Visiting Silicon Valley and San Jose area open homes is a great way to get to know neighborhoods, architectural styles and the market overall. I encourage people thinking of buying or selling to visit the opens nearby to get a pulse on the market and what’s “out there”.  Normally it’s low pressure*.

*In terms of “pressure” at open houses, most Realtors and other realty professionals will let you go through the home at your own pace. Some will require a sign-in (often claiming that the seller requests this, but most often it is so that the agent can follow up with you later).  Once in awhile, though, you may bump into a “quantum” tour situation. With these, the agents are somewhat oppressive and require not only a log in by you but also insist that you only go through the home personally accompanied by one of their sales associates. The reason, of course, is “lead generation & conversion”. They want to increase the chances of getting clients out of the open home. The spin is personal attention.

Of course, the other extreme you may see is not high pressure, but nearly asleep. Some agents (maybe one in 20?) will not get up from the couch or table to even shake your hand and welcome you to the home. Hopefully you don’t run into this much!

A few open house tips, in terms of what to be aware of:

• feel the floor as you walk through the condo or house: is it level?
• smell the various rooms – are there candles or other scents intended to mask odors?
• note the light and time of day, as well as the direction the home and windows face and ask your self if the home gets adequate light for your taste
• is the layout good?
• is there enough storage?
• if there are problems with the home, can they be fixed?
• what needs updating or remodeling, or will need it soon?

The best homes will have presale inspections and disclosures completed which you can view prior to writing an offer.  It can be very helpful to familiarize yourself with the various reports, inspections, and disclosures so that you understand the range of normal. Older homes will not be defect free, and sellers will not make them perfect either – so get a feel for what to expect by perusing some of these if the binders are available during your open house. (Do understand that the agent is likely going to read it as a “buying signal” so explain that you just want to understand how the paperwork looks.)

For more tips on what to include when viewing Santa Clara County homes for sale, please see:
Viewing An Open Houseop  on my main website.

Tags: buying, open house, selling, Tips, viewing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 4:30 pm and is filed under Buying Tips, Selling Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.