Are you kidding me? If you opened this thinking you were going to find another blog on what a waist of time open houses are, I am sorry to disappoint you but this is actually a blog on just the opposite. Open house do work.
I am actually writing this from an open house I am holding in Palm Harbor Florida. So far I have been here 60 minutes and have had three couples visit me. I scheduled follow up CMA appointments with two of them and got complete contact information from all three. All three need to sell and two of the three are also going to be buying another home in the Palm Harbor area. That's a minimum of five transactions from 1 hour invested. Do the math, it's hard to get a better return. Lets say I actually close two of the possible 5 and that my average commission is $6,000. That's $12,000 from 2 hours invested. Hmm, not bad. OK, lets say I do an average of 1 open house per week for an average of two hours each. That's 104 hours invested for an average of $115 an hour and that's if I went the rest of the year with zero return for the investment.
Now, what continues to amaze me is how many Real Estate professionals (questionable) continue to spend thousands of dollars on marketing campaigns including bus benches, billboards, magazines, and so on but are not willing to sit in an open house or pick up the phone and call a for sale by owner or expired listing. Don't misunderstand me, I am all for that marketing stuff but feel a lead generation approach of prospecting based and marketing enhanced works best, especially in a buyers market. By the way, if you didn't like the "questionable" remark on Realtors, ask your self the question what makes a professional a professional. I know a lot of seasoned agents will say open houses are below them, that calling by owners is below them. Really, is hitting a thousand golf balls daily on the driving range below Tiger Woods?
Just in case, you are interested in holding a successful open house, I have included some tips for doing so.
1. Put a sign in front of the property three before announcing the day and time of your open house.
2. Mail invitations to the neighbors inviting them to your open house.
3. Arrive early and visit the 10 closest homes and invite them personally to your open house
4. E-mail your future buyer data base an invitation.
5. E-mail the top 50 agents in your market and invite them to visit.
6. Use multiple signs. Anywhere from 6 to 10 per entrance to the neighborhood.
7. Hold open houses during non traditional times. Week days during rush hour for example is a good time.
8. Pick one property and hold it open every day for a week at the same time. Make sure your name and web site are included on the sign. The double bonus is branding and increasing traffic to your web site.
9. Require guest to sign in before viewing your open house. Make sure they gave you all of their contact information. Ask for it if they didn't give it to you.
10. Expect to be busy! This is number one actually.
Well it's time to pack up and head home. Total investment, two hours and return is too early to tell but then again Tiger Woods wont see the immediate return for the 1,000 golf balls he hit today either.
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