Twighlight Open House--What is our Time Worth?

You shouldn't give up after one try, have you had a "traditional" open where no one showed up?

I have had success doing Thursday evening open houses. But as you mentioned in your post, you must still have a good house to hold open. A bad location is still bad location on a Sunday. 

I'd considered doing the same, but as I feared, it would end in an evening spent alone. I have sellers who are so upset that I'm being stalked with outrageous demands. They blame the wording in ads, how close the sign is to the street, etc... when all they really need to do is LOWER THE PRICE!!!!!

Once the sellers learn that our job will be so much easier. We shouldn't need to get much more creative when the answer is right under our nose. 

Great post!! You are not alone :) 

In our small community the only time open houses got any action was on the two occasions when every agency in town joined forces and held open every possible house. We offered food plus door prizes and we got a large number of people going from house to house. In two years I think one house was sold because of that effort.

Here, it clearly didn't work. Individual open houses drew only curious neighbors, or perhaps a friend who would stop by to chat. The day of the week didn't matter.

In reference to another of your posts, I have to add that I believe Craig's List is a useful tool. I left real estate 3 years ago to devote all my time to copywriting (much of it for real estate agents) so when my son decided to sell his duplex he listed with a local agent. We weren't seeing much action so I wrote a Craig's list ad - and the hits on the MLS listing from that ad have far outweighed all other sources combined.

It still hasn't sold, but not much is selling here right now, so that isn't a surprise.

I also believe in Mouse House Tours, because everything is on one page (and when you don't have high speed, clicking and waiting is a chore) but also because you have unlimited space to list the benefits of each room of a house, each area of the yard, etc.

In copywriting the mantra is "The more you tell the more you sell," so I'm a huge advocate of not only describing the features of a home in glowing terms, but suggesting the benefits of each of those features.

The internet and the space allowed have given agents a way around the old dangers of breaking the rules imposed by the ADA and Fair Housing agencies.  You can't say "Watch the eagles soar" but you can describe them soaring.

One thing I tell my clients is to try to get the present owners to talk about what they've enjoyed most about living in the house - then build the ad from that.