Open Houses: On their way to extinction?

I still hold an occasional open house but they are not the most effective use of time.

I have to agree with you, marketing is the key to selling whose homes. A good sign with photos attached to your website site works great..

I love the open house and they call me the preacher.Why every Sunday I am out there with a open house, sellers love them. Are they effective? well only 2% says NAR. BUT...it is the NEW cleints I meet every weekend that keeps me out there.

I hear the words "open house" and I cringe usually. But the upside is the exposure I get by placing signs all over the neighborhood and the occasional client that I meet. I still don't believe that it is worth the time spent. I agree that there are bvetter ways to spend our time effectively an market homes for the most part.

Well... I am holding my first open house as a Sales Agent this Sunday!!!  I was previously a builder and had good luck with open houses.

As a new agent, I go to all of them to familiarize myself with the inventory.  I think the great on line tools are kinda like drive bys: they help as a screening tool.  But you really have to see the house.

Also, just my own opinion:  there is a bigger payoff if the house is particularly nice on the inside.  i.e. Interior appeal is greater than curb appeal.

Dennis,

While I agree an open house is not the most effective use of time, it is to some clients the way they want to market their proeprty.  And as our client, we comply.

It does serve a useful purpose to the agent as far exposure to the local market and possible leads.

Maybe in 30 years it will be gone, however until then, bring a book to read.

Dominick

This is something that I have wrestled with over the past couple years.  It's true that it's very rare that you sell the house that you are at.  And attendance seems to be down because buyers are looking mainly on the internet and will schedule a showing at their convienence.  But there are those rare occasions where you meet a new buyer, hook up with that buyer and it turns into business that has potential to generate more referrals.  I do open houses but I tell sellers that I only do 3 of them and if the house hasn't sold in that time frame, another open house isn't going to make a difference.

I use OH to gain exposure for myself to the neighbors. I do a pre showing just for them. I usually get alot of people in the door that way. Great Farming!

With the price of gas and easy access through the Internet, I think open houses are slowly heading towards extinction. Although, it's hard to discount an opportunity to give a property some additional exposure. You never know, the potential buyer may walk through the door.

I am not a real estate agent, but I hear that the whole purpose of the open house is for the agent to collect data for potential buyers not necessarily to sell the property... Is that true?

I have been disappointed  by the turnout of open houses also and have refused a couple recently because the veteran agents just want to pawn them off on the newer agents like myself.  At first I jumped at the chance and had some good ones when they were on busy streets, but did one in particular where I was nearly ready to quit real estate after a disappointing day that I had gone overboard to make especially nice.

Where I work I have become a little choosy about which houses I will do open houses at.  And I do them only for the leads.  The house needs to be close to the office or at least closer to my house rather than way farther away than the office and listed for a decent price (I won't reveal my min. $) and on a busy street.  When a veteran agent told me that most people looking at open houses can't afford the house they are looking at I realized that I was wasting my time doing condos for $400K!  If the people coming to see a home at $400K can't afford that then they can't afford a house at all in Los Angeles County (for the most part). 

So, coupled with Technology being the way of the future and the quality of customers showing up to open houses, I can only say that I just don't want to do open houses anymore and have been working extensively on getting my name out there on the web.  Fortunately my company is very tech savvy and is putting a lot of effort into our web presence along with WHAM (something or other) that has a number (on a rider) that people can text immediately while they are sitting in front of the house and get a complete profile (with pics and virtual tour) of the home immediately on their phone.  They can also request to be called right then and there and the agent is notified immediately via text. 

Sorry it's so long, but just my two cents!  I have to continue learning how to use all of the available technology!

I feel that open houses are a way to show the sellers you are doing something and to cultivate new buyer prospects. The activity is getting slower for them too...