The Pros and Cons of an Open House
Open house viewings, or open days, are becoming increasingly popular in the UK. An open house viewing could be a morning or afternoon of back-to-back viewings or it could be a true open house where everyone who’s interested turns up and expects coffee, cake and curtain criticism.
This style of viewing might work for you and then again it might not. You need to know what the ups and downs of open house viewings are to work this out.
The pros of open house viewings
They’re very convenient
This is by far the biggest upside. Having someone book a viewing at 10.00am on a Saturday or 5.45pm on Thursday is a royal pain.
It’s also incredibly painful to have to do a deep (or even a quick) clean several times a week because you have viewings. With an open house, you’re compressing several viewings into one timeslot, which means one cleaning session and no rushing back from work or early weekend wakeup.
Offers can come thick and fast
If you only have capacity for one or two viewings a week, it can take a while for the right person to find a slot, whereas if there’s an open afternoon, more interested people come along at once. Among these people is likely to be the right one.
Open houses can create bidding wars
There’s nothing like a bidding war to get pulses racing! If potential buyers are left alone with other potential buyers, something primal can happen… Just seeing other interested parties creates a sense of urgency and competition so people will offer ahead of others to secure your property.
The cons of an open day
They can put off some buyers
Brits don’t like to feel pressured. Many would also rather eat their own fingers than be seen to judge another Englishperson’s castle in front of other Brits. Concentrating on a property is impossible for some people if there are other people concentrating on the property and on the other people. Worst of all, there may be eye contact. Ahem. It’s a Brit thing.
The idea of open competition is also anathema to many. Turning the serious business of house buying into an overt scramble is just too much.
Although open houses are convenient for sellers, they’re not always convenient for buyers
If there’s no option to schedule that annoying 10.00am viewing and the 1.00pm open house clashes with a family visit, then your ideal buyer might just miss out. You need to be ready for the occasional viewing outside of your open day hours.
Open houses can lead to rash decisions and buyer’s remorse
In direct contradiction to everything we said about Brits earlier, open house viewings can occasionally lead to excitement, rivalry and rash decisions. Once the adrenalin has worn off, your “dream” buyer might have to withdraw that tasty offer.