AsI got ready to submit myself to yet another Saturday afternoon of business pleasure, an open house in Medford, my thoughts drifted to, "is this how a millionaire realtor should spend his Saturday afternoon?" I've heard one of the great guru's of real estate teach that an open house, a real open house, isn't done by just putting an ad in the paper and showing up on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, but by:
Mailing out invitations to 100 of the closest neighbors and doing a "sneek preview open house" the night before for an hour so that all of the neighbors can come in and check it out
Including in the neighbors open house invite an "invitation only" to bring their friends through the home a ½ hour before the standard open house
An ad in the newspaper
Signs out front
What does all of that do, it promotes the open house and yourself to all of the neighbors in the area, which often are ½ of the people that end up coming to the regular open house.
I'm curious to hear what other active rainers do to promote their open houses and what they've done at the open house to help create as many client relationships as possible. Or, has the open house gone the way of the earth due to the "virtual open house" that can be had any time, any where?
7 Comments on Open house secrets for the millionaire realtor
Jared, as a new agent I too am curious about the value of and the best method of conducting an open house. I'm looking forward to the responses you get from this Blog.
I did just that and I got more than 40 visitors.. but I was new and unprepared for so many of them.. so it wasn't a very successful open house.. I wrote about it yesterday on activerain, check it out and view other rainers comments.. pretty interesting...
When I got into real estate back in 1984 I had an agent who had been licensed since the 50's tell me that he had only sold a few houses from having held one open, but that he had picked up plenty of buyer's from them. So, Robert....I've been in the business since 1984 and have only sold a few houses from open houses, but I've picked up quite a few buyers from them....care to pick up the torch?
A Realtor in my neigborhood did the same...invite the neighbors ahead of the shceduled time....she told me she picked up some potential listings from the open. In today's market this is the type of activity that potential sellers want to see from their Realtor. Does it mean they sell the house quicker? Not always...but they do generate a bit more "buzz".... good post!
40 people to an open house, that is amazing! I like the suggestion someone gave you of having a coworker on hand to help out when there are so many people that it is hard to be in touch with everyone. As many others have commented on AR, sometimes it is a challenge to get other agents to want to help out on open houses. In hindsight, have you discovered a way to get the similar results without as much physical labor on your part?
Thats what I've been debating and I'm open to suggestions on. Is it worth spending numerous weekend afternoons for a few buyers and sellers through the years? And what is the best way to maximize the attendence and results from those weekend afternoons?
That is exactly one of my thoughts, impress the neighbors. How many times do we get phone calls from the neighbors right after a home goes on the market to find out about their neighbors house, so they can use that info on deciding what to do about their own house.
Jared Hokanson - Realtor Medford Oregon
Medford, OR
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Jared, as a new agent I too am curious about the value of and the best method of conducting an open house. I'm looking forward to the responses you get from this Blog.
Robert