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How do you Hold a REALTOR /BROKER OPEN HOUSE?

By
Real Estate Sales Representative with Long and Foster Smith Mountain Lake Office

With properties staying on the market longer and Sellers getting more and more anxious, REALTORS are trying everything to get activity on their listings and getting them as much exposure as possible.  REALTOR OR BROKER OPEN HOUSES are held every week just about in our area and there seems to be lots of Multiple Open Houses.   Below are the Different types of REALTOR OPEN HOUSES, Types of Food and Types of Door Prizes.

Feel Free to add to this list and share your ideas!!!

 TYPES OF REALTOR OPEN HOUSES:

 Your Individual Listing including Lunch: Traditionally, you would send out a Flyer to all the local agents announcing the date and time of your Listing being shown and Lunch and Beverages being included.

Group of Open Houses within your Company:  Only Agents in your company having several REALTOR OPEN HOUSES to ALL Real Estate Companies.

 Group of Open Houses with Several Companies:  Different Agents from Different Companies opening anywhere from 2 or more houses to all real estate firms.  Usually close together to accommodate multiple open houses.

The Staging Open House:  Doing Open houses to show off a newly staged home.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF FOOD:

The Appetizer:  From light to heavy hors d oeuvres

The Tapa Tour: Small Plates of different foods at each home. (I like this one)

THE CHILLI CONTEST OR OTHER FOOD CONTEST: Having different agents do a different Chilli or soup or something in a competition open house. 

The Luncheon:  Everything from Subway Subs to Catered Affairs.   Multiple Open Houses allows each property to offer a different part of the meal, from Appetizers to Dessert.

The Breakfast:  A group gets together and serves up all kinds of Breakfast items from Pastries, Ham Biscuits, Sausage Gravy and more

The Cheese and wine:  From Boones Farm to Extaordinary Wine Tastings and Cheese Pairings

The Dessert Party:  Just having a Dessert Party in the afternoon with Coffee and or wine.

 

THE DOOR PRIZES AND MORE: (For Agent/Brokers only not to the public)

Money:  From $25.00 and up and sometimes sponsors help give as much as $200 or $400.

 Useful REALTOR GADGETS: From Signs, Info Boxes, and more.

Gift Cards: Gas cards are real popular along with restaurants

Free Advertising: Sometimes you can get sponsors from advertizers to give away (real helpful in todays market)

Week Long Tours with CRUISE GIVEAWAYS:  We have had several Week Long Open Houses where the agent wins a Cruise for Two.  Cost each house that participates $75.

These are just some of the REALTOR OPEN HOUSE IDEAS That I wanted to share.  Would love for others to jump in and share some of the creative ways you are holding Realtor /Broker Open Houses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sonja Thompson
Howard Hanna - Erie, PA

At Howard Hanna we have Monday morning tours. It is exclusive to Howard Hanna agents. Any new listings obtained after Monday will be available the following Monday for agents to tour. This is Howard Hanna's way of making sure agents truly know our inventory. Another thing Howard Hanna does is once a year they try to have a company wide open house with the number of houses that are open be equal to what year it is. For example this year 2008, we tried to have 2,008 houses open. There was alot of media coverage in the areas that Howard Hanna covers. We hold monthly drawings at our open houses

May 06, 2008 03:30 PM
Lynda Eisenmann
Preferred Home Brokers - Brea, CA
Broker Associate ,CRS,GRI,SRES, Brea,CA, Orange Co

Hi Glenda & Steven

Wow, chili contests, pretty adventuresome. You're very creative in your suggestions, I love the different ideas, thanks for sharing.

Just this evening I noticed something I haven't seen for a while. A "twilight" open house, one held after business hours, possibly picking up traffic on the way home from work. It's also great if you have a view home, maybe a light view, that sort of thing. That is before it gets too dark to see open house signs. We've done cheese & wine twilight opens in the past.

One more thing I read here on AR, one agent do does a "neighbors preview" just 2 hours on a new listing.  She also served refreshements. I thought that also sounded like a good idea.

May 06, 2008 03:31 PM
Glenda and Steven McDaniel
Long and Foster Smith Mountain Lake Office - Smith Mountain Lake, VA
Thanks Sonja, sounds like a great plan for success!
May 06, 2008 03:32 PM
Bo Buchanan
Kettley Realtors - Oswego, IL
I think it works well when each REALTOR taking the tour gets a different color dot on the back of their card for each home they visit.  Once they have visited all of them - and have each different color dot on the back of their card, they can get the freebie or enter the drawing. 
May 06, 2008 04:32 PM
Patty Carroll
Vancouver, WA

There are some great ideas here we will be sure to bookmark this post, thanks!

May 06, 2008 06:15 PM
Michael Setunsky
Woodbridge, VA
Your Commercial Real Estate Link to Northern VA

Some good ideas here and sure to produce some results. It's always a challenge to get other Brokers to come to a Brokers Open.

Good Post!

May 07, 2008 02:17 AM
-- Casey Brischle
Columbia Bank - Spokane, WA
Spokane Home Loan Mortgage Professional
you got some great ideas right there!  Tapas...i love tapas
May 07, 2008 06:26 AM
Barb Averell
eXp Realty - Pittsburgh, PA
I strive to be a trusted real estate adviser

Great ideas! I find that each week I have too many homes that I want to tour, and not enough time to hit them all!

Jul 02, 2010 09:37 AM
Amy Gutschow
RE/MAX - Sheboygan, WI
Professional Real Estate

Great ideas!  I am plannig a Broker Open for at the end of the month and reallyy want to get as many agents into this property as I can.  Appreciated all the ideas.  Hopefully it will be a success.

Oct 19, 2013 08:22 AM
Charles Stallions
Charles Stallions Real Estate Services - Pensacola, FL
850-476-4494 - Pensacola, Pace or Gulf Breeze, Fl.

Thanks Glenda and Steven  for a great idea that will lead to business for sure, best of luck and have a great weekend. 

Apr 10, 2014 12:56 PM