Special offer

How do buyers find out about open houses ?

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Centre Realtors

How do buyers find out about open houses in your area ?

I host open house on Sundays . I have a sign in sheet which asks where they heard about the open house.

I find it interesting to see that not many people find out about it from the newspaper. Sometimes there may be one person and sometimes none from the newspaper.

However I will continue to advertise the open house in the newspaper because there are others who read the real estate section regularly and will see my name .

Here are some of the other  ways they hear about an open house in my market area

1. Signs . Some of these prospects have been waiting for a house to come on the market in the sub division , and some may be just checking out neighborhoods .

2. We can list it in our multiple listing. Buyer's agents can then alert their clients.

3.Post cards. WE mail out post cards .

4.Agents blog about the open houes, eg ActiveRain. Consumers find out online.

5.Craigslist or Trulia.

 Have you come across other sites to advertise your open house ?

Most people search for homes online so I am looking to find more sites just for open houses so hey will be found easily.

 

 

Posted by

When you read about events please check the year for the event as some people find information a year later and think it is for that year. . The posts remain online even after the event.

Gita Bantwal is a Realtor with RE/MAX Centre Realtors in Bucks County, a Northern suburb of Philadelphia. You can view 1000s of listings on her web site www.GitaBantwal.com

 

She can be reached at 215-343-8200x124 or direct 215-275-8491 or via email gita01@aol.com

If you would like a FREE MARKET EVALUATION OF YOUR HOME IN PHILADELPHIA, BUCKS or MONTGOMERY COUNTY call me at 2152758491

 Gita specializes in Active adult communities and is a Seniors Real Estate Specialist. She holds the ABR designation (Accredited Buyers Representative) and specializes in selling to first time buyers as well as move up buyers.Gita also hold the CRS designation , Certified Residential Specialist and the CDPE designation as well. Information about real estate market is deemed to be correct but is subject to errors and omissions and should be verified independently.. Opinion expressed by me or others  in my post and comments is not to be construed to be  legal advice.I am licensed in Pa. Check real estate laws in your state as they may be different than in Pa.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOG         CLICK HERE   OR EMAIL ME AT Gita01@aol.com

 

Comments (42)

Donna Foerster
HomeSmart Realty Group - Parker, CO
Metro Denver Real Estate Assistant

Hi Gita~ Found your post via Patricia's recap.  We did an open house a week ago on a Saturday and only had one visitor during our 3 hours there.  We (and the seller) were very disappointed.  We advertised on Trulia and Zillow.  I did a blog post.  We had signage, but maybe not enough.

We'll be doing another open house on Sunday (7/29).  We'll have a more signs out.  We are going to do balloons and we're going to advertise on Craigslist and Realtor.com.

 

Jul 22, 2012 01:16 PM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

Lloyd, Thanks for the tip about keeping copies of the ad.

Betsy, I have not yet used facebook. thanks for the tip.

Patricia, Thank you . I enjoy reading your posts each week and am truly honored.

Donna, I had an open house yesterday and no one came.

Jul 22, 2012 09:17 PM
Phil Leng
Retired - Kirkland, WA
Phil Leng - Retired

Hi Gita,

That is a very good list of places to advertise an open house.

All the best

Phil

Jul 22, 2012 09:19 PM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

Phil, Thank you.

Jul 22, 2012 09:28 PM
Ed Silva, 203-206-0754
Mapleridge Realty, CT 203-206-0754 - Waterbury, CT
Central CT Real Estate Broker Serving all equally

Gita, I put the sign out on Monday for the following Sunday as well as posting it on the MLS. People are always scouting the neighborhoods as well as friends and neighbors trying to alert their acquaintances of a hone for sale in their neighborhood

Jul 22, 2012 10:10 PM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

Ed, There are township ordinances where you can only put up signs that morning in some areas.

Jul 22, 2012 10:18 PM
Jeff Dowler, CRS
eXp Realty of California, Inc. - Carlsbad, CA
The Southern California Relocation Dude

Gita

The more publicity the better - you never know where people will find your OH listing.

AI also use Realtor.com and put an OH listing on Craigslist the day before.

Jeff

Jul 23, 2012 12:30 AM
Sandy Acevedo
951-290-8588 - Chino Hills, CA
RE/MAX Masters, Inland Empire Homes for Sale

In my area, many people who are out in the neighborhood they desire follow the open house signs.           

Jul 23, 2012 12:57 AM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

Jeff, Thank you for the tips.

Sandy, I agree.

Jul 23, 2012 03:23 AM
Tammie White, Broker
Franklin Homes Realty LLC - Franklin, TN
Franklin TN Homes for Sale

Our MLS actually has a spot to highlight open houses. I am always surprised by the number of people who saw the open house through the MLS.

Jul 23, 2012 04:46 AM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

Tammie, We have the feature so agents can send their buyers.

Jul 23, 2012 04:49 AM
John Juarez
The Medford Real Estate Team - Fremont, CA
ePRO, SRES, GRI, PMN

When we post an open house in our MLS it is automatically posted on a website that is maintained by our MLS www.homesopentoday.com. This site allows home shoppers to search for open houses in our MLS coverage area. The key is that we have to be proactive about posting the open house in our MLS.

We also post in on Craigslist and a variety of other sites.

I asked the visitors to my open house this past Saturday and Sunday and most simply found the house because of the signs that I had put out.

Jul 23, 2012 06:54 AM
Bob Crane
Woodland Management Service / Woodland Real Estate, KW Diversified - Stevens Point, WI
Forestland Experts! 715-204-9671

Hi Gita, I think you are on the right track with your multiple source approach, i like your list and all of the great suggestions coming in the comments.

Thanks

Bob

 

Jul 23, 2012 03:27 PM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

John, Last weekend everyone who came to my open house came because of the signs.

Bob, I always look for tips from the comments.

Jul 23, 2012 08:10 PM
Evelyn Kennedy
Alain Pinel Realtors - Alameda, CA
Alameda, Real Estate, Alameda, CA

Gita:

People who want to buy in my community know to look at our local free newspaper.  That is where all agents advertise their open houses.  But I also put ads on Craigslist, which is becoming a an important place for open houses.  My office also has an ad in the local free newspaper of our office's open houses.

Jul 24, 2012 02:38 AM
Donna Foerster
HomeSmart Realty Group - Parker, CO
Metro Denver Real Estate Assistant

Gita~ We are having an open house tomorrow.  It's the same house we held open on the 14th and we only had one party come through.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Jul 28, 2012 01:28 PM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

Evelyn, I wish we had a free newspaper where we could advertise.

Donna, Good luck.

Jul 28, 2012 08:45 PM
Carol Faaland-Kronmaier
Weichert, Realtors; Hillsborough - Hillsborough, NJ
PhD, e-PRO, Manville, Hillsborough, Somerset NJ

Gita, Directional signs (we use 8 yellow signs with balloons) help a lot. I know thta I also get many open house customers from the internet ad, Trulia.com , Weichert.com, etc.  I seldom have someone tell me that a newspaper ad caught their interest anymore (we also have print ads only once a month in my office).

Jul 28, 2012 08:53 PM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

Carol, I agree. I did not have anyone from the newspaper ads the last two weekends.

Jul 28, 2012 09:47 PM
Donna Foerster
HomeSmart Realty Group - Parker, CO
Metro Denver Real Estate Assistant

Gita~ We put out extra signs this time.  We did the same open house 2 weeks ago and didn't think to put out signs at a major intersection a few streets away.  We also tied some balloons to the signs (large, red mylar stars).  I asked 3 of the 4 parties (forgot to ask the first ones) how they found out about us and they all said the signs.  We advertised on the Internet and apparently that didn't make a difference.

Jul 30, 2012 08:16 AM