Are open houses a complete waste of time?

In our area open houses are a definate way to gain business, I have gotten many clients from them.  Where are your pending deals coming form, answering phones, knowcking on doors etc?  Evaluate what works best for you and if it isn't opne houses than don't do them.  Each agent has their own niche, once you find it, use it!

  Hmmm...it's about the timing and targeting to my mind....and knowing your market..Sometimes in some areas Saturdays are gang busters and Sundays not so much...or Tuesday evenings...and then there will always be tire kickers...we are writing an offer this afternoon for a family I met at an open 6 years ago...we are listing and selling...a million dollar open house....with referrals besides...

Each area is unique. I would ask some seasoned agents in your area/office what their experiece is with OH's

your friend in Charlottesville Virginia!

I did many when I was a rookie because my first broker pushed them. I learned, mostly a waste of my time!

Open Houses can work.  Just pick the home carefully, differentiate yourself from others so that customers that go through the home might want to work with you.  If you don't like doing them, definitely do something else.

Amanda and Jared, I'm curious where they are coming from too. Our open house attendance  at a new construction site we sit comes in waves too. Mostly people are coming from ads in the local newspaper and the internet

I would give up quite yet.  It took me longer than 8 months to start getting some results from my Open Houses years ago but I did.  I also did what many above have suggested - you may just be doing them at the wrong time and the wrong day.  CHeck with some other agents in the area to see what is workng best for them and change your strategy. 

I regularly do open houses at a new subdivision that we have listed.  We'll go for a while without getting anything, and then...just when I'm ready to give it up...we get a solid lead that turns into a sale. So don't give up!

There are so many opinions on opens. Do wahts best for you and whats working. Some will some wont so what who's next?

As a new Realtor I must do open houses to build my pipeline of potential customers. Yes, they are a time drain, and can be extremely boring (read a good book), but for me a must do!

Sellers have heard about realtor open houses and sometimes ask for one so they feel that absolutely every approach has been covered. The last time a seller asked me to do an open house, I brought it up in the weekly sales meeting and several other agents in my office said they had sellers who would want one. We planned a morning with 10 houses in a small geographic area, advertised, put out signs and balloons etc. and did "all the right stuff." I had a pretty tablecloth, fresh flowers, a punch bowl with pink lemonade, homemade brownies, special fliers.....ONE looker, no leads and  essentially, no interest.

That experience was repeated a week later in the equestrian community where I live, during Memorial Day weekend. This is a destination for trail riders and I was sure that people who were in the area that weekend would either be out riding or too tired from riding to bother with an open house. Had I not participated, my sellers would have felt shortchanged so, again, out came the signs and balloons, the petty tablecloth, fresh flowers, the punch bowl with pink lemonade, homemade brownies, special fliers and this time.....a repeat performance.

I think open houses work much better for new construction.

Do you live in a Small town? Did you do an open house on a heavily trafficked area?  Did you post signs 7 days or 1 day out?  Did you advertise on the internet? Were you or are you as educated on the real estate market in your area as you should be? Were you able to convey yourself to the customers in a way that would gain their confidence and trust in you?  Was your presentation of the house and your material fresh and catchy?

    In most books on how to be succesful in Real Estate, one of the key ingredients is Open Houses.  So yes they are useful.  But with anything you cant just pick a house post a sign up with balloons and be successful.  Ask your fellow realtors in your area what works for them.  Surround yourself around the best or ask the best what works for them.  I just recently switched companies and the attitude in the new company about helping each other grow is refreshing.   I can go up to a top producer in the office and ask what works for them and they are more than happy to sit down with me and explain their succesful process.  Hopefully you are in a similar environment, to where you can go to your local open house expert and pick his/her brain.

Good luck :)

I've never been a fan of open houses either. Recently though I had a listing in a historic area where there for 5-6 other quality listings. Traffic seemed to kind of slow. I spoke with the other listing agents and agreed to team up to do market a "Tour" of homes in our area. We all shared in the promotion and actually have a great showing that day.

We've also done broker open houses... those seem to work well too although it's tough to quantify.

I agree with Dave Humphrey at this point in my career and I've had both sides of the emotional equation on Open Houses, but you know what they say....It only takes one!