How do you ask an agent to host their open house?

Question

Happy New Year BP Community!

My name is Brandon. I have been a Real Estate Agent in Southern California for 15 months. 2021 was good to me; I closed nine transactions, most of them being listings. Now that the new year is here, my goal is to host an open house every single weekend I can.

I plan to ask listing agents from different brokerages if I can host an open house for their listings. The brokerage I work out is more on the boutique side. Including myself, we have five agents, and two are brand new.

My value proposition is to provide open house flyers (no charge to them), promote the listing by inviting the neighbors in the surrounding area, and do my research in the surrounding area (comparables, school ratings, avg price per sqft, etc)

What would you recommend for me to do for Listing Agents to say “yes” ?

Thank you!

Nick C. · Answer

My guess is good agents will say yes. There's no downside to them. Newer or not so good agents might feel threatened.

Another angle is to research houses that are being flipped. If someone bought within the last year for cash and is now reselling retail. Often times the agent listing the property has a relationship with the house flipper and won't mind if you host all the open houses you want. We would get asked this years ago more frequently on our flips, we never minded. It hasn't come up in a while though, not sure why...

Brandon Carlson · Answer

@Mya Toohey   Thank you so much for your input. I will take your advice and contact smaller agencies.

@Peter Mckernan Thanks for letting me know it's legal in California. I was about to contact DRE now to ask. To your point, contacting agents outside the area code is a smart move. I appreciate your advice!

@Forrest Williams great minds think alike! I joined a few FB group pages last night and will begin to enter more.

Forrest Williams · Answer

In IL it is legal, and a great way to pick up clients. If you aren't part of any facebook groups for Realtors, I would get on those. I pick up open houses from other agents on there. If there are some busier agents in your office you can ask them too. If you aren't part of a team, that can help you find places as well. Congrats on 9 houses your first year!

Peter Mckernan · Answer

@Brandon Carlson Congrats on the nine sales!

In California you are welcome to host open houses for other agents, and that being said there are some keys to getting an agent to say yes to having you host their open house. For most agents that have listings they are running teams so they have agents that will host for them and they already have a relationship with those agents so you will not get a yes on that house. For the search and ability to get a yes, find a property that is out of the area for the agent for instance you have a 626 area code and the agent that has the listing has a 949 area code (just a quick example). The other way is to hit the agent up that has vacant house (you can see on the MLS), and also see if the house looks to be rehab or remodeled. When a house has been rehab/remodeled that agent typically works with one or more investors and is out of the area or has multiple listings that they need to tend to. Lastly, be the agent that calls the same agent without a team, but is doing a higher amount of volume. This tactic is good because you are building a reputation with that agent to be consistent and reliable till they give you a yes, and that agent does not have the capacity yet with a big team to manage the listings and open houses.

Mya Toohey · Answer

@Brandon Carlson

Hey Brandon,

I am a Realtor/Investor/Property Manager here in the Tampa Bay, Florida area.  We are allowed to host other agents listings.  The thing is finding the listing to host (if you are allowed there).  Go through your MLS when a home gets listed, call the agent, probably stick to smaller agencies, and call agents and ask.  They will most likely try and recruit you to come to them...so, that's why I would stay away from the big places, someone will let you do it...you just have to be careful not to waste your time on old or stagnant listings.  You could use that time to call expireds or FSBO's.  Just a thought...Best of Luck to you!

Brandon Carlson · Answer

Good question @Russell Brazil I'm not sure about that one. It looks like I need to find out.

Russell Brazil · Answer

1st question...is it legal to host an open house for a listing of another broker in your state? Im licensed in 4 states, and its illegal in 3 of them.

How do you ask an agent to host their open house?

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