Yesterday, I promised to chat some more about why an agent should hold his or her listings open, at least once. Something I didn't mention was that I'm only talking about YOUR own listings - not listings of other agents, although that's fine to do if you like (and I will talk more about this in a few days). No, I think you owe it to your seller to do it, yourself even, regardless of whether or not you think the open house will result in a sale.
Why You Should Do Open Houses Reason #2 (of 4):
You can gather feedback from the public to share with your seller.
I did my first open house in three years this past Sunday. It was a fairly active open house - we had maybe 20 visitors in a three hour period. It was a beautiful spring day, people seemed cheerful and chatty and the feedback was flowing. At the end of the day, I had a page and a half of scribbled down comments for my seller. Most of them were positive; a few mildly critical, but how long would it have taken me to get that much feedback from showing agents? Uh, like forever?
While my seller certainly appreciated the mass-feedback, as the listing agent, it is also incredibly helpful to me to see firsthand what features really jumped out at the visitors. Every single one of them commented on the "great light and all the windows," and almost everyone complimented the oversize kitchen. Do you think this might help me in my marketing efforts?
I think spending three hours getting a concentrated dose of feedback from the general public is a great use of my time and a valuable service for my seller.
Tomorrow - Reason #3 to Go Ahead and Hold that House Open!
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