Pros and cons of an Open Day

[Deleted User]

We are thinking of putting our house on the market soon. Never sold before so its new territory for us. 

I'm looking for a bit of advice re Open days, what generally happens at them and any pros and cons. The idea of having a load of viewers in and out in one day (and hopefully offers following!) sounds ideal to me, but i'm sure there are some downfalls to it as well and i'm hoping the lovely people in this forum could advise on and share your experiences. 

Drawingaline

We had one at the weekend. Our of seven possible viewings three cancelled last minute, one was a no show and the two FTB had very unrealistic in ideas as to what there budget will provide. We had two more viewers yesterday, and our two offers were from investors. 

AdrianC

Will an open day really help sell the place?

If you think it will, then...:
1. Put anything even remotely portable and valuable away.
2. Get the hell out of dodge for the day.
3. Leave it to the EA.
4. Sit back and wait for the offerers to start fighting over who wants to pay most.

If you don't think 4 is probable, don't do the open day. Sell it normally, for the sake of your sanity.

Drawingaline

We spent the hour and a half we needed to be out oftof house driving and looking at the outside of all the properties on my right move list. This was really helpful as we could discount some right away, and means that if our little chain we have set up falls through then we know that the houses we will actually view are all ones that we would be 90% sure to make an offer on.

Vestraun

I didn't think open days were running in the current environment? Is it possible to do it safely within the guidelines? 

[Deleted User]

Drawingaline said:

We spent the hour and a half we needed to be out oftof house driving and looking at the outside of all the properties on my right move list. This was really helpful as we could discount some right away, and means that if our little chain we have set up falls through then we know that the houses we will actually view are all ones that we would be 90% sure to make an offer on.

Oh wow only an hour and a half? I was thinking it'd be an all day thing! 
Was everyone in your house all at once or did they each have a separate appointment?

Vestraun said:

I didn't think open days were running in the current environment? Is it possible to do it safely within the guidelines? 

I did wonder this too

Vestraun

Deleted_User said:

Vestraun said:

I didn't think open days were running in the current environment? Is it possible to do it safely within the guidelines? 

I did wonder this too

Yes, see guidelines:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/government-advice-on-home-moving-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak

All physical viewings should be limited to members of the same household and open house viewings should not take place.

SameOldRoundabout

We sold ours via open day. We both work, have 4 children and a dog at home. It was so much easier to have one big day than multiple times we had to leave. We had about 18 bookings in total, a couple dropped out, a couple added back on, we had 14 viewers in the end and 4 offers from it. Well worth it. 

SameOldRoundabout

Ps ours was from 10-1 and each party had a 15 minute slot. Some were double booked. This was pre Covid mind. 

davidmcn

Vestraun said:

Deleted_User said:

Vestraun said:

I didn't think open days were running in the current environment? Is it possible to do it safely within the guidelines? 

I did wonder this too

Yes, see guidelines:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/government-advice-on-home-moving-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak

All physical viewings should be limited to members of the same household and open house viewings should not take place.

Though from previous threads here, some people seem to interpret "open day" as meaning a bunch of separate appointments in one day, rather than just an open door and everyone potentially turning up at once. I'm not really sure what the point of the former would be though, I thought it was all about getting the viewers excited by seeing the potential competition.

In any event, only seems worthwhile if you'll have enough interest for a bunch of viewers to be available on one day. 

youth_leader

I sold my house at auction and the auction house allowed five viewings all at once one weekend.  Unfortunately I suffered some breakages (aga door, curtain pulled down).  Difficult to supervise.