5 Easy Tips for Successful Open House Presentation

A picture may tell a thousand words, but falling in love – whether it’s with a person, a pet or a property – is an emotional experience that consumes all of the senses.

It doesn’t matter how fabulous your property looks in the photos online, if the home you’re selling doesn’t appeal from the moment a prospective buyer steps out of their car and onto your front lawn, you’re leaving yourself open to rejection.

Like a first date, you’ve got to take time to impress – a nice haircut, your best outfit, a box of chocolates and some good old-fashioned manners. A spray of something expensive never goes astray.

Buying a property is an emotional experience, so you have to put in significant thought and a bit of extra work to ensure sparks fly instantly. Working on pleasing the traditional five senses – sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste – is a great place to start.



1. Smell

Are you a pet owner? A dog owner, specifically? As wonderful as it is to prove your garden is pet friendly, be sure to limit that understanding to the quality of the fencing. Clean up the dog poop prior to every property inspection. The last thing you want is for a prospective buyer’s first experience of your home to be cleaning doggie doo from the bottom of their shoe.

Once inside the home, it’s important to consider odours that are perhaps normal to you, but unappealing to strangers. For example, animal odours, cigarettes and strong food odours.

Artificial air fresheners can be harsh on the nose, so opt instead for essential oils. You can make your own aromatic spray by mixing a few drops with a water spray bottle or instead buy ready-made sprays.

Buying fresh flowers to display around the home will not only create a natural scent, but also add colour and cheer. Large retail stores invest heavily in what’s known as scent branding , this is where they create a smell for the customers to inhale when they walk into a store. This idea behind this is to give the customer a more welcoming experience whilst shopping.

If you’re really tricky, one of the oldest tricks in the book is to bake cookies or bread or brew espresso coffee just before the open house begins. Nothing says ‘home’ like homemade food. The buyer of your home won’t know what hit them!



2. Hearing

While you can’t control whether your neighbour next door decides to mow that day or not, be sure to take time to deal with the little annoyances you can control like dripping taps, squeaky doors and rattling windows.
Consider playing some background music – choose relaxing and conventional tunes. An open house is not the time to introduce your house guests to your favourite new experimental jazz artist.

3. Sight

Declutter. Declutter. Declutter. Clean. Clean. Clean. Once that’s done, it’s time to focus on the detail and get a bit creative.
In your great outdoors, ensure your lawn is mowed regularly and your garden is free of weeds. To spruce up the garden plant some bright, colourful flowers and add mulch to the garden beds.
Inside, consider updating your paintwork – use natural, contemporary colour palettes; modernise flooring (e.g. transform carpet to timber); and buy new light fixtures.
Welcome as much natural light as possible into your home by trimming trees and shrubs away from your windows.
Avoid having large expanses of blank wall. Use canvas photo prints as a cost effective way of decorating these walls. If you don’t have any of your own printable photos suitable, photo printers have stock photos ready to go.

Investing a few hundred dollars towards home styling will more than likely increase the sale price. Choose canvas prints that will suit an open home, but opt for something fairly neutral. Remember, not everyone has the same tastes.



4. Touch
As lovely as your pets are to you, remove them from the house when someone is inspecting it. A wet nose or slimey drool on someone’s hand (or crotch!) is not an experience everyone finds endearing!

If you have small children, be sure to do a ‘sticky finger’ check before you leave the house. When they’re leaning over to try something out, your visitors don’t want to discover the smudge of breakfast your toddler left behind.

5. Taste

Did you bake those cookies? Remember this may be the third house your prospective buyer has visited that day – they may be starving! If you display a batch of cookies, a box of chocolates or a bowl of fresh fruit, be sure to leave a prominent note asking guests to help themselves.




Finally and at last, it’s time for you to clear the building! Don’t stick around to watch the hoards come through. It’s as awkward as your ex coming along on a date with you. Those who visit your home must be able to imagine themselves living there. They’re not going to be able to do that with you breathing down their necks.

You’ve now done everything you can to create the right chemistry. It’s now time to let go and wait for true love to take over



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