Myths & Truths of the Open House
Many agents and many sellers question the value of open houses. Gary and April Greer bring up many or the reasons sellers are reluctant to do them and why they are benericial in the long run - both for the seller and the agent.
Let's face it...a lot of Agents don't do them anymore. They can be dangerous. They can invite in trouble and they can be a waste of precious weekend time. An in depth discussion with your Agent can determine if they are right for you and your family.
However, over the course of 12 years we've discovered the following:
Myth & Truth #1: Neighbors are going to be in my house, nosing around. And while initially this is true, they are also the voice of your community and since homes do sell often times to friends of friends in your neighborhood....why the heck not let them nose around? Haven't you known someone that has been interested in living where you do? Anything that may instigate a "showing" on your home is one step closer to a sale.
Myth & Truth #2: A real buyer would be pre-approved and looking with their Realtor this weekend and my home would get shown to them anyway. True again and yet not everyone does the home buying thing in the right order. Pre-approval first and so on and so forth. Or maybe their Realtor is not available today and they are out just driving around. Maybe they don't even know what they want yet and since home buying is "an emotional purchase" most of the time...well you just never know what can be accomplished when folks see the right house.
And with all of the internet marketing available...homes are deleted from showing lists often due to misconceptions about the home based on photos or lack of information. (Example later)
Myth & Truth #3: Nothing ever comes of it. Well I would beg to differ. On our latest listing alone, 2 qualified showings resulted from open houses because the Realtors stopped by the open house and decided that the home in fact did match the criteria of the Buyer or...yep you guessed it...they had ruled the home out based on a misconception of the usability of the lot.
Myth & Truth #4: My agent just wants to do an open house to get more business. This may be the truest statement of all and yet it doesn't negate in any way the desire and goal to sell your home in the process. And if number 1, 2 and 3 above hold true than isn't it worth it?
Quote from our latest open house "Well, I saw the pictures of this house when my Agent sent it to me but I thought it was somewhere else and further away from town than this and had ruled it out." Hmmm.
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