Maybe A Good Nights Showing Will Sell Your Property

(The seller's difficulty to generate a sale has been well documented throughout the past year, as well as has been the numerous ways sellers are creatively trying to create interest in their open houses.)

You have probably already read articles about using scented candles or a professional decorator to market and sell your property by cresting the "I could see myself living here" allure. But there is a new marketing practice that may send a potential buyer home with something to dream about.

"After hours," an article written by Gayle Pollard-Terry and published in the Los Angeles Times on November 12, 2006, explains how open houses are requiring sufficient lighting to go with the wine.

Imagine walking into an open house with flickering lights from decorative candles dance on top of a sleek black piano, while contemporary jazz music plays in the background as you eat imported cheeses and sip on fine wine. Are you looking to buy a house or just having an intimate evening? It becomes apparent; the owner wants you to fall in love; but with the owner or the house.

"Welcome to a twilight open house, an end-of-the-workday sunset showing - one more way to make a listing stand out in a market glutted with them. These leisurely evening showings complete with wine or Champagne and hors d'oeuvres, are targeted to young professionals and empty nesters, the type of buyers who don't have to rush home to make dinner for the children or check homework."

This is definitely a new technique that sellers are hoping will be innovative and sincere enough to capture the attention of serious buyers. There are many selling gimmicks such as offering vacations and used vehicles but offering an intelligent and elegant atmosphere is something that will appeal to any buyer without them thinking it is a put-on or hoax.

"'With the market the way it is right now, you have to be a little more creative,' said Priscilla Gonzales, who shares the Silver Lake listing with her daughter, Bautista. Both are agents for Las Casas Realty Inc. in Los Angeles."

"'It's just about setting a mood,' she added, as she set out bottles of wine in anticipation of arriving visitors. 'When they walk in, we want them to say, 'Wow! I want to live here.'"

The lure of the night appeals to many buyers because that is when they are mostly home with the whole family or spouse. During the day we have numerous jobs and other responsibilities and usually do not see each other until nighttime.

Parents are attracted to night open houses because they enjoy imagining a sophisticated evening with their children as they discuss the day in work and school as well as various world issues.

"And that's where the action was during the open house as couples, neighbors, singles and parents with babies savored the view of pastel houses dotting the hills above a crape myrtle tree bursting with pink blooms and, to the east, the sight of downtown L.A. skyscrapers."

Night open houses offer a different feel. There is no hustle and bustle where families are talking loudly and hurrying to rush home or to the next errand because those who attend an open house are there because they have time to enjoy a glass of wine and discuss the property with the owner.

These showings make the buyer feel special like the owner went out of his or her way just to the buyer much needed relaxation.

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