Open House Checklist:

1. Double check that your home is white-glove clean and de-cluttered of personal stuff, including things you may be very proud of but which are not appropriate for open houses, such as unusual paintings or family portraits.

2. If you’re working with an agent, be sure you understand exactly when the open houses will be, including a mid-week "brokers only" open house. Your agent will likely conduct all the open houses herself, and in fact many state licensing departments stipulate that a licensed agent must conduct MLS-affiliated open houses. If your agent has some last-minute emergency preventing her from being present (or another open house), she will send another licensed agent. If you’re selling yourself, you’ll have to decide whether to hold your open house on Sunday afternoon, which in most communities is the traditional time for open houses, or at another time. Weekend afternoons are obviously the best time to attract the largest number of house hunters.

3. Be sure your open house is well advertised. Your agent should take care of this. If selling on your own, be sure to place ads in the local newspapers, on community bulletin boards, and on local For Sale by Owner Web sites. Double check that you have the correct address, possibly including general directions from the nearest main traffic artery or freeway, or a link to an online map with driving directions. Include a contact number.

4. If working with an agent, plan to leave during your open house. No one wants to see sellers loitering around, and most agents won’t allow it anyway. If you’re selling your home yourself, you should at least send the kids and pets off somewhere else for the day and you should try to be as unobtrusive as possible, perhaps taking the newspaper out to your porch and trying to blend in with the scenery. You might consider paying a responsible neighbor or retired real estate agent or someone else to hold an open house for you.

5. Keep your eyes on the prize! That means, in the words of the agent quoted above, that you might need to realign your attitude about your home. For you it holds a million memories. For a house hunter your home is one of many available for sale. The house hunter doesn’t care about your experiences in the home and may not share your taste in home improvements. Think of your home as something you want to sell so you can move onto the next phase of your life. Try to detach your emotions and the selling process will be a lot easier and faster too. Remember that the pros refer to your home and every other home on the market as "inventory". And the idea is to sell "inventory", not to keep it on the shelf.

Related links: Showing Your House; Seller's Marketing Tools