In today’s real estate marketplace, millions of prospective homebuyers are searching for properties online.  All are using new technology to view homes, research neighborhoods, investigate local crime rates and so much more.

Which raises a question that many are now asking:

Are open houses still an effective method of marketing residential properties?

They can be, if you do your homework and prepare properly in advance. That leads us to the subject of this blog post – “Five Tips For Holding An Open House.”

Here are a few things to keep in mind when planning your open house:

• Safety First. At SCAOR, the safety of our members is always our foremost concern. If you’re hosting an open house, we highly recommend you doing so on the “buddy system.” Always have at least one other person – agent or otherwise – in the home with you to avoid any kind of safety issues.

• Proper Staging. You’ve undoubtedly heard this one before, but staging a home prior to viewing is as important today as it was in years past. In some cases, it can make all the difference. For more on staging, read this article from NAR.

• Collect Information. Be sure that everyone who attends your open house leaves his or her contact information. This way, even if they don’t end up buying the home you currently have on display, you can easily contact them in the future if similar properties become available.

• Use Social Media. Yes, you can still get the word out via the local newspaper, but a much more effective method of advertising your open house nowadays is via social media. So promote it on Facebook, Tweet it several times over and throw some photos on Instagram or Pinterest.

• Hide the Valuables. Unfortunately, open houses do attract people who have no interest in actually purchasing the home. Lock up the valuables, make sure the owners have removed all the prescription drugs from the home and, generally, just be safe and cautious throughout the event.

To stay informed on this and other issues related to Sussex County’s real estate market, be sure to check back regularly on this blog page. All entries will be archived for later retrieval, whenever the need arises.

Our New Communications Plan

This week marks the beginning of an exciting time here at SCAOR, as you’ve no doubt read in this week’s At-a-Glance.

We’re currently making long overdue changes to the way we distribute important information to our members here at the Association. This will improve the way we disseminate information to each and every one of you – but it’s really much more than that. We will also make any pertinent information/data more readily accessible to you in the future, via scaor.com.

What does this mean?

Let’s go through some of the changes/improvements that we’re currently working on:

• Evergreen Content. First, we’re creating a series of blog items, podcasts and videos that will be uploaded to scaor.com (under the “news” tab) and serve as a library of sorts indefinitely. This means that if you need information on a certain subject, you can search for it online and find/save it for future use.

• Improved Stream of Information. We’ve eliminated the randomness of our weekly communications and now have a schedule that we will adhere to religiously. For example, you will ALWAYS get a podcast on Mondays, you will ALWAYS get a tech tip on Tuesdays, you will ALWAYS get “At A Glance” on Wednesdays, and ALWAYS get a blog post on Fridays. And for those who enjoy a walk down “Memory Lane”, we have our “Throwback Thursday” segment that will be dominated by old photos and memories.  Only emergency or time sensitive information will be distributed outside of this schedule.

• Multiple Platforms. We realize that everyone doesn’t have the same preference for consuming information. That’s why chosen to disseminate information by including multiple platforms.  From emails to social media, and from online videos to Scoar.com, there’s something for everyone moving forward.

As always, stay informed on what is happening with YOUR Association by regularly checking your inbox, social media, as well as online at scaor.com.