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The Real Estate world is split on the Open House debate! Who knew? Before I got into the industry, not me! Probably like most of America, I just assumed that was part of the job. Then I heard horror stories of sitting in an empty house for hours and nobody showing up. I thought, “but you see those signs all the time.” About two months ago I got my first listing client and discovered first hand the debate on open houses. After hosting a few for my listing, as well as some in my area for other agents, I have made a few executive decisions.
Decision #1 – Open Houses are for the client’s benefit. And I don’t mean because their house is going to sell on that day. I mean that it makes them feel like you are earning the money they will pay you when their house sells. Literally every client has a hard time with paying an agent that percentage of the sale. Everybody wants a deal today. They don’t understand the amount of hours it takes you to gather all of the required information and enter it into the Listing Service. But when you hold an open house, they can physically see you doing work. So if it makes my clients feel like I’m earning the money that I deserve, then so be it.
Decision #2 – Planning is helpful. It may only last three hours, but so does a toddler’s birthday party. And they are about as equally important (and draining). So with all the pieces and elements and moving parts, I have to plan the best way to use it. Instead of flying by the seat of my pants, like I did for the first few Open Houses, I decided to sit down and plan each one like all the events I had ever planned in the past…Budget, Food, Invites, Activities. It may just be my slight obsessive compulsiveness, but thinking about things ahead of time gives me the ability to execute them more effectively.
Decision #3 – Marketing is key. Once I know what I am going to do, when, where, and why, I can create a marketing strategy. I like to pick three ways…because if you’ve read any of my other posts, good things come in three’s…and I like to vary those three ways depending on the market I’m in and the client I’m working for. I’m a huge fan of social media advertising, so I usually start there. If the house is in a neighborhood, I like to use signs and flyers. There are tons of options and budget can very easily be the deciding factor.
Decision #4 – It is not a waste of time. When you are sitting alone in a house for 3 hours, it may certainly feel like it’s a waste. But it is not. I have chosen to make valuable use of that time. I shoot videos, take pictures, plan my week, create social media posts, anything that is work related that can be interrupted in the event some human actually shows up. At my last Open House that only human was a mortgage lender trying to solicit my referrals, but it was a human.
To date, I have hosted 6 open houses. None of which have been hugely successful. But I can see the potential. And as my process improves, so can my success. After all, you can’t be successful at something if you don’t actually do it.
