Are Open Houses Even Worth It???

Ok I'm posting for two reasons. One to get an answer to this dilemma about open houses. Two, to get to 30K points before tomorrow morning. It's been my benchmark for a long time. So here's the real topic...

I spent my "day of worship/rest/Sabbath" at two open houses. Of course I was at church singing this morning so pulling a 14 hour day on a Sunday is always tiring. But after doing all of the normal things I got two couples at one home, one looker at the next. I spent the day sitting in a perfectly staged nice lower end home, and away from my family. So is it worth it? Here's what I did to drive traffic.

Of course realtor blast to all MLS REALTORS in Greenville, SC and the Upstate. Filled with color pictures and lending options, incentives, you name it.

Blast to everyone in my database, regardless of amount they're looking for. After all, they might have a friend?? Same scenario.

Staged the homes, distributed fliers throughout the neighborhoods, and area businesses, put up the normal open house signs from one end of the street to the main roads, complete with balloons, brought my sandwiches, cookies and typical southern sweet tea. In other words, I spent a bunch of money on the preparations. And three total buyers and a whole afternoon.

Now I"m not expecting a buyer. It would have been nice for just another realtor to come by. In fact another realtor had another open house a few streets down and took advantage of my blast and advertisement to drive traffic. I"m sure she was disappointed as well. Sure it's the holiday weekend but all predictions said not as many people were traveling due to the economy.

I guess the same could be said of home buyers. Have they faded to nothingness? I do have a few closings scheduled and a few buyers...but are these open houses a waste of time?

Please please post answers before I do this again..and oh yeah :) help me get to 30,000 points!

Thanks AR community