Help Make Your Client’s Fall Open House a Success!

October is one of the favorite months for REALTORS® in the Hudson Valley, NY region due to the beautiful fall foliage that decorates the entire area. Even though the summer is the more popular time to buy due to the ease of moving there are still many buyers in October. However, along with the fall foliage, this time of year also brings in colder weather.

So how can you help your clients to have a successful open house in the Autumn months? The first step to making for a strong open house is to make the home feel as homely as possible. Give the potential buyers a great “live-in” feel and provide a visual of what the home would look like if they eventually lived there. One way you can help with that vision is to have seasonal décor inside and outside the home. Now, remember you do not want to go crazy and make the home look like a local haunted house attraction, but using enough decoration can help provide curb appeal to the home.

What better way to make potential buyers feel like they are “home” than with some perfect fall aromas? Have pumpkin spice-scented candles or other fall scents placed, again sparingly, around the home. Who wants to walk into a home and any unpleasant smells? Filling the home with pleasant smells can make potential buyers more interested in the home. Want a better way to make it more “homey” and have them crave living there? Have some cookies baked out of the oven right before an open house; bonus points if they are classic chocolate chip or seasonally flavored cookies.

Sometimes your clients that are selling the home have already moved out before the open house takes place. Be sure that your clients stop by well before the open house that day to dust and air the house out, so you can eventually stage the home (if they plan on having the home staged). Dust around the house and other small visual impairments can cause potential buyers to second guess buying the house, as those small things will make them believe bigger issues lie beneath the surface.

The last tip for a successful open house is to make sure the temperature is comfortable. This is especially important if your clients no longer are residing at the home and the colder, fall weather may turn off potential buyers. Walking through, visitors should not be freezing, nor should they be sweating.

The fall is still a popular time for home buying. Curb appeal is going to be the most important since that initial site is going to be potential buyers’ first impression of whether that could be their dream home or not. Utilize these tips to give the home a more “homely” feel and help create that vision with potential buyers.