Home : Blogs : Leo and Stephanie : Leo and Stephanie

12 ways to Advertise your open house

As we know, open houses take some time and planning and the main goal is to get as many people as possible to show up. So the question is, How do you get people to show up to your open house? Here are some of the ways we market open houses for our listing.

Send out just listed postcards with open house date
Take one flyers with open house date on it.
Sign rider with open house date
Personally invite neighbors by knocking on a few doors the day before
Leave an invitation at their home if not home.
Post your open house on Free online advertising like(Craigslist, backpage,Google Base,Yahoo Classifieds,Classifieds for Free, Recycler.com.)
Advertise on local paper
Your MLS
Open house signs a couple of days before with open house date
at least 10 open house signs the day of(the more the better)---Make sure you have xtras since openhouse signs tend to dissapear at times
Balloons on open house signs- try buying the shinny balloons at the dollar store they are cheaper than local Krogers or Randells they usually cost 3 bucks each. We pay a buck each they last upto a week so you can actually recycle them!
send an email to everyone on your database

While all of these are just added marketing the most important is open house signs so make sure they are very noticable and have a partner drive by after an hour to make sure they are still in place.

Ps. Make sure no major sport event or political event is taking place the same day as the open house and make sure you ask how they heard about the open house to get an idea of what works the most.

What have you found to work best as far as marketing for Opens?

Posted by Leo and Stephanie on 05/01/2008 02:44 PM

Comments (30)

open house advertising, open house, marketing, marketing my open house, how to advertise and open house

This post has been included in Texas Information
Post is included in group: Realtors®
Post is included in group: The Art Of Marketing You
Post is included in group: Online Marketing Help Center

30 Comments on 12 ways to Advertise your open house

MAY

2008

Weekends work best on Cape Cod. Ads help but people just come and drive around. Signs on a busy street help.

I wouldn't send the emails because people hate sifting through emails, but some good advice, I hadn't thought to put it on the brochures. Good take away

I have done a couple open houses but what I find lately is that more and more sellers don't want to do an open house for some reason. But when I do one I do the same thing you do.

Our local card factory and walmart have party packs of balloons with a hellium tank for $20, it's a great deal and will last you 3 or 4 open houses.

Balloons are a great eyecatcher...I'm glad I don't have to hunt for helium though because my office supplies it.

Post it on your blog...Do a press release on PRWEB maybe?

Good points....I like inviting the neighbors as they always seem to talk....that's exactly what you need in times like this.

MAY

2008

Great ideas- Thanks. If we do it all hopefully we will get a great turn out!

JUN

2008

Good post. I am helping a realtor with her open house this weekend and we were brainstorming for ideas other than the normal stuff.

JUL

2008

We only ever use www.OpenHouseGenie.com for all our open house advertising. It's a very clean, professional, easy to use site. We pay $10 for an ad that runs seven days. You can add photos, virtual tour, link to your personal website and all your contact information is very easy for the open house visitor. I have had a lot open house visitors come to me from this site. I know it's in San Diego and I talked to the owner who says they're expanding nationally and looking for five other cities. We used to use the Union Tribune but one small open house ad starts at $132! Insane. The death of papers is here, which is too bad because I read my religiously with coffee every morning.

By the way, we always do open houses and always find a lead because we treat them like a real event. It's exhausting but it's amazing the business we get from them.

Kimberly Dotseth, broker/owner

Green Box Homes

JUL

2008

Hi Leo & Stephanie. Thanks for sharing the great tips! Keep them coming.

MAY

Isn't music considered a big NO NO? Lost what i was going to comment .... ugh.

Great marketing ideas. Thank you

Very helpful martket ideas for some of my newer realtors.

I pull renter address in the area and mail a postcard to. Balloons work great as do pointer signs. In our mls, I have the option of doing a reverse prospect. I will send an email out to those agents to let them know.

Thanks for sharing!

I like the idea of cheap balloons. Interesting.

MAY

I like Craigslist a lot for marketing open houses. I will check out some of the other posting places you've recommended. Thank you.

Leo. I agree. No Open Houses on major sports nights. This enables the Realtor to see them!

On a side note, what does happen to those signs that disappear? Does anyone know who or where they might be?? Just curious.

Mark - I think I saw those missing signs at a garage sale LOL.

Casa in Katy Team: I have to say that I do open houses every week, just about. And I do a lot of internet promotion and usually an ad in the Sat paper open house section. But I personally do not use more signs than I need to get them into the neighborhood from the main street. My brokers always emphasize this, but I honestly feel that I don't want to have just anyone coming to the open - I want people who are looking to buy and looking for the open - because I don't want to end up spending my time with someone there shooting the breeze because they saw a sign 3 blocks away and have nothing else to do on a Sunday.

And I love it when neighbors come - because you can engage them and encourage them to "find" their own new neighbor - or they can "scope" you out to see if they like you because they are thinking of selling. This has worked very well for me in a particular neighborhood where I have sold 5 homes, one pending and another listed in less than a year.

Great tips. I would suggest that open houses on big sports events are fine. Very often the spouse just isn't interested in staying home with the boys (or girls) and will drive around looking for a bigger place so they can have room while the boys (or girls) are watching the tube!

I'm having good luck posting my open houses on Facebook and Twitter also.

Great ideas! Love the music on your page, too!

All good ideas.

I love the idea of sending an email to everyone on your email list. Who knows, this just may be the house for them or someone they know! Great post!

Increase the traffic by organizing open house events with other Realtors who have properties listed in the immediate area. Give a flyer with other availabilities and directions to visitors. No, it is not counter productive. Your good reputation is enhanced; the chances that they will choose you as their Realtor are increased. If the available homes are not right, they may purchase yours. Call them.

If they purchase another; we could say that we are one home closer to a sale. Either way you win.

Jo Thomas GRI

Fernandina Beach, Florida

Love balloons and posting it all over the web. Thanks for all the great sites and ideas. The music is a tad loud and not sure how to turn it down/off.

Great ideas and how about Tweeting about your open house too? YOu might even get some out of towners through.

MAY

That's the first time I've ever had music to accompany reading an AR post -

MAY

All great ideas. I have alot of sign ordinances in my town, I would love to have 10 signs! I am lucky if I can get away with 2 and they need to be in the appropriate spots.

Robin

MAY

Great ideas. And if no one else has mentioned it yet . . . don't forget to blog about your open house on AR and your outside blogs!

Great ideas and I love the music!

Leave a response…

Name:

Email:
(optional)

Comment:

What does the graphic say?