Open Days

[Spirael]

The latest tactic in my quest to find someone to buy my house! Open days, does anyone have any experience of them? Do they work? What do I need to do??

• House has already been decluttered to within an inch of its life, but I will strive to declutter even further! Family photos down, even the cupboards empty, etc.

• It will, of course, be spotlessly clean.

• I was going to bake some chocolate brownies in the morning... Firstly so the house smells nice, secondly as bribary to viewers and thirdly as comfort food if no-one shows up...

• DH and DD will be shipped out for the event, and the cats will be locked out and any evidence of any of them disappeared!

• I have some experience at design and publishing, I was debating making a flyer/leaflet/brochure to hand out on the day. Containing things the EA seem to be reluctant to share - like a map centred on the house of all the fabulous things within walking distance (the location is pretty good), details such as the kitchen being new for 2012 and the gas/electrics being done at the same time, council tax band (we're low), lack of water meter, etc. Worthwhile, or not?

• Notice outside the house? Balloons?? Dancing monkeys???

Anything else do I need to consider?

In addition... At present we have a small amount of leeway remaining in our already reduced and sensible (by sold prices) asking price, under the assumption we're going to get offers under asking.

The EA want me to drop the price by a small amount (about 2%) now, and then advertise on the Open Day a special price which is basically our limit - going back to the 2%-under-current-price afterwards.

Do people think that's a tactic that would work? Or is it a waste of time?

It depends on your location. I'd be scared that noone would turn up!

How long has it been on the market?

Ten month in total... But we went low profile over winter and relaunched with the new kitchen, then swapped to new Estate Agents a month ago.

I would never buy a house on the day just cos it was cheaper. I would always want to spend time considering it. I would also feel conned by that tactic as I assume that very few people make an off on the day, so it's a ridiculous maneuver that no sane person is likely to go for and that would piss me off, possibly to the extent that I would refuse to buy it, or deliberately offer less as a result.

Hope that survey of 1 helps.

Like the idea of a print out with local facilities though

Do you have the Rightmove link?

Well, my brother put his house on the market, launched with an open day last July, and the fact that possible buyers could see that there were other possible buyers quite interested must have helped in the fact that it went to a bidding war and they ended up with 2 offers considerably over the asking price.
Perhap you need to get some friends / relations around during the open day, commenting to each other about all the good points, posing as prospective buyers
I've never seen a leaflet like you suggest, but it sounds like a good plan to me if you've got the time.
Good luck.

Agree the 'one day only' price reduction is a bit of a gimmick. A price reduction coinciding with the Open House sounds a good idea though.

The rest sounds good. If it's a family house, I wouldn't necessarily get rid of DD though. When we did an open house, we stated 'Children most welcome' as we are selling a family house, so wanted to appear family-friendly. Our DS had a blast showing all the kids his climbing frame!

Oh, and contrary to our estate agents advice, we had a 'no need to register' policy, so people could just turn up on spec, which to me is the whole point of an open day - to attract people who aren't sufficiently motivated, for various reasons (slightly out of budget, slightly out of area) to make a viewing in the normal way. We took names, addresses and emails at the door.

I wouldn't do a one day special price. It would make me think something funny is going on!

I think a folder of house facts is a great idea. I've seen it recomended on one of those property shows - can't remember which.

They also said make coffee and tea (well actually thay had champagne, but I would think tea and coffee are your best bet) and get them to stay a while, talk to them, sell them your house, make them feel at home.

I would do something outside too - dancing monkeys would be very good, but on the off chance you can't source any, I would probably make a banner and perhaps some balloons if you can make them look estate agent ish rather than birthday party ish.

I would also advertise the open day yourself - in the post office, corner shop, on gumtree, the supermarket notice board etc. To see if you can attract someone who is not on the EA's radar.

If you are promoting as a family house then big box of duplo, some pencils/paper and small table to entertain the kids? With Dancing Monkey?

It's been posted before in another thread, but the Rightmove page for the house is here.

I realise there are still a few issues with the pictures... I asked them to re-take the master/spare bedroom photos while we were away last week and they seem to have gone a little trigger happy, taken a bazillion new photos of all the bedrooms (including the nursery) and posted them all. I'll get onto resolving that as soon as I can.

Ok, will hold off the 'for one day only!' gimmick then and just reduce the price by a small amount for now, so hopefully it flags up as reduced on peoples radars before the open day.

I'll also start working on producing a leaflet with useful information, then print lots of high quality copies at work. Will work on advertising in local places too, I hadn't thought of that one!

I'm useless in person at selling, but I have a friend who is very good, so I might rope him in on the day to either pose as a prospective interested party or act as a seller if lots of people turn up! DD is only 2, so might be a bit young to try and sell the house to people. She's more likely to have a tantrum on the floor and put them off.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone! :)

The Estate Agents has arranged the open day for next Saturday, between Noon and 1pm! Eek!

So aside from frantically tidying, decluttering and some minor DIY over the weekend, I've also been working on an 'additional information' leaflet. A first draft is available here if anyone would be so kind as to critique it for me? It's in PDF format.

We viewed another house yesterday and it's perfect, just what we're looking for to be our Forever Home! But we need to sell this house before we can offer on and (hopefully) buy it before someone else does... [weeps]

I'm being kicked out of the house for the Open Day now with DD, and DH is going to handle showing people around with the EA. Apparently I'm getting too stressed and he's afraid I'm threaten people into buying the house.

[goes to clean and declutter some more, and source some dancing monkeys]

The leaflet looks good, but you have used the word additional a lot. Just list the things without trying to give descriptions. If it's a pick up leaflet people are more likely to read simple bullet points that they can glance at rather then a full paragraph.

I like the leaflet (though you do need to lose some 'additionals'!)

Best of luck. The Open House idea is huge in many places in Oz and yes, some people do use them as weekend entertainment, but a good thing is that prospective buyers think that everyone else there could well be serious, too- bit of competition, etc!

Make absolutely sure everything of value is locked away, and make sure all the windows are properly shut afterwards.

And Good Luck!

I think your phrasing about kitchen/Guttering makes it sound like the property has been for sale since last year "new for 2012". Might be an idea to say kitchen was fitted march 2012 etc. instead.

Good luck

Leaflet good though and a good idea

I would change a few things on what already looks good:

change the wording of security light to something else to avoid the word security, perhaps to an automatic light

saying that the shower is "new for 2012" makes it sound like a holiday caravan!

the house may be in a new council tax band when it is sold - you can check this with your local authority; some are changing the bands when they are sold. It happened with my house.

Why are their two boilers? Sorry, just curious!

It's really good and very helpful

you could use "dusk to dawn sensor lighting" rather than security light.

Could you include whether you get decent broadband speeds?

I thought you had to have a water meter fitted when you move in these days, or maybe that's just down here . Like the leaflet idea.

Thanks so much for all the feedback! Lots of good suggestions for things I can tweak and improve. I'm at work currently so can't access my file, but I'll get the changes made later.

One thing I thought of, is it worth mentioning that the garden faces South-West? So it gets loads of sun, especially in the afternoon/evening. Or will people figure that out for themselves?

In addition, I shall additionally remove the additional additional.

I'm not entirely sure why we have two boilers... They were like that when we moved in and are still going strong so we haven't felt the need to change them! The plumber assures us it's fairly normal in the area. And it's handy because you never lose hot water and central heating at the same time!

There's a gas fire at the top of the stairs too that we were a bit when we moved in, as apparently the previous residents put it there for the dog. However we've maintained it and not had it removed as on the odd occasion there's a power cut, it's been invaluable at heating the upstairs of the house! So we're never left cold.

I've not heard of them tweaking council tax bands on sales (and we're definitely going to be selling for less than we bought 7 years ago, boohoo!) but I'll stick in a 'currently' or something, just to cover myself if the council do start meddling.

Broadband speeds is mentioned underneath the map, where it indicates we're part of the Leeds SuperNode so have the potential to get their maximum broadband speed package. Do you think I need to move that somewhere more obvious?

I've never heard of needing to have a water meter fitted when you move in... In this area, Yorkshire Water try and bribe you to get one fitted by saying you'll pay whichever of the bills is cheaper - fixed rate or metered - for as long as you live in the house.

The moment you leave the house, the deal is off... So the next person that moves in is then stuck with metered water for all eternity as they can't get the meter removed once it's in situe.

That's why I'm hoping it's a selling point that we've never had one fitted! (Given the baths and laundry associated with small children...)

Is there anything else people can think of that they'd like to know about an older house? :) We have gas and electric certificates, but were going to have those out on display on the day for people to see, rather than just alluding to them.

We had an open day last year ( end of November ) no one came :( I think actually it was too close to Christmas and there were less buyers about.

Quite often with open days I think you get people who aren't in a position to proceed as not sold their own property or arent on the market and just seeing what's out there.

I'm pleased to report that we did eventually find a buyer and are waiting to exchange.

Good luck Op :)

That's my worst fear at the moment, that no-one will show up! Still, at least that means we can eat all the brownies ourselves... I think I'll ensure there's some ice-cream on standby.

However, I have just received a call from the EA that someone wants to view our house tomorrow afternoon! It's a good sign that they can't wait until Saturday, right? Means they're eager, hopefully??

On the other hand I work weekdays, DH is away at work until late, we were part-way through some minor DIY over the weekend and I have friends due to come over later. How I'm going to get the house ready for tomorrow, I have no idea!

Either cancel your friends or rope them into helping you tidy the house - good luck with the viewing, OP!

Given how much work is entailed with getting ready for a viewing I personally would find out what position they are in, if able to proceed pull out all the stops, if not ask if they mind coming to your open day as tomorrow is inconvenient.

Leaflets selling the local area are a good idea. A friend of mine produced these to good effect.

Dropping a price temporarily is an utterly stupid idea from your agents. So many people now use property bee and can see the price history. When I see this it has two effects: firstly, I ignore the higher price as I can damned well see the lower asking price is 'ok' for the seller; secondly, it puts me off the house as a whole as I feel that any seller who bounces asking prices up and down is simply pissing about.

Especially given all buyers are seeing current news headlines, e.g. today: www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18811238 makes any seller raising their price look like they're not serious.

Is an hour long enough for an open house? Not sure what's the norm - I live in the US and they usually last about 3 hours. But then you may not want people arriving too spread out.

And yes, be prepared for no-one to come, but if the agent send out emails etc it may just raise your house into their consciousness.