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Open Houses, do you do them? Are they successful?

A couple of weekends ago, I was doing an Open House for a new client/listing. I don't normally do open houses because I end up sitting for a couple of hours walking around someone elses house waiting for potential buyers. Well, that doesn't work...yes, I put out signs, put it in the MLS, all of the normal things but really don't have much success.

So, I tried to shake it up a bit. Last week, I put out flyers at the entrance of the community along with the allowed signage, did the MLS stuff, but this time, I advertised Root Beer Floats. I then went to all the houses I could and left an invitation to join us for the floats and to come see their neighbors home.

Please bring a friend I encouraged. Sunday, I rolled up with my goodies, unloaded the car, put out my shingle so to speak. Opened at 2 and by 2:20 there were 26 people in the house. WOW!! This works, please share with me some of your experiences.

Posted by Suzanne Gantner, GRI, E-Pro, SRES on 11/13/2009 05:49 PM

Comments (7)

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7 Comments on Open Houses, do you do them? Are they successful?

NOV

We do them, but not with much success. Your idea is inspiring! I like how it incorporates the idea of neighborhood marketing as well as getting the foot traffic to the home. Word always travels! Great idea. I wish you luck on your next open house and look forward to offering something similar in my area!

Suzanne, Once upon a time one of my loan officers would hold open houses for his realtors and it was not unusual for him to have 40 or 50 people come by.

He purchased about 50 wire signs from Home Depot. Better said he picked them up and I paid for them. It has been several years but I think they were only 3 or 4 bucks apiece. He would start at a main street and post a regular open house sign that could be seen by fast moving cars then lead people to his open house with the wire signs. He also signed every street leading to the home. It was a lot of work and took a couple hours but it sure paid off.

The last major open house I did, I had a live keyboard player, food out the wazoo (is that a word?), I had a drawing for a free lawnmower and I had a blast. I had maybe a dozen people there, including a mortgage broker. We got a nice offer, although it was not accepted. I generally do not do OH's, but this particular one was at the right time, location, and in the right place.

NOV

In my market they do little more than pacify myopic sellers. I seldom see much good come out of them outside of picking up the odd buyer.

NOV

Well that's quite the marketing ploy. Now did you have to make the floats??? Or did you have help so you could schmooze with the neighbors?

NOV

That's a clever idea. OK, I'm clueless. How do you make rootbear floats?

thanks all for your replies...Yes Jenny I made the floats along with another agent who works in my office. I become less threatening when I am giving out freebies. Cheryl wanted to know how to make a rootbeer float and for those of you that don't know...Large glass, add vanilla ice cream, pour root beer over the ice cream and whalaa!! Hope everyone gives it a whirl and let me know how it works for you.

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