It should come as no surprise that some people do not have a life. They can be found, every Sunday at the same place. Your Open House. They are neighbors, half-serious buyers, and some are all around busy bodies. Some you will see for YEARS, doing the open house circuit..week after week, after week- as if one of their hobbies that they might list on a job application would be "Open House looking"....
Now allow me to be the first to admit that I fall into this catagory. I love going to Open Houses. And the first thing I head for? The photos. Come on...tell the truth- you are an open house junkie, and you make a B-Line for the pictures on the wall, in the living room, and on the bureau in the family room as well- Don't you? I thought so....
Half the fun of going to an open house is seeing how other people live. From their decorating tastes, to the trinkets and chachki's littering their lives- I want to know who these people are, and how they live. Don't show me the kitchen. I don't care about the lovely new side by side Amana refrigerator. I am not interested in the stain resistant wall to wall carpeting. If I had X-ray vision, I would peek inside their drawers and closets too, but I know the boundaries of a good open house junkie. And I don't make negative comments inside someone else's house- even when the place is a total piece of crap, is grossly overpriced, and was last cleaned back when telephones had cords, and Duran Duran was on MTV.
Yes, I am one of the good "addicts". I am actually one of the people you WANT inside your open house. I often make nice comments for other, more serious buyers to overhear. "Oh, I love the flow of the living room / dining room area", and "wow, what a great location". I even bought a house last year while doing my Open House circuit. I didn't mean to, but I feel in love with the place, and had to have it. This time though, I was bad mouthing the place, aloud, as I didn't want the other perspective Open house "lookers" to see the good side of this place. So here I sit, in my new house, writing this blog on a Sunday morning, wondering how many "junkies" I am going to encounter at the Open Houses I am sitting this afternoon.
Mark Wade Prudential Fox and Roach Realtors Philadelphia www.CenterCityCondos.com
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