Open houses in St. Louis real estate are typically debated by both the homeowner that is selling their house and the listing agent that is helping them sell their house. In fact, reading this article should give you all the knowledge you need to know whether you should have a St. Louis open house while trying to sell your home or not.
Holding a St. Louis Open House
In Real Estate, an open house in St. Louis is a planned event where potential buyers can view a home that is listed for sale. St. Louis open houses are normally held on Saturdays and Sundays since that is the time when most people do not have to work and will most likely have the time to tour the properties that they are interested in. Most St. Louis open houses are held by the seller’s listing agent or broker. An open house may not be hosted by an agent, that is when the seller decides not to work with an agent and tries to sell their home For Sale By the Owner in St. Louis. In order to get more potential buyers through the St. Louis open house, the realtor or the homeowner will typically offer something to persuade people to tour the home such as a food or drinks.
Best Time for Open House in St. Louis
Top real estate agents in St. Louis suggest holding your open house in the afternoon. The best times are typically between noon and 3pm.
Keep in mind, timing is everything. There are many reasons for that:
Weekend mornings are normally busy in St. Louis. Saturdays are filled with sports games or other events for children. On Sunday mornings, lots of people go to church. However, most people spend their weekend afternoons at home, that is why the afternoons are the best time to hold an open house in St. Louis.
How Does an Open House Work?
Open houses in St. Louis are normally held and marketed by a licensed real estate agent or homeowner as a way to get more interest in a property for sale, potential buyers have the option to freely roam the house or be guided by the host of the St. Louis open house. Opposite of a private showing, where agents preschedule a set time for just one interested party, an open house offers the general public an opportunity to come by and check out the home that is for sale. Most of the time, anyone is able to attend the open house without an appointment, normally they’ll just be asked to sign in on a guestbook, provide contact information, leave a card if they are an agent, or provide a way for the host to contact them for a follow up communication.
Do Open Houses Sell My House Faster?
Did you know that only 2-3 percent of homes sell only because of the open house? After the first open house, the listing agent or homeowner will still show the house multiple times before finally accepting an offer. Also, since some folks will be attending an open house without a realtor, they can attend the open house without a pre approval. That means that not all attendees of the open house will even be able to buy it.
Where to Advertise an Open House Online
Open houses in St. Louis are more than just a couple hours of people walking through your house, they are an extra opportunity to get people talking about your home. If you do a great job on the ads of the open house real estate; prospective buyers will jump on the chance to see the house, request price showings of the house, and maybe even forward the listing to some of their friends! The St. Louis open house will only be as good as it’s ads, here we will list a few ways to get the word out about your St. Louis open house:
Post on Facebook so all of your friends will know – Facebook is definitely one of the best places to advertise your open house because of how many people use it. About 70% of all adults are on Facebook and over three-quarters visit the site at some point during each day!
Set up an event page – Nowadays, the best way to invite people to an event or gathering is through Facebook, if you create an event page, you can invite hundreds, even thousands of people. You will also be able to have an idea of who will be attending since people will let you know if they are coming or not through the event page!
Boost your posts with Facebook Ads – Did you know you that you are able to promote your Facebook posts so that more people then just your friends will see the post? When boosting a Facebook post, you are able to pick what type of people see it based on what they are interested in!
Create posts that keep people looking at them – Make sure you create interesting Facebook posts about your home, we suggest you take a video walking through the home and make sure to capture the best parts of the home, this will make potential buyers love the home before they even see it in person, this will definitely get a lot more people want to come see the home in person!
Spread the word to your neighbors on Nextdoor – Nextdoor is a social media app for neighbors to communicate about what’s going on in their neighborhood. A great thing about doing this is that anyone in your neighborhood who uses the app will see your post, and we all know that everybody will tell one of their close friends about a home for sale right next to theirs so they can be neighbors with their friends!
Pros and Cons of Selling an Empty House
When selling a home, you can either list it before or after you move out. It is very normal to think about which option will give you the best chance of selling your house fast and for top dollar. Any time you can make it easier to sell your home, you should definitely do it. So lets learn about the pros and cons of selling an empty house.
Pros of selling an empty home:
- You don’t have to constantly worry about keeping the house squeaky clean. One of the most difficult things about living in a home you are actively trying to sell is keeping it clean at all times. You are still living your life, which comes with daily messes in your home. It could be fingerprints on the sliding glass door or fridge to tracking in mud when it rains, messy bedrooms to the sinks being full of dirty dishes after cooking dinner for the family, there could be a short notice showing at any time, so the home will constantly have to be spotless.
- The homes is just easier to show. When the house is empty, the listing agent has much more freedom to set up showings. You can either put a lockbox or supra on the home, which gives buyers agents the ability to bring clients by whenever they have time, even with no heads up at all. Once you go under contract with a buyer, it is also MUCH easier to complete inspections and appraisals for the same reason as above, you won’t have to scramble to take a couple hours off work or clean the house to make sure you are ready to complete the showings needed.
- Your life will not be interrupted in order to show and sell your house. No matter how prepared or dedicated you are to sell your house fast in St. Louis, it will still feel like a huge inconvenience to open up your home for yet another showing during your lunch break or having to take off work an hour early. This is even more difficult if you have younger children. When you no longer live in the house, you wont find yourself having to constantly change your schedule or ignore your day to day responsibilities to sell your house.
- Lots of buyers have an easier time imaging themselves living in the house without all of your things being inside. For example, would it make it more difficult for you to imagine living in a house if it had a bunch of pictures of some family they have never met all over the place? I know it would be harder for me to imaging spending the next decade or two in that house. It simply makes it harder for potential buyers to look past the clutter, personal taste, or style of the house if they would decorate it differently.
Cons of selling an empty home:
- Empty homes feel empty. When done correctly, a huge part of the hominess is how warm and cozy the home is. But when the house is completely empty, the home will tend to look hollow and boring. Actually, most potential buyer tend to view empty homes smaller than furnished homes.
- Even though you aren’t living in the home anymore, it still needs to be taken care of. What some people don’t realize is, is that they still need to keep on all of the utilities, like power, water, and electric. Without water and power, inspections cant be done, the sump pump will not function, and in humid weather mold can actually start to appear pretty quickly if the climate of the house is not controlled. And don’t forget about the yard, you’ll need to continue cutting the grass and taking care of your yard. Curb appeal is HUGE when selling a house, some people even care more about what the outside of a house looks than they do about the inside.
- Empty houses can make potential buyers think that you are in a rush to sell the house. It might signal to the buyer or buyers agent that you have already completed the purchase of a new home, possibly leaving you with two mortgages. You never want to give the person you are negotiating against the feeling they can lowball you because you need to sell.
- Sometimes empty homes need a special insurance. Now that is not always the case, it is possible that your empty home can be more expensive to insure because it is a higher risk for a break in since no one is living there.
Open House Preparation Checklist
- Relocate half of your things because clutter can definitely turn off potential buyers. You could rent a storage unit or a storage pod for some of your furniture or personal items. Another idea would be to ask a couple friends that have extra space in their garage or basement if you could temporarily store your things there.
- Make sure you clean the outside of your house to make sure it looks ass good as it can! We recommend sellers always power wash the siding or brick on their home before an open house in St. Louis to make sure the building is in tip top shape.
- Clean out all gutters, windows, and screens.
- Make sure the home looks inviting from the outside, mainly the front door. Paint the door a color that pops if needed and change any outdated outdoor lighting fixtures.
- Replace the old house numbers if the old ones don’t look great. Be sure that potential buyers are able to see the house number when they pull up to the house.
- Get a new welcome mat.
- Keep all closets and drawers organized. Buyers will typically want to look there.
- Make any and all important repairs so that buyers will not be thinking about how much money they have to spend on improving the house once they buy it.
- Organize the furniture to make the home appear as big as possible.
- Clean all of the surfaces. Yes, that means even ceiling fans and baseboards.
- Make sure the kitchen and bathrooms are completely spotless, those are the most important rooms when selling your house.
- Get rid of all personal items and photos, this will make it easier for the buyers to envision themselves living in this house.
- Make sure the home smells fresh and nice.
- Emotionally detach yourself from the home so you can think logically when reviewing offers.
Real Estate Teams Pros and Cons
Hiring a real estate team can be pretty complex, a real estate team in St. Louis can be made up of a couple agents, or a couple dozen agents. Here, we will go over a couple pros and cons of a real estate team in St. Louis.
Pros of St. Louis Real Estate Teams:
- Multiple Professionals to help you sell your house. Instead of going through the entire process all by yourself, you will have a team of experienced professionals to walk you through selling your home.
- Most St. Louis real estate teams already have a long list of people who are interested in buying a home in your neighborhood. SO, if your house is in tip top shape, they probably already have an idea of who will want to buy it.
Cons of St. Louis Real Estate Teams:
- You will pay them 6% of whatever you sell your house for. The average sale price of St. Louis homes in May 2021 was $324,061, that would mean you are paying your agent almost $20,000 to sell your house!
- The person that convinces you to list with them disappears. One of the most reason why big St. Louis real estate teams get a bad wrap is because the team leader will not actually be the one holding your hand through the sale. It could be one of their newer or inexperienced employees because they are too busy getting more sellers to list with them.
Open House FAQ’s
Are open houses worth it for realtors? Yes, St. Louis open houses are good for realtors because it gives them a chance to get more business for not only your house but other houses as well.
Are open houses worth it for sellers? They can be, but sometimes not even half of the people that show up are even able to buy a house.
Do open houses sell homes in 2021? Data shows that only about 2-3% of homes show ONLY because of the open house.
Why open houses aren’t worth it – With an open house in St. Louis, you will have no way of knowing if someone is pre-qualified, window shopping, or serious about buying a house any time soon.
How Long do open houses last? They typically last about two hours. Normally from 1pm to 3pm on weekends.
Are open houses safe? For the most part yes. However, if the home is vacant, it can potentially become a target for squatters or burglars.
What is the best time to hold an open house? The best time for an open house is the weekend in April or May between 1pm and 3pm.
How do I find an open house? Simply Google “Open houses in (your zip code or city)”
What should I ask at an open house? Make sure you ask how old the roof, A/C, furnace, water heater and appliances are.
What is the most common reason a property fails to sell? The most common reason a property doesn’t sell is that it needs repairs and most owner-occupants don’t want to do work to a home they just buy.
All in all, St. Louis open houses are one of the more common ways to sell a house on the market. If you plan to have an open house in St. Louis, this article should help you mentally prepare. If you would prefer to skip the entire process and sell your house fast for cash, call Bird River Properties at (314) 207-5288.