What Buyers SHOULD be Doing at Open Houses

What are some tips for buyers that are going to be at open houses in this competitive spring market? It’s going to be crazy out there, there’s going to be a lot of people- How are you going to make the most of going to an open house?

First, you want to dress lightly and comfortably, and you want to try to travel light. This might be a great opportunity for parents to leave the kids with relatives or family that day, so you can get out and see homes, focus, and be untethered in the process.

You want to take great notes while you’re at an open house. You’ll want to bring a checklist, too, and we actually have a checklist you can download below to help you keep track of these homes as you’re going through them. You should see no more than four or five homes every week. You don’t want to get too overwhelmed with all the options. This checklist will help you refer back and understand what you just saw.

You want to sign in properly. This shows that you are a legitimate person with legitimate intent, and you’re serious about it. Sign in with real information, and make it legible. Add your realtor’s name if you’re working with one. The listing agent is only having you sign in because they want to be safe for the seller, they want to know who’s coming through the home, to know where to go for follow-up, or to provide additional information that might come up about the home.

You want to ask  a lot of questions to that listing agent. You’ll want to understand as much as you can about the home, the condition it’s in, and you may even have the opportunity to find out why the home is on the market. In fact, we’ll have a list of 10 great questions for you below, that you can take with you to ask the listing agent when you go to open houses.

Finally, sometimes there’s not always great photography of the home online, and if you really like the home, you might want to take a few extra photos so you can remember it. So get those camera phones out, ask permission to take some photos of the home and of some rooms that are of interest to you that may not be properly presented in the listing material.

Have some fun open housing, and maybe we’ll see you at one of ours coming up!  If we can help you with a home sale or a home purchase, give us a call at 978-494-0346!