Our top-selling Century 21 agents around the country are in accord: the more inviting a vendor's home appears at open inspections, the more likely the home is to sell for top dollar and to sell more quickly.
Before listing your home for sale, your Century 21 selling agent will advise you on all the improvements you could make to maximise the sale price of your home. These could range anywhere from fixing a leaking tap to doing some repainting. The next step is readying your home for the marketing photography with a scrupulous clean and tidy up, decluttering and some depersonalising such as packing away family photographs and soccer trophies. These photographs and the advertising copy on the internet are vital in attracting as many potential buyers to your open inspections as possible. Next, it's show time and those interested buyers will be arriving at your home for the first open inspection.
Here are a few tried and true tips for open inspection days to ensure your home looks inviting and, ultimately, desirable enough for those offers to start rolling in.
1. Make sure your home is clean as a whistle
In the week before, do a thorough house clean from sparkling windows to cleaning inside the kitchen cupboards. On the morning of an inspection, dust, vacuum and mop to not only ensure your home is clean but give it that just cleaned, fresh smell. Add to this effect by polishing any timber furniture with a pleasant-smelling polish such as orange oil (available from hardware stores).
2. Get the outdoors ready
A final run over the lawn with a mower and a few minute's weeding can get your garden looking top notch. Ensure your entrance looks inviting with a brand new doormat and some stylish potted plants. Empty any old flyers from the post box. Put the council waste bins out the way somewhere they will not be prominent.
3. Do a quick declutter
Make all beds, put clothes, toys and paperwork out of sight and remove all pet bowls and pet beds. Empty all bins, laundry baskets and wastepaper baskets.
4. Style your home
Make beds beautifully and arrange flowers or vases of greenery from the garden in key places around the home. Plump sofa cushions and arrange them nicely. In the bathroom, add brand new fluffy white towels (don't use them until the house has sold), attractive new toiletries and soap and a new roll of toilet paper. In the kitchen, make sure benchtops are clear and not cluttered with small appliances.
5. Hide or lock up valuables
Don't leave anything valuable lying around. Hide valuables, lock them away or take them with you.
6. Temperature check
Is the temperature inside your home at a comfortable level? If the day is freezing or scorching try to get the temperature inside as comfortable as possible well before the inspection time.
7. Those final touches
Do a final check that nothing is out of place. Open all blinds and curtains to let in maximum light, open windows if the weather is suitable, open all internal doors and switch all the lights on, including bedside lamps. Place a couple of scented candles (choose a fresh not cloying scent) in strategic locations such as the entrance and bathroom to give a pleasant scent and inviting glow.
Also, consider some welcoming touches for your 'visitors' such as leaving out a bowl of mints or a jug of cold water, drinking glasses and a plate of biscuits. For your potential buyers, spending a day rushing around to open inspections can be exhausting and they will appreciate your considerate touches.
8. When the real estate agent arrives
As soon as the agent arrives, let them prepare for the inspection. Grab your phones, valuables, any last minute cleaning equipment, kids and pets, hop in the car and take yourself out and about until the agent calls you to say the inspection is over.
Remember that between each advertised open inspection time, you may have many other private inspections during the week. Also, interested buyers may want to inspect your home several times before they put in an offer. So keep your home in tip top shape the entire time it's on the market, so you can swing into action and do the final styling touches at short notice whenever necessary.
Preparing for open inspections can be stressful. Your Century 21 real estate agent will have plenty of sterling advice for you on how to sell your house, maximise your sale price and reduce the time your home is on the market. Putting in the effort to heed this advice and present your home in its best possible light for that first real estate open for inspection will pay off in greater buyer interest and potential higher offers. Plus your home will look and feel so inviting, you won't want to leave!