Open House ~ Yes I Still Do Them!

I am a research Queen.  Notice that I put a capital on that "q"?  I want to know all that I can about every subject that has to do with my job.  One of those subjects lately has been about Open Houses.

I have read different blogs where agents complain about sitting around for a couple of hours and nobody comes through or that it doesn't matter because "nobody buys at an open house anyways".  My opinion is that these people just aren't working it.

I AM AN AGENT THAT WILL STILL HOLD AN OPEN HOUSE IF MY SELLER WANTS ME TO HOLD AN OPEN HOUSE.

I understand that some sellers are not comfortable with open houses, especially if they have a lot of valuables, breakables or firearms.  I respect that.

I don't ever give my sellers the false hope that I am going to have 1 million potential buyers come through the door during that 2 hour period or that someone is going to fall in love and have to write an offer on the spot.  I have held many where nobody comes through.  That's just how it works some days.  What I like to tell my sellers is this is another opportunity to get exposure for your home.  In most cases, it would be advertised in the newspaper, Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, MLS and on other websites.  I am going to put out signs like the one listed above to drive the traffic on the day of.  A lot of times for the first open house I hold after a house goes on the market, I will send out invitations to the neighbors asking them to come to the open house.  (I know that not many agents do this because they don't like the "nosy neighbor" coming through.  I welcome them because you never know who they know!)

In my personal experience, I have had (1) a lady and her family (2) a couple of ladies come through an open house and spend almost the entire 2 hours there.  These were 2 different homes, listed at 2 different times in totally different locations.  They didn't write an offer on the spot, but they contacted their agent after, scheduled a time to walk through and ended up writing offers on these 2 homes.  As a buyer's agent, I have had 2 different clients that visited open houses and wanted me to write offers on them after.

It doesn't work every time, but it does have the potential to work.  When you are interviewing different agents that you are thinking of using to list your home, ask them if they hold open houses and just listen to their answers.  If you want to use an agent that will hold one, and actually enjoys it, you can always contact ME.