Set in the Central Valley of California, Stockton has long been the capital and meeting point for the farming collectives and industry nearby. In fact, Stockton even has its own port for loading rice to be shipped overseas. In terms of real estate, however, Stockton competes with a number of markets, including Sacramento, Modesto, and the eastern part of the Bay Area. That may seem a bit far, but people are so used to driving in this region that a home with a 100 mile radius reach to a workplace is considered competitive for many buyers. As a result, Stockton sellers face an uphill battle when it comes to selling a home, especially with getting buyers to come out to an open house.
Stockton has been hit fairly hard by the Recession starting in 2009, and the area’s recovery has been slow. While that has contributed to keeping home prices low in the area, it hasn’t automatically produced a big surge of homebuyer traffic. As a result, a seller who needs to attract serious buyers to a Stockton property for sale is going to have to put in some serious work with an open house to make it happen fairly quick. Here are some critical tips on how to make that happen:
1. Update all online photos of your home for sale with professional quality shots.
Source: wikimedia.org
People don’t go to an open house where the home looks shabby or the photos are bad. So don’t rely on old photographs pulled out of the drawer or taken quickly with a phone camera. For a few dollars and time, a professional photographer can catch the image of a home in its best presentation. Particularly in areas where a person lives in regions that have noticeable seasonal changes, like snow, take recent photographs and show the house in real time imagery instead. This gives viewers and serious buyers a more realistic awareness of the property versus a photograph from last spring or summer. Fall is one of the best times to take photographs of homes because the colors are the most vivid and full. Additionally, the hard summer sun is not present anymore bleaching out the photograph. Good photos are key in attracting good buyers looking online for the right home.
2. Have immediate information online updated with current facts and priced realistically.
Buyers looking for open house events get turned off by sellers who aim for the stars yet the home doesn’t deserve that kind of price point. The search online is often the first step for any open house interest, even if it doesn’t have anything to do with prepping the open house per se. If you’re not sure how to obtain or place the information online the best way, pay a little bit for a website consultant to do the work correctly. Or, even better, make sure your sales agent is skilled at developing online advertising of a home and related open house information professionally.
3. If you have to have an open house during the winter, try to make the home light and attractive.
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Winter is a tough time to sell a home because the weather and lighting is often gray or dark. That drowns out color and draws away from a home’s presentation. However, typical winter living doesn’t help either. We have a tendency to close the drapes and shut the place up during winter. Instead, buyers want to see the home with natural light coming in, which means opening up the windows for the sunlight to come in. Additionally, have the heating level at a comfortable point or start up the fireplace for the warm visual effect. People are likely to stay longer and look at the home more.
4. Reach out proactively with invites through your sales agent.
Most viable real estate agents work for an office and broker who already have working lists of buyers and sellers. They also have networks with other agents since it’s quite common for sales agents to split sales and commissions to make more business happen. After all, an agent who wins 15 split sales is making more money than the agent who won’t work with anyone and only sells five homes. These lists of contacts should be utilized with direct, proactive invites to see the home, usually as an open house event. Connecting with the right buyer or agent with the good photos we talked about above could be the winning formula that closes a deal.
5. Boost the landscaping; it’s cheap to do and easy.
Source: wikimedia.org
Serious buyers are not going to consider going to an open house that looks like a mess on the outside, and the landscaping is frequently the first thing a buyer sees when arriving. Fortunately, landscaping is one of the cheapest improvements a seller can make to a home when selling it. Most major hardware stores sell all the necessary tools, materials, supplies and plants to get the job done. And a good layer of fresh bark, sod, and potted plants can boost front curb appeal tremendously in one day.
Attracting serious buyers is work already, but in a tougher market like open houses Stockton, it’s a real job. Make the process easier with the above tips and reduce wasted energy. Most homes that stay listed for too long in Stockton involve situations where the seller and agent aren’t proactively selling the home. Follow the advice above and stay involved. And it will move a Stockton property a lot faster.
