Attracting House Buyers to Your Property through a Garage Sale

Running a garage sale is like taking on a full-time job for a day. Once you've prepared by rounding up all of the eyesores and knick knacks that are collecting dust around your house, you'll next need to tag each item with a price and get ready to negotiate. If you're lucky, you'll get a couple of hundred dollars for your time and trouble.

However, if you need to sell something bigger than just a Pilates mat or a crock pot, a garage sale can be a very convenient place to cross-advertise. If you've got your house on the market, why spend a day bickering over the price of every utensil from your kitchen, and why not take advantage of this excellent opportunity to cross-advertise?

Even though your house can't fit onto a card table next to your coffemaker and collectible bobble heads, it is possible for you to sell your house in a garage sell if you remember 4 essential guidelines: 1.) Give your Realtor an opportunity to be involved, 2.) Create brochures to advertise the property, 3.) Appoint one person to be in charge of talking about the house, & 4.) Create attractive outdoor tour areas.

Give your Realtor an opportunity to be involved

A good Realtor will seek out advertising opportunities that will be most beneficial to both a buyer and a seller. As long as you run a sensible word-of-mouth campaign, your Realtor should be supportive of you. So, mention your ideas to your realtor, and consider any feedback he or she may give. Tips that a Realtor might offer could be very useful to you with respect to the way you should relate with potential buyers. Don't be afraid to ask for tips, and don't be afraid to put them to use.

Most importantly, let your Realtor know about the event you are planning so that he or she will be alert to your needs if you or your potential buyer decide to call for information on the day of the garage sale.

Create brochures to advertise the property

Creating a brochure can be as easy as 1,2,3, or it can also be a more labor-intensive project if you are interested in producing a top quality document. What is important, though, is that you communicate pertinent information to a buyer.

With that being said, don't be afraid to get creative. Remember that a garage sale is a fun, community environment. Maybe you should highlight how close your house is to nearby restaurants, grocery stores, or schools. You can do by discretely planting these logos in your document. A visually-stimulating way to convey this information is to place a picture of your house in the center of a wheel, with the spokes of the wheel spanning out to the different logos.

Also, you can even print a little cross-word puzzle, maze, or connect-the-dots picture for kids to draw on. At least, you can get a copy of your brochure into their hands if their parent is too busy haggling over the price of a shoehorn.

Appoint one person to be in charge of talking about the house

Garage sales are not for the faint of heart. You will have your hands full of business if you undertake one, so prepare yourself for the adventure by appointing one person to be in charge of talking about the house. Let this person play a friendly role. Perhaps he or she could sell refreshments at an attractive price, both to attract traffic and to provide relief to visitors.

The most important work of this representative will be to get the brochure in the hands of the visitors, and to provide a friendly response to any questions.

Create attractive outdoor tour areas

Finally, take advantage of the property itself. Clean up any clutter around the perimeter of the house, and spruce up the lawn a day ahead of time. Welcome visitors to view the outside of the property. However, wait for the expertise of a Realtor to arrange a full tour. (You may wish to whet the appetite of a potential buyer by including photos of rooms inside of your brochure; do so by carefully photographing these locations so as not to include in the picture valuable items such as televisions, computers, etc.).

If you follow these guidelines, you may very possibly increase your garage sale profit from a couple of hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. The secret is in getting to know people, and providing them with the information they need.