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Make your Open Houses the talk of the Town

By
Real Estate Agent with O'Brien Realty

Open Houses can be a wonderful resource for buyers and future listings.  Play off your listings strong points and make it really work for you. Suggestions would be:

 

First and foremost, advertise to everyone in the community. They may already know someone that they would like to have as a future neighbor. Also, if it's a relocation they may not already have a local realtor. Then, let your SOI know all about it.

Waterfront listing - offer boat rides, fishing/crabbing, bird watching, have shrimp salad on puff pastry, crab cakes. If listing has great sunset views try to schedule during that time. Also, have slide show or picture album of various pictures taken on the property to entice them to pay more attention to the many details.

Formal home - Have a formal wine and cheese evening event. Have a local musician come and play to set some beautiful mood music.

Cooks kitchen - offer mini-cooking class with local chef to show the kitchen off.

Large family house - have a kids day with clowns, balloons, coloring contest, offer a house cleaning gift certificate for everyone that registers at the open house to be drawn at the end of the event (what family dosen't love a free house clean) .

Sports fan house - Perfect time of year for a Football Party! Tailgate food, drawing for an upcoming game, and of course the big game on the big screen!

Make a CD presentation with label showing picture of the home and your contact information. It is nice to give something different to take home than a flyer. Also, that is easy for them to e-mail info to others and share.

My clients love that my parties are over the top EVENTS with customized invitations, giveaways, and activities. Most of the people I invite always look forward to attending my parties because of the attention to the details I give.

Jason Schweiger
Modus Mortgage - Auburn, WA
Loan Originator: Modus Mortgage

Good info. I just did an open house and only had 4 come through. It was raining and that was a big issue. Its hard to time an open house in Seattle and count on the weather!

Oct 01, 2007 05:15 AM
Charity Lane
O'Brien Realty - Prince Frederick, MD

Jason - You absolutely right that weather plays a big part on the turnout. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you for some sunny weekends coming up! :o)

4 people is still good. Remember that it only takes one buyer to sell a home!

Oct 01, 2007 05:20 AM
Rhonda McNeal
CENTURY 21 Champion Real Estate - Jacksonville, NC
Great ideas! I am doing 2 different open houses this weekend. I have ideas to really make it different and with your suggestions--I hope for good ones!
Oct 01, 2007 05:23 AM
Brandon Causey
Coastal Palmetto Realty LLC - Loris, SC
Realtor, Coastal Palmetto Realty LLC
Love the ideals and have tried a few before.  Open houses just don't get enough traffic here...
Oct 01, 2007 05:26 AM
Charity Lane
O'Brien Realty - Prince Frederick, MD

Rhonda - Make your listings stand out and they will sell! There's nothing better than selling your own listing.

Brandon - You know your area much better than I do. How do they usually sell the homes in your area? I love finding new ways of doing things!

p.s. Sorry for the long blog with no pictures. I'm on duty in the office and not on my computer. :(

Oct 01, 2007 05:31 AM
Mike Klijanowicz
Cummings & Co. Realtors - Perry Hall, MD
Associate Broker @ Cummings & Co. Realtors
I actually have 3 part post going about open houses and will be posting part III tomorrow or later this week.  Good Ideas!
Oct 01, 2007 01:14 PM
Brian Hoots
Real Living Speckman Realty, Inc. - Bourbonnais, IL
Charity, great ideas thanks for sharing.
Oct 01, 2007 05:11 PM
Cody Fair - Realtor - Maple Valley, WA
Covington RE/MAX Realty South - Maple Valley, WA

Great ideas Charity, I like the idea of advertising to the community before had.

 Cody

Nov 12, 2007 02:44 AM
The All Pro Team
EXIT Realty Leaders - Crystal River, FL
Charity, I love these ideas and just may "Borrow" a few of them.
Nov 12, 2007 05:58 AM
Kim Peasley-Parker
AgentOwned Realty, Heritage Group, Inc. - Sumter, SC
Great ideas.  Open Houses in our area are not well attended.  This might help generate some action.
Nov 12, 2007 06:14 AM
Dionne Morgan
Realty World Solano Realty - Vallejo, CA
Broker REALTOR ,GRI, e-PRO

Good post, Great job! Theme open houses are definitely memorable. They don't have to be costly just different/creative.

Nov 13, 2007 12:48 PM
Charity Lane
O'Brien Realty - Prince Frederick, MD

Cody - Thanks, good to hear from you again. Hope you had a great day!

All Pro Team - By all means, please use them and adjust them as needed to make them your own. If you try any let me know how it goes!

Kim - In my area Open Houses can be hit or miss too but that is just all the more reason to STAND OUT!

Dionne - I couldn't agree more about not having to be too costly. Even if you feel you need a higher ticket item call on your lenders, title co, foot the bill or help out. Usually, they will be flattered that you asked and take care of it. I've had lenders before take care of all of the giveaways (AMEX cards), catering by Panera, and extra people to help sit the multiple properties I set up for the caravan.

Nov 13, 2007 03:15 PM
Penny Florence
Midvale, UT
Those are some really good ideas, thanks for sharing.  I like doing open houses, but haven't had too much success, maybe a themed open house will work.  thanks again.
Nov 18, 2007 04:23 AM
Melissa Wagner
Leo Parker Real Estate & Auction - Woodbury, TN
These are some really great ideas! Thank you so much for sharing these!
Dec 03, 2007 03:03 PM