Make your first open house the only one

What could be more unnerving to a home seller than the thought of an open house? Hundreds of strangers roaming your rooms, sniffing at your housekeeping, snickering over your taste in decor.

If that's your private nightmare, relax. An ordinary open house won't draw a hundred visitors. It may not even attract 10. The actual purpose of a Realtor open house is to placate an antsy seller with an illusion of activity actually devised to attract buyers. If your house happens to sell, so much the better, but the goal is to sell something, somewhere, to those buyers.

But all is not lost. It's possible to do an open house so well that you won't be holding one every weekend. Done right, you should be able to make your first open house your last.

Obviously, the best open house is no open house. If your home is in tiptop shape, white-glove clean - and if your price it right - you should be able to sell it as soon as it hits the market and cancel that pesky open house.

But even if you're stuck holding the house open, you can still make it sell fast.

First, nothing draws a crowd like a crowd. Promote the house hard among your neighbors. You should extend invitations to everyone in your surrounding area - hundreds of invitations. When passers-by see all the cars around your house, they'll stop, too.

Second, nothing creates a sense of urgency like a deadline. Schedule your open house for one hour, two at most, and stick to your schedule. Make sure your Realtor is at the ready, contracts and pens in hand, with a lender on call to prequalify buyers.

Directional signs matter a lot. Balloons may help. But the house matters more than anything: squeaky-clean, in great repair, uncluttered, ready to sell now.

Do that first open house right and you shouldn't have to do it a second time.