Realtors not up to the challenge!

Simon - I am sorry to see that your Florida friend feels that it is necessary to defend you. I was sure that the Simon I know is able to defend himself and his honor.

I don't care if it is your first post, your first comment or if you have been blow harding and blogging for years. You have the right to state your opinion on anyones blog.

This statement border on ridiculous if there were not some people that really believe the sentiment

"I think you were wong as a newbie to post as you did..." (this is a cut and paste. I don't think the writer was infering that Inna must have Asian ancestory because she was a newbie commenting as she did)

One thing I am sure of about you is that your skin is not thin and you have always encouraged debate. In matters that actually have a bearing on viable issues, you have always responded to the heat of the battle in a fair and balanced fashion.

It is obvious that we entertain those that believe their way is the only way as well as those that are open to accepting there are many ways to market a home.

peace.

Simon,  I have read where AR members have called you a "drama queen." And now, you are called an "arrogant know-it-all."  It is interesting to me that when people cannot intelligently defend their opinion that they resort to name calling.  I thought this was a network of professionals, not Junior High School.

You and I have tried to help other agents become better at what they do by pointing out what doesn't work and what does work.  It is astonishing that so many agents will defend Open Houses in spite of the overwhelming evidence that they are the poorest strategy to selling a house. On the other hand, I realize that 90-95% of agents sell only a handful of houses a year.

I encourage every agent in my market to hold Open Houses.  Please, every week, take Saturday and Sunday and hold Open Houses all day long.  Tell your sellers how great they are.  Tell other agents how wonderful they are.  Tell again, and again, the story of how you sold one of your listings.  Tell other agents how you picked up a buyer to work with.  Tell it, tell it.  Maybe even more agents will join you in your business strategy. (Please do this, because it will only help my business.)

Apparently I missed the notification that all the agents in Florida know best. I must have been confused by the hanging chads.

Dan, please accept my gratitude for your sacrifice in taking the time to "help other agents become better at what they do by pointing our what doesn't work and what does work." You are so humble that you don't even mention that you have worked in every market and have tried every method a sufficient number of times to create a viable statistical data base. I wish there were a way that we could prevent all these people that have shared lies and made up stories about open houses from doing so in such a public place.

I wish there were some way we could control those young folks that speak out. The audacity of someone thinking that Simon or your for that matter might be considered "an arrogant know-it-all". I mean, it is obvious that you know it all, I just don't understand the arrogance. I was under the impression that arrogant people kissed up to the popular, spoke in a perjorative manner about others, made false claims of altruism, spoke of others efforts in that 'talk down to me" style, belittled the efforts of others and then finish off most posts with ridicule.

Find a comment or a post like that and ....................oops my bad

J-Mac, you are my hero!
I humbly thank you:-)

Simon, Dan, and the Simon Fan Club, i respectuflly apologize for having the audacity to piss on your turf, and bow out of the 'debate'. I do stand by my opinions though.
inna hardison (the Freakin' newbie)

Since two of my favorite people are active participants in this debate, I have to chime in. First, do I understand Simon's point correctly to be that if an agent who is interviewing for a listing is hanging his hat on his Open House(s) as the reason the seller should hire him (and that's his only marketing strategy), then the seller should escort him to the door because he clearly does not have his finger on the current pulse of the market?

If that's Simon's point. I agree 100% - right up there with the 3P's (Put a sign in the yard, Put it in the MLS and Pray). An effective listing agent needs to have a whole heck of a lot more in his arsenal than just the weapons he used in the Good Old Days.

I also understand the Doctor Laura principle - that radio is ENTERTAINMENT and wishy-washy opinions and safe, non-provocative statements don't bring in listeners.

But I think Simon is missing some key benefits to holding open houses, benefits that clearly serve the seller, whether or not the home actually sells as a direct result of holding the house open:

••        You'll get a concentrated dose of feedback from your visitors. Agents should strive to solicit feedback, even if the visitors don't seem at all interested in the home. They're probably going to other open houses, so find out how yours compares. Take notes, share the feedback with your seller.

••        You'll spend some quality time in the home, maybe for the first time. This will enable you to notice special features that you might have missed before or to discover challenges that need to be corrected. Don't just sit on the couch and read - explore the home from top to bottom, the way an interested buyer would. Walk in the front door and gauge how the house makes you feel. Are there strange, disconcerting noises? Smells? Is the home clean...or cobwebby? Is it cheerful... or gloomy?

••        If you cheerfully hold your listing open, the seller will have warm fuzzy feelings toward you. This is really important during the listing period because if the seller doesn't feel you're making a serious effort to sell her home, she'll soon become your adversary instead of your partner.

And, you never know, you might just sell the house. Can't hurt.

J-Mac,

I merely meant that she obviously does not know Simon, his personality, nor his prose.

Yeah, I think the good PR you get from doing an open house far outweighs the inconvenience or even futility of doing it. Most sellers will resent you if you don't do at least one, whether or not they tell you to your face - especially when you start badgering them for a price reduction six weeks later.

Regarding feedback - again, if you refuse to solicit feedback on the basis of potential liability, you're really asking for a pissed-off seller! When I sell my own properties, I'm dying for feedback, at least at first, and if some snotty agent told me he didn't want to pursue it because someone might get sued, I'd be quite annoyed and make the obvious assumption that my agent was just plain lazy (especially if he also refused to do open houses)!

Wow.......If you don't think that open houses work, DO NOT DO THEM....In the other hand if you believe that they do, DO THEM and do them often, But please understand one thing, "Most" Sellers love them (I DO NOT KNOW WHY) but they do. SO, HERE IS ANOTHER GOOD QUESTION:

DO YOU WANT TO BE RIGHT? OR DO YOU WANT YOUR SELLER TO BE HAPPY???

 PEOPLE; You do what you do, and do it the best way that you can, and please give others the same opportunity....

Good luck and HAPPY HOLIDAYS...

OP

Another thing that I see done are "caravans" where all the agents in an office spend the morning touring all the new listings.  The Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach board of Realtors actually sponsor these every week for all of their Realtors.  I guess that must work or they still wouldn't be doing it every week. 

As for Broker's Opens.  I have done 2 of them, both over 5 years ago.  The results were dismal and a big waste of time and money for me.  I hope yours pays off.

Simon- Statistically speaking you are right, open house do not bring large margins of buyers. I do not do open houses. If I do, they are ONLINE open houses with many more views!

But I do think it has more to do with specific markets as Paul stated. It is like the dropping market right now, that is a local thing, some areas the prices are dropping more than others.

In our area, you can hold an open house and no one will come. Very seldom are open houses done. Most of our communities are gated and you are not even allowed to have signs.

The areas where you are allowed to have signs, most of them, are out in the boonies and it would just be plain dangerous and stupid to have an open house out there.

I have always been of the opinion that as business owners you must spend your time doing activities that produce the highest return on your time and money spent. The amount of time it takes to get ready to go, to put the signs up, to write the ads, to send out invites, to get it all together and then repeat the process to take it all down again is spending a lot of energy and time on an activity with low results.

Even if you do sell the house from an open house I believe that you would also sell that house without the open house if you are online doing what you are supposed to be doing to promote your listings, mailings, and networking which produce farther reaching results.

That being said, if agents want to do open houses, than they have the right to do so.

Now I do know some areas of the country like in Washington DC open houses are a big thing and homes do sell through them, but it is not an ordinary open house, it is an event. It is a party. I put that into the networking category. If you do it in an area like that you will be using your energy in a positive direction. Patricia Kennedy plays music at her fellow agents open houses, they have wine and expensive finger foods there, it is a gala event and it is the "in" place to be. But that is not the typical market and not the typical open house that we are referring to. Katerina

Occasional listener to the show, i must say I am not at all surprised...
What says you, Simon? Are you going to run away like... wait... what you call them, the knights of Nee?

Yours truly,

inna- (ps: miss me?)

Ok, Simon. I guess I caught you being honest (JK)...

Missed sparring with yah, that's all; it's like this weird game of chess, anoying and addictive all at the same time.