Are Real Estate Public Open Houses A Waste Of Time?
Posted by 
Wendy Ryan on Wednesday, September 30, 2009
If you’ve ever experienced trying to sell your home, you know that Open Houses can be a significant part of the process. I recently had a client of mine say “I really don’t want to hold an Open House. I feel like the only people that come are nosey neighbors and bottom feeders”. Unfortunately I knew I had a bit of a battle on my hands to convince her otherwise. Open Houses can be an extremely effective piece of the real estate puzzle, so effective that 15% of people bought through an Open House or yard sign.
Gone are the days that you simply put an Open House sign at the end of the driveway and cross your fingers that passerby’s stop in. As an agent, you may as well stay at home and catch the Sunday football games. All agents approach the opportunity differently but I personally utilize an Open House as a great opportunity to market my properties. There are a plethora of ideas; direct marketing postcards, ad buys in the local paper, phone solicitation, featured listing online, neighbor invites etc. All of these are examples of different touch points with ideally one of them finding a buyer.
Because the internet has become the source of most home searches, buyers feel as though they can do much of the looking on their own without a need to use a realtor until they have significantly narrowed down their search. This means that many of those “casual weekend buyers” can be much more serious then you might think. As a homeowner, if you are of the opinion that Open Houses are a waste of time, you are going to miss out on all these internet buyers and a potentially good offer.
I am not saying that you aren’t going to see the nosey neighbors or bottom feeders, but those people can easily turn into a sale if they fall in love with your house or talk it up with a friend. So, my advice to all of those home owners convinced that Open Houses are simply a hassle, seriously reconsider as you may be passing up some great marketing activity and your next buyer.
