Wine & Cheese Open House? Are You Out Of Your Mind?????

I agree Janet. A big no-no to serve booze unprepared. For some residences and with the right budget a twilight open house with hors-d'oeuvres and wine is not a bad idea. Just make sure you take out event insurance or hire a caterer with coverage. Just make sure everyone is covered.

Janet, I remember a similar happening when I saw an on-site sale rep for Drees Homes in Dallas.  Management was on my back to have a "Realtor event"... and wanted a great turnout.  So... I planned a shrimp, wine and cheese event.  I had sent, and hand-delivered hundreds of invitations to local Realtor offices... until one of my managers saw the flyer and said having wine was a no-no. 

I told him one of the other managers approved it... so it went on as scheduled.  Immediately after he saw the flyer (this was before the event took place) he had a memo sent out to all the salespeople that there would be NO Realtor events (open houses) where wine was to be served.

The funny thing was that every manager in my company came to the Realtor event/model open house... and along with over one hundred Realtors... all drank and ate themselves silly.  So the first wine open house was a great hit... but turned out to be the LAST wine open house.

And yes... the liability was what they feared... and rightly so.

Janet, it was not an open house at a home that was for sale.  I was working for a builder then... as their on-site sales rep... and the purpose of the open house was simply to "get" new Realtors out to my model home who may not have been there yet. 

And yes... down the road... that open house... which we called a "Realtor event" ended up bring me many new Realtor contacts... from which I would say I sold perhaps six homes with over the next three months.  That made it an extremely productive open house Realtor event.