In February, the Related Group, a luxury developer, held a $100,000 poolside party to introduce potential buyers to apartments in a new 1,000-unit complex in Miami. One Realtor from San Jose, Calif., stylizes her open houses to mimic neighborhood cocktail parties, complete with live guitar music or opera soloists, while one broker from Austin, Texas, presents open houses as gallery openings, featuring the work of local artists.
Such events have their supporters and detractors - some real estate agents say that such fun open houses put people in the mood to buy - one agent highlighted in the article says that the events pitch a "chic and social lifestyle, not just a house," Ms. Muñoz writes.
Meanwhile, other Realtors - especially in areas where sales are especially slow and sales are sagging, haves scaled back open houses or have stopped throwing them all together.
A while back we posted that open houses sometimes attract just lookers or people who attend the events because they're nosy or just want something to do on a Sunday afternoon. If plain old open houses (that don't offer entertainment, drinks and food) tend to attract the curious or serial open house attendees, these fun open houses probably attract even more non-buyers looking for something to do. "I've seen the same people and gotten to know them on a first-name basis" says one open house frequenter in the article.
But then again, one serial open house attendee profiled in the story bought a $700,000 townhouse at an open house that he attended on a whim, so maybe such events are effective. "The place just appealed to me," he says in the article.
Readers, have you attended or hosted an open house soirée? Agents, what are your thoughts - are these kinds of bashes an effective marketing tool?
Has anyone out there tried to do anything like this before?
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