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Posted on: 25 July 2019

In the days of the Internet, more and more people are pre-shopping online for homes rather than seeing twenty homes in person before they buy. However, the importance of one real estate sale mainstay — the open house — has not changed. Here are four reasons why you should still host an open house if you are selling your home.

Buyers can see the home without making an appointment.

These days, people are so busy that adding one more appointment to their schedule can be a real hassle. When you host an open house for a couple of hours on weekend, people can stop by whenever they have a few minutes. They do not need to call ahead to make an appointment or worry whether their realtor will be available. If you host an open house, you'll open up the possibility of selling to these super-busy buyers who may not have time to see your house otherwise.

Open houses get a lot of people in at once.

Even if you are your real estate agent's favorite client, they do not have endless amounts of time to dedicate to showing your home. They have other things to do as well — like communicate with the bank and negotiate with buyers. By hosting an open house, they can show the home to numerous potential buyers at once, freeing up more time that they can spend doing other important activities.

People like a house they sense there is a lot of interest in.

Having a few people show up at the same time to look at a house can actually make it seem more appealing. Someone who is interested in buying will see the other buyers looking and will figure they had better make an offer before someone else does. They might make an even higher offer because they figure there is competition for the home. On the contrary, when buyers only see the house one at a time, they can make the mistake of assuming they're the only one interested — which can lead to lower offers.

Your agent can feature the best aspects of the home.

Often, when people come to look at the home individually, their agent — not your agent — will show the home. Their agent may not know the home as well, so they might not point out its best features. When you host an open house, on the other hand, your agent will be there and can highlight the things that really stand out, displaying your home in the best possible light.

Don't forego the open house when selling a home. Even though technology has changed some things, an open house is still essential. Talk to a real estate company for more information.