Way back when, Sonny, we use to do open houses.....

Suzannw...

We don't do public open houses anymore ... they just don't work in our area!

I do all of mine RSVP and usually schedule it for an hour. If I am expecting someone, I'll stay longer, but it seems I spend more time staying in contact with people on-line. The serious buyers tend to make an appointment to come into the office or ask me to come to a location convenient to the both of us. :-)

I jsut need to get some sellers to understand this, it is so true.

I still do a great deal of open houses, and I have had success using them. I always have plenty of info on the house, the community, and I have cookies.

Hi Suzanne. I have found Open Houses hit and miss, and they definitely if they work to pick up buyer leads, not sell THAT house.

Suzanne-

I am of the same mindset about open houses.  I tell sellers up front that unless they request an open house, I normally don't hold them.  I know that in some markets they are still the way to go, but not here!  I am glad to hear that someone else feels the same way!

I'm in the Warren Buffet school of thought here: "If everyone is doing something, do something else." That can be reversed: "If no one is doing something, do it."

I have 19 Clients who are being very successful in creating their own niche markets because they do Open Houses. One of them has been a Realtor since May 2005 -- we'll call him Mr. M. Al of his escrows have come from Open Houses. He did not have any listings when he first started, so I told him to ask around the office to see if anyone would let him hold their listings open. You should have seen how many people jumped at the opportunity. Now that tells me two things:

1. They were too lazy to hold open houses.
2. They still thought holding open houses was useful, as long as someone else did it.

Here in San Diego, people go to open houses waaaaaaaaaay before they ever sign with a Realtor. Consequently, Mr. M has become quite adept at signing them up as Clients when they come to an open house without representation.

There seem to be two types of agents who hold open houses here, using the 80/10/10 rule (a subect of the 80/20 rule):

1. The very new agent - 10%
2. The very old agent - 10%

The other 80%, those not too new but not too old either, have decided to look for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. News flash: It ain't there.

Don't neglect personal, face-to-face meetings, especially at open houses. If one doesn't know how to hold a successful open house, there are lots of people who know.

I changed my tune on open houses. I do them at bank owned properties and then escort those that don't have agents to other like-value listings. It has been working for me.

You have the best luck at open houses.  Go get them this weekend during National Open House Weekend, and good luck! 

I like the anonymous school of thought here.  Just buck the trend and do something different!