By George Nicola (Expert Stager)
Whether you are looking to buy or sell one home, you need to be competent in every step.
The general rule of thumb is that it becomes more challenging to sell a home that has stayed in the market longer. Open houses can benefit sellers, real estate agents, and buyers. However, sellers looking to close their home sales quickly and buyers looking to make the house more habitable sometimes find it challenging to implement the right ideas and changes.
When selling a home, one of the most important things is to ensure that you make an excellent first impression on potential buyers. Whether you are a real estate agent, a homeowner, a home buyer, a home seller, or an individual interested in open houses in real estate, read on to learn invaluable tips for selling or buying a house fast.
7 Open House Hacks to Buy or Sell a Home Fast
Hire the Best
When you hire the best people in the real estate field, you will always get the best results when selling your home.
First, you need to hire a real estate agent who is experienced in negotiation and handling various real estate transactions.
The realtor will also play a key role in completing the paperwork that comes with buying and selling a home, which is a complex part of home ownership. A real estate agent can also access many networks concerning real estate.
Apart from real estate agents, you also need to hire the best real estate investor, especially if you are looking for a property management firm.
Hiring the best investor means that they will rent out the property and even conduct repairs. In addition, you may need to hire the best mortgage broker with expert knowledge and lengthy mortgage market experience.
Since the design of your home includes both the feel and function of the space and can affect the mood, productivity, and overall health of those who live there, you nigh also need to hire the best interior designer. The rule of thumb is to prioritize your hiring locally.
Get Multiple Bids from Experts
If you are fortunate enough, an open house can set in motion a bidding war between many potential buyers, which may set you up to sell your home for more than the price you initially were looking for.
However, many home sellers and real estate agents often rush into selling a property or even hiring any real estate expert without prioritizing the need to compare a number of bids.
Some cannot wait for more offers because their calendar won’t allow it.
To get multiple bids for your home, all you have to do is to create demand for your listing. Once you notify people that your home is up for sale, potential buyers interested in similar property types will start lining up.
For your home to be at the center of a bidding war, set an offer deadline and make it clear that you won’t accept any offers before. This will entice potential buyers to bid for your home at the specified time, which may lead to a bidding war.
If you can get bids from at least three different potential buyers or even other experts, such as roofers, interior designers, mortgage brokers, plumbers, landscapers, and masons, you name it; you will have more options to choose from.
In addition, when experts know that they are bidding for the same task as their colleagues, they tend to lower their costs.
Remember to publish your listing on the MLS (multiple listing services) to give your open house as much visibility as possible, then syndicate it with major real estates platforms like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com, and claim those listings to track statistics.
Home sellers who list their properties on the MLS enjoy increased exposure of their homes to essential buyers. This is because their listings are automatically fed to thousands of local and national real estate websites.
Your MLS listing will also automatically appear on local agent websites. This makes your home accessible to the clients of the local agents who browse the internet looking for a similar home.
Moreover, with more than 50% of MLS listings using poorly captured and low-quality photos, you can increase the number of people who see your listing by hiring a professional photographer.
Since MLS attracts thousands of licensed real estate professionals, ask your realtor to pull realtor contact lists from your local MLS and add them to your email database.
To convert real estate leads into potential buyers, your real estate agent must be well versed in writing effective emails. To increase your open email rate, ensure the subject line is interesting and relevant. Realtors can also help you find auctions listed on the MLS.
Take Advantage of the First Offer
Your first offer is the best! The moment an interested buyer presents their first offer for your home, dig in to know more about their demographic characteristics and motivations.
This helps you categorize and target similar types of potential buyers. Once you get the first offer, try negotiating with them by making counter offers until you reach a decision.
To ensure you are getting the best first offer, it is crucial to gauge all the essential components, including the price and terms.
Generally, an offer may include the price buyers are willing to pay, the closing date, whether they want furnishings included, or if they want to buy down the interest rate of your mortgage, etc.
Once you accept the offer, these terms must be fulfilled so that the buyer does not back out of the purchase.
If you want to play hardball, stick to the listing price in your first counteroffer or reject the first offer without making a counteroffer.
If you decide to make a counteroffer, put an expiration date on it so that you can draw quick responses from interested buyers. To get many competing bids, only accept offers after an open house. If you agree to pay closing costs, increase the buying price.
If you consider hiring an interior designer to design your “Smart home,” one of the first questions is how much does an interior designer cost?
This article outlines a comprehensive guide on average costs, price rates, and steps to hire a designer.
Buy Right and Buy Less
You must ensure that you are buying right and buying less or not at all. For homebuyers, purchasing a home is life-changing, especially if you want to spend the rest of your life in one.
To buy right, be open-minded when viewing properties, and judiciously compare and contrast your choices before making a final decision. As you think about how to buy the right house, know your budget and choose a place that matches your future lifestyle.
Then go for a house that costs way less than your budget to avoid the stress of overwhelming mortgage payments in the future, and unforeseen overhead expenses, such as fixing leaking roofs, damp ceilings, etc.
Also, ensure the house ticks all the boxes of your non-negotiables, such as several bathrooms, green spaces, private parking, a swimming pool, etc.
For home sellers, please verify all information from buyers because they are liars!
Potential homebuyers at an open house may change their minds continuously or hold back after making a bid, leaving you and the agent confused about what they want.
Many potential buyers could lie about their budget, credit, and other related property needs.
Get Creative with Open House Virtual Staging
Due to the rapid development of full-blown real estate digital technology, with the help of virtual staging, for sale by owner (FSBO) is growing in popularity.
You can get a reasonable selling price for your home if you can use virtual staging without making major renovations.
Virtual staging in real estate goes further than just photos with decorating effects. It stretches to those elusive qualities of vision and appeal that make people want to see themselves living there.
With virtual staging, the value of your unfurnished, old, or vacant home will catapult to another level without the need to upgrade it and still sell it at a reasonable price.
Virtual viewing also allows you to show potential buyers a computer-generated walkthrough of your home even before they visit it physically.
Consider hiring a professional virtual staging company to prep your house for sale using special photo editing software to enhance the appearance of your home.
The company’s main task is to appeal to the broadest possible audience, for the highest possible price. The goal is to impress the most crucial buyer.
Since many potential homebuyers often look for any fault while negotiating the price, virtual staging eliminates such possibilities!
Maintain Walk Away Power
For home buyers, this means that if you are interested in a particular house, be willing not to buy it if circumstances are not right.
For instance, if a professional home inspection highlights more-than-expected defects in a place you are interested in purchasing, express your concerns to your agent and ask for their advice.
For example, a house might fail the inspection due to termites, faulty HVAC, weak roofing, mold, or foundation problems. This helps you know potential issues with the house that need to be addressed before you move in.
If you are a home seller and you want a virtual staging expert to renovate your house before selling it digitally, consider hiring a home inspector to examine your house.
They will provide you with a list of the needed repairs and their respective fees, which you should disclose to all potential buyers, together with the virtually staged version of the house.
This prevents potential buyers from walking away too soon. Otherwise, also be willing to walk away from sales that do not match your goals and that of the homeowner.
Key Takeaways
- Hire the best people in the real estate field.
- Publish your listing on the MLS and, then syndicate it with major real estate platforms
- Hire a professional virtual staging company to prep your house for sale
- Always stick to the listing price in your first counteroffer or don’t make a counteroffer.
- To get many competing bids, only accept offers after an open house.
- If you agree to pay closing costs, increase the buying price.
