I do a lot of open houses and I do them to gain attention to my listings and myself. You never know what you will get when you open a door to the public, it could be a great thing or a complete waste of time, you never know what you're going to get.
My favorite thing at any open house is the visitor that hates me the second they walk through the door. It's open to the public, but have to understand that in most cases it's still a home, and the owners have hired me in an attempt to sell the house. I'm hard to avoid at these things, because I'm right there and I'm the guy who opened the door for you to walk through in the first place.
Now please allow me to explain that I am not there to harass so much as I am there to help if necessary. I'm also not going to let someone who just walked through the door wonder around alone in a house filled with my client's valuables. I'm not there to offend you, but let's face it, there are bad people out there and I need to make sure that nothing goes missing on my watch. Also, you walked into an open house, so how could you not expect me to at least say hello and introduce myself?
Another thing you may notice is that we will ask questions. It's not a crazy, deceptive tactic on my part to trick you into something. It's an effort to see if I can help you or if you even want help. Let's say for example I ask " are you from around here? " It does neither of us any good for you to reply " I'm from up there ", which people have done. I usually reply to that answer with the fact that I live over there and I think it's close to up there, have you heard of it? The original question is only an effort to understand whether you are relocating or whether you are already familiar with the area.
When I greet you and you look at me like I'm an idiot and say in a stern voice, "I'm just looking alright!", and then try to rush past me, I'm not impressed with your tough negotiation tactics. If you just want to look, then just say you popped in to have a look around, it's an open house and I don't mind the public being there. Believe it or not, that's even the point of the whole thing. There's no need to be rude to me, I'm not there to be rude to you.
I have encountered many types of people in all my open houses, and I enjoy doing them. I actually like meeting people and having a little small talk while they browse the home. But I will tell you this, when you walk into an open house or a model home in a new home community, you're going to run into a Realtor. That's sort of our job. Most of us don't have sharp teeth or claws, we're just going to ask a few painless questions while you're there to find out whether or not we can help. After all, if you went to a restaurant and a waitress/waiter asked what you would like, would you freak out on them? You walked into the restaurant knowing they would be there, the same can be said for us at open houses or model homes.
So remember, it's not likely that I'm going to bite you, you can even carry on a conversation. When I ask where you're from, sometimes it's just small talk, it's not because I think people from a certain area of the country taste better.
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