchens with nice towels, remove throw rugs and bath mats, place kitchen soap and misc. in the cabinets.

    Light music is nice, but not necessary.

    Put together a nice flier that your visitors can take with them.

Make sure to advertise this on multiple web sites, including Craig's List. Good signage, directional's and balloons or flags.

Open Houses can be handled in a two hour period. We suggest 2-4 on Saturday or Sunday afternoons.

If you can get others in the neighborhood to join you, by holding Open Houses, you may increase your foot traffic.

Open House Liabilities

We have had little success capturing buyers over the years when performing open houses.

Typically, it's the neighbors who come by to ogle the sellers home. Hence, we are not big proponents of the Open House.

In this day and age, we prefer potential buyers to be personally escorted by their licensed agent while viewing our seller's homes.

From a liability standpoint, here are a few Open House scams to be aware of:

Drug addicts on the hunt for prescriptions will ask to use your bathroom and go through the cabinets stealing medicine-so lock it up somewhere!

This should go without saying, but, also lock up your jewelry and any "valuables" that can be snatched up when you are not looking...including purses!

Some folks looking at Open Houses will bring their children along. Place breakables up high.

If you want them to remove their shoes (rainy) before entering, put a sign on your front door stating so.

And for all Open Houses, make sure to be aware of this devious little scam:

A couple enters, gains your trust. Another couple enters, you tell the first couple to proceed looking at things while you greet the second couple.

The scam is, the two couples work together, the first couple proceeds to gather the jewelry drugs and valuables that you didn't secure earlier.

Be smart, create a situation where they will leave your Open House, empty handed.