Have you had success with open houses?

Question

How many people showed up? What were the hours? Where was it? When was it? How many emails/phone numbers did you get? How long did you prepare/how much did you spend?

Thank you! 🙂

Irene Nash · Answer

If you're asking from an agent's perspective (not a FSBO), some people do really well at open houses. Traffic mostly depends on what type of listing and your market, but you can drum up more activity by inviting the neighbors to stop by. Do everything you can to increase your conversion at every step (although I don't mean by being pushy). A few ideas:

Kevin Ward (Google his book "Yes" on Amazon) has a couple of non-cringeworthy open house and invite scripts in his book, and probably on his YouTube channel as well. I've heard that using an app like Open Home Pro makes people more likely to sign in compared to a guest book, and also have heard they're more likely to sign in at the end of their visit than at the start, but mention the sign-in at the start so they have it in mind. And I recommend having something branded to give out that people will keep around, i.e. a resource list, sports schedule, etc. Otherwise even if they like you, if you haven't actually made a strong enough connection that you actually have an appointment or a way to follow up, they may have a hard time remembering how to get back in touch with you. That kind of thing can pay off way down the road.

From a home selling perspective, I used to also think that they never sold the house, but in the past few years have had a couple of listings that really did sell from the open house (not on the buyer's list but were nearby, and another time the people weren't even looking but popped in and fell in love).  As a listing agent they're super helpful in terms of getting feedback and even getting a feel for which potential buyers are going to be nice or not so nice to work with.

I haven't been trying to get business from opens the past few years, but 5 years ago my husband was doing them to pick up business, his method was to only chat with the nice people. :) (He didn't use the neighbor invite or leave-behinds or any sign-in options, which I believe would have increased conversions.) Ended up with 3 sets of clients and 12 transactions total including their referrals. So it only takes one nice client to make it really worth it.

PS. I recommend not wearing anything bright red, my one experience with that was that visitors seemed to think I was some huge territorial bird defending the open house. Not a fun day. ;)

Patricia Steiner · Answer

In general, I'm not a believer in open houses...they're more for marketing the realtor than selling the property.  I recommend putting some good quality photos online with the major search sites - or hire a realtor on a "limited service only" basis (a small fee) to put it on the MLS and feed it out to all the real estate search engines.

Cassi Justiz · Answer

I've heard both extremes on open houses. I know some agents that swear by them and other agents that don't think they are worthwhile at all. I think it's all about what you expect. If you expect to waste time and not get any leads, that's the vibe you will be giving off. If you go in thinking you're going to crush it and set up appointments with at least 1/2 of the people you meet, you are more likely to give off those vibes.

I've gotten a few leads and appointments, but none of them were actively wanting to buy at that time. More just casual lookers that I'm keeping in touch with. ;)

The big thing that's helped me was promoting the houses I'm showing on social media. I've had fb friends reach out to me about buying/selling because they've seen plenty of real estate activity on my feed.

Have you had success with open houses?

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