Open Houses are a thing of the past

I recently read an AR post focused on the value of Open Houses in today's market.  What the selling public needs to understand is that most buyers, over 90%, are using the Internet to get information during their home buying process.  In the latest NAR Buyer and Seller Profile report, Open Houses didn't even make the list of places a buyer found their next home.  We are taught early in our real estate career to use the Open House as a way to find new Buyer clients.  I can see the mindset in Sellers beginning to change as they understand the most effective ways to market their home.  Just as this post mentioned, an Open House creates a number of security challenges as well.  The bad element will use these opportunities to steal or scope out the property for future theft.  Agents are then vulnerable to possible harm.  And neighbors take advantage of being extremely nosy. It's inconvenient, for the most part, to the homeowner and agent with only a fraction of a percent chance of a qualified buyer walking through a home, and deciding to buy it at that point.

Working the Denver foothills makes having an Open House even more ineffective.  Where I live and work, communities like Evergreen or Conifer, a buyer could follow a sign to an Open House thinking the home will be consistent to the surrounding area.  BIG MISTAKE.  We have $700,000 homes near $150,000 cabins.  I've done a few and typically hear: "Oh that's the price...I was expecting something different." 

I haven't had any trouble advising my clients that Open Houses benefit the agent, not the Seller.  Couple that advice with data showing where Buyers are finding their next home and how I seek to target those mediums, and it's pretty easy for a Seller to put aside their thoughts of having an Open House.

Now on the positive side of opening up a home.  I use Broker Opens successfully as it's our local agents who most likely will have a qualified Buyer for a home.  I also have "invite only" luncheons or cocktail hours for my high-end properties.  Bringing in my Seller's colleagues, friends, family and a targeted group of buyers will get the word out that this home is available.

Will agents continue to do Open Houses....absolutely.  Buyers do walk into homes without representation and do seem to bond with some agents hosting those Open House.  Those agents are simply prospecting for new business which isn't wrong.  Will it sell a home....it's proven not likely.