Not your typical boring Open House

Over the years, the idea of having to hold an Open House has gone the way of family Sunday dinners and two-toned cars ~ they still happen, but they are more and more rare.

So many of us got into the habit of telling the Seller that Open Houses only benefit the Realtor, and that they don't help much in getting the house sold because so few people show up.  But it can be a wonderful boon to your marketing and your listing and your exposure and your client base if you do it in the proper manner.  Here are a few suggestions on what has worked dramatically for me.

When I have a listing that needs some exposure, I will often do two types of Open Houses . . . one a Broker Open (which will be discussed in a later article) and a good, old-fashioned Open House.  But some measures should be applied to make it worth your while. 

The first thing I do is find several Realtors who also have listings in the immediate area of my listing ~ usually five to ten others, and we all agree to hold an Open House at the same time on the same day and call it a Tour of Open Houses.

Because I enjoy doing it, I offer to make up a single sheet of all of the listings (never more than 10) and pass them around to each of the Open Houses (in other words, each Open House gets some of these flyers to direct visitors to other Open Houses).  I collect $10 to $20 from each participating Realtor to cover the cost of a 'prize' for a drawing to be held for the people who see all of the houses (they take a flyer with them and have them signed off at each house). 

Sometimes the prize (generally $60 to $100) is lottery tickets, sometimes it is a gift card to a popular local restaurant, sometimes it is a gift card to a grocery store, or for gasoline, that kind of thing.  Regardless, if they see all of the houses, they are entered into a drawing.  All they need to do is provide their name and email address (wink wink). 

Then I print out some of the flyers to pass out in the neighborhood a day or two before the Open House, but no more than a two block radius.  This not only tells people that there is going to BE an Open House (and we all know that people like to see the inside of their neighbor's house), but it helps you to meet the neighbors who will often remember you when the time comes to need a Realtor.  Most of the time the neighbors with whom I have had direct contact will not only come, but they will bring their friends.

Normally we do not advertise in the local newspapers because all of the local Open House signs from all of the Realtors holding them is good enough to draw people in, and I have never found that advertising increases the traffic.

Since I started doing this, we have never had less than 75 people show up at any given event.  Last year I even did an Open House at a Bed and Breakfast that I had listed, combined it with a Holiday Tour of Bed and Breakfasts, and we had almost 500 people come thru that day.  Please don't hesitate to ask me questions, or to share what you have found that might enhance this experience. 

Check out the incredible amount of traffic that we had at this Open House.

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