‘Revealed: The Key to Your House Hunt is Sliding Closets Aside’

There is a good chance that the house you visit will smell like freshly baked apple pie or a beautiful bunch of flowers. That is a common trick used by real estate agents to win over souls among the crowd of potential home buyers.

Not only does it look welcoming, it also creates an atmosphere of homeliness and it can be used to disguise bad odours. “Apple pie is a cliché, but we do advise masking less fresh scents,” says Brigitte Schrijvers. She is a real estate agent in Valkenswaard and a board member of the NVM department of Southeast Brabant.

According to Schrijvers, the great charm of the open house day lies in the fact that its role is taken over for a day by the homeowner himself. “It makes it very clean,” she says.

Choice of 13,500 houses

Due to the corona crisis, there was no open house day in recent years. The phenomenon was organized again for the first time in October. Then about 55,000 people visited a total of 11,000 houses.

Today you have the choice of more than 13,500 houses which you can visit unannounced between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Some brokers do want you to register. That way you are easier to find to gauge your interest afterwards.

Look around the neighborhood

Before you even go on the road, it is good to prepare yourself, advises the NVM. First of all what kind of neighborhood you want to live in. “If there is a party tent somewhere in the garden, it may be less,” says Schrijvers.

It is also useful to consider in advance: how much budget do you have? And what do you think is important about a house? “Suppose you like good cooking, but you don’t like lying in the bath,” Schrijvers gives as an example. “If you are completely overwhelmed by a beautiful bath, you may completely forget how meager the kitchen is.”

“Look through the furniture, too,” she adds. A trick of sellers can be that the houses are completely styled before the viewing, she explains. The NVM indeed advises to ‘remove as many personal accents as possible’.

No matter how beautifully decorated, that furniture is gone once the house is yours, so you shouldn’t attach too much importance to it, says Schrijvers. All the more attention you have to give to the walls, the floors, the window frames.

Look beyond your nose

“Slide a cupboard aside to see if there are no circles behind it and pull a curtain aside to check if there are any cracks in the wall,” Schrijvers advises. Inspecting the kitchen properly, for example by opening the oven, sometimes provides valuable information. “Do you still want to bake pizza in it yourself or are you not letting your dog eat it yet?”

In short: be a bit cheeky now and then by just putting something aside. “That no one has hidden anything,” explains the broker. To find out any defects, it can also help to ask for a list of details.

Don’t be afraid to ask

“Usually there is, with details about what goes with it and what stays after the sale,” says Schrijvers. “Are there known leaks? And isn’t that beautiful fitted kitchen coming along by chance?”

What you absolutely should not do is to demolish the house. “You get a tour of the owner through his or her house, so you shouldn’t enter into a discussion with that,” warns Schrijvers. “If you do, you’re going to miss out.”

Wouldn’t it be a good strategy to lower the price a bit? “No”, the broker is firm. “At the end of the day you want a salesperson who thinks: ‘I want to sell it to them’.” The gun factor, that’s what it’s all about. “So throw a nice note with your offer, so that the seller still knows who you were,” Schrijvers advises.

Give the viewer space

She also has tips for sellers. “Give the viewer space, in a literal and figurative sense. Don’t gasp with all kinds of details. A buyer is not concerned with that at all,” says Schrijvers.

“Make the buyer feel comfortable,” she says. And tidy up, clean up and keep in mind that a viewer might open the fridge. “And pets and children: get out,” she advises.

“Get umbrellas if people want to see the backyard in this nasty weather,” she finally tips.