Buyers Give a "Thumbs Down" to Open Houses (re-blog)

A recent survey by the National Association Realtors showed some surprising results in the ever-changing habits of home buyers.  

An eight-page questionnaire was sent out to over 100,000 consumers who had purchased a home between July 2008 and Jun 2009.  They were asked to rank the usefulness of certain information sources typically used by Realtors® to market homes. 

The best news is that for the first in years, the real estate agent has come out on top. When asked which information sources they found to be useful consumers ranked as follows: 

 

• Real estate agents 81%
• The Internet 77%
• Yard signs 42%

Open houses came out low in the ranks with 10% of buyers finding them to be very useful and 25% said that they were somewhat useful. 

But where are buyers actually finding the homes that they eventually buy? 

• 36% found their homes on the Internet
• 36% discovered the home from a real estate agent
• 12% from yard signs

Happily, the most effective methods for selling a home are also the least expensive. Only 4% of buyers said they found their homes via newspapers, home books, magazines and television.  

Many of us still find open houses to be a good way to meet the public as well as an effective way to expose homes to buyers. 

But according to this latest survey - consumers, apparently, do not agree.

Copyright 2010 - Claudette Millette, Broker, Owner, The Buyers' Counsel 

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