Need Buyers?

Give this a try if you need buyers...have an open house at one of your foreclosure/short sale houses.

I'm hearing a few agents (there don't seem to be very many doing this as of yet from what I can see) tell me they're getting anywhere from 20 to 60 people coming to their foreclosure open houses, and it really makes simple sense.

A "bargain" of any kind is attractive to consumers.  Ultimately you want to sell the house, but that happens roughly 1% of the time with an open house.  Those people wind up asking "What else do you have?"  Remember that open houses serve two purposes:

1) to appease your sellers

2) to generate buyer leads

Specifying that your open house is a foreclosure on your signage, etc. will attract consumers on that basis alone in most cases.   The key is to make those numbers work for you:

- Have everyone sign your guest book with at least a name and an email.

- Send them a thank you card (handwritten) ASAP after the open house.

- Put them on a monthly email drip campaign (non-salesy) and include them in any other normal marketing you do.

- Obviously some foreclosure houses are not appropriate for an open house, so use your discretion.

Let's face it, foreclosures and short sales are more work for less money.  While all of them are not appropriate for an open house, look at what you have and make those foreclosures work for you.  Hope you all find this helpful, and I would love to hear from those of you who have tried it:)