Open house season is in full swing! Whether you’re a first-time seller looking for open house tips or a seasoned pro looking for some fresh ideas, you’ve come to the right place. We will provide advice and an open house checklist for the best ways to showcase your mobile home for sale.
This article will run you through some valuable open house tips and tricks to help you stand out from the crowd, impress prospective buyers and make your open house a full-blown success.
Schedule in Advance and Set Goals
The first thing you should do is give yourself plenty of time to get the home ready. Add the open house to your calendar well in advance. Set mini-goals for yourself for any home improvements or additions you need to take care of and add them to the calendar. If you properly space everything you need to prepare for your open house, you can avoid the last-minute scramble and go into the big day free of stress.
Lists Lists Lists
Now that you have the date on the calendar, it’s time to make a list of the small stuff to do. It’s a good idea to create a mobile home open house checklist of basic cleaning and other tasks…
- Dust
- Sweep
- Vaccum
- Scrub
- Declutter
- Sanitize
All of these tasks need to be tackled before your open house. You don’t want to forget anything and turn off a potential buyer!
There also are deeper cleaning tasks that could require more time and planning such as getting a carpet cleaner a few days before the open house, repairing squeaky cabinets, fixing a leak or doing some touch-up paint.
Don’t Forget The Yard
Speaking of good first impressions, there’s plenty you can do to increase your mobile home’s curb appeal. Hiding unsightly structural elements with mobile home skirting can make your home look nicer while also protecting from inclement weather and pests.
Powerwash the exterior of your home. Add flowers, trim hedges, and spruce up window boxes. All of these elements help create a charming image of manufactured home living in for the customer.
Hospitality
Now that you’ve wowed customers with your stunning home, it’s time to impress them with your hospitality. Having fresh-baked cookies is the most classic among open house tips Backing cookies or bread creates a pleasant aroma and provides snacks for potential buyers. If you want to go above and beyond, think about getting some professionally done meat and cheese or vegetable platters. Offering bottled water to guests also will go a long way.
Guests are probably going to more than one open house per day and they will appreciate you taking care of their hunger and thirst. Letting prospects know that you truly care about their experience, needs and desires is a great way to earn trust.
Open House Pro Tip
It’s always a good idea to have a tape measure on hand. Buyers will want to know how their furniture might fit the space, or get a look for themselves at room size or window size.
Anticipating this need is a great logistical way to help buyers visualize the home as their own.
Ambiance
Remember that you aren’t just selling your home, you are selling the idea of what it would be like to live in the home. Because of that, a pleasant ambiance is essential. Make sure to have adequate lighting, but nothing that’s too bright. You can have the most beautiful mobile home interior in the world. However, it won’t mean a thing if the lighting is bad. With that in mind, use the season to your advantage. Open window treatments for natural light if you can.
Music is a great way to give the space some energy, while also allowing guests to roam around without feeling like they are being overheard. Keep the tunes at a low volume. You shouldn’t have to raise your voice to be heard over the music. Since everyone has their own preferences, it’s best to stick to music that is upbeat and within a central genre. For instance, jazz standards or ’60s pop are great choices.
Advertise the Open House
It’s important to get the word out on your open house as early and often as possible. This is an area of open house planning that professionals are all over. So, to be sure your home can compete, you might want to use a few professional tactics.
Local print and social media are great options for reaching a specific audience. However, just like everything these days, online advertisements are consistently the most effective.
There always is the free option on Craigslist or other local posting boards. However, if your home is on MHVillage we have a very simple and effective way to advertise an open house. MHVillage is the top marketplace for manufactured housing with 25 million annual visits. And the buyers who use MHVillage already are qualified manufactured home buyers.
And MHVillage has a designated offering to help make your open house a success.
The MHVillage Open House product gives your home a big bold banner across the top and it will place your home at the very top of the search result page in your area for up to a week before the open house. You get all of this for a one-time fee.
To apply this option, all you have to do is log into your MHVillage account, click to view your listing, click the arrow on your right to see the editing tools, and select Add Open House.
Prepare the Space
No doubt you’ve decorated the interior of your home to reflect your own personal sense of style. However, when selling it’s important to arrange your decor and furniture in a way that best allows a potential buyer to envision themselves living in the home. For a great guide on this process, check out our post on staging your mobile home to sell.
It’s also a good idea to set out your information – pamphlets, business cards, contact info – on a table by the door or somewhere convenient for the prospect. That way, people can grab it right away or as they leave without having to ask.
Open House Tips That Appeal to the Senses
A buyer should be able to walk into an open house and experience an ideal future home. This requires careful consideration for each of the five senses.
1. Sight
As before, be sure that everything is cleaned, organized, and staged well. Set the table. Open blinds for great lighting. Remove personal items that would make it difficult for buyers to envision themselves in space.
2. Scent
It may be worth investing in some carpet shampoo and airing out the home before the open house. Baking cookies is a good way to create a pleasant aroma in your home while also providing snacks for guests. Otherwise, you can try some lightly scented candles. Avoid excessively aromatic candles and air fresheners – those can be too pungent for some buyers, potentially triggering allergies, and may lead to a prospect feeling that you’re attempting to mask an unpleasant smell.
3. Sound
We discussed how some good, jovial music can set the mood and mask private conversations. But music is one solution toward lightly filling the space with a pleasant acoustical experience. Some homes may be able to use a water feature, and white noise or brown noise can create a similar soothing, sound-dampening effect.
4. Taste
Yes, providing food and drink is a great way to be hospitable toward guests. It also associates your open house with a pleasant experience more akin to a friend meet up for fun mixer. Consider providing treats from a local bakery – one that would be close by if the prospect were to purchase your home.
5. Touch
Set the house to a comfortable temperature before guests arrive. If you live in a warm climate, run a fan to help keep air circulating. Remember, even having four or five added people in the home can raise the indoor temperature, not to mention the air loss with entry doors opening and closing as guests arrive. Keep the rooms cool and the drinks cold.
One final thing. It’s a great idea to have some of your family, close friends or associates walk through near the beginning of the open house. They can give you honest open house tips about what still needs to be done, and can help prepare you for potential questions that buyers might ask.
With these great tips, you should be ready to absolutely nail your open house!
See additional marketing tips for attracting buyers to your mobile home.
