Open houses can provide you with many opportunities to make your new-home hunt more fruitful. You can learn about the sellers, the neighbourhood and the details of the home. Full advantage of visiting an open house is achieved if you can time your visit when there are very few lookers roaming through the house. In a hot market, an open house may be the only time to see a property.
Walking through a home will help determine what amenities you can afford at a certain price. You can make market comparisons by visiting several open houses.
Be tuned in to the conversations of other visitors, and you will benefit from the insight of others about the home and the neighborhood. If you can get one-on-one time with the listing agent, find out all you can about the seller and the motivation behind selling the house. Get to know a prospective neighbourhood by taking a walk through it. You will be able to see the pride of ownership, learn the traffic patterns and find out more from meeting some of the neighbours.