Back HomeOpen Houses Do Work
October 8th, 2014 by keithandkinsey
In recent years it seems many sellers are starting to think that open houses don’t work. I think this is the result of a lot of listing agents being lazy and convincing their sellers that open houses don’t work so the agents don’t have to spend their time holding an open house. I’ve even heard a local radio add that mentions only 1% of open houses work. Well, I’m here to tell you – open houses do work.
The more people you can get through your home, the better chance it has of selling. Even if it’s a nosey neighbor wandering through an open house, the chances are good that they are going to tell one of their friends about the house. Even if somebody who isn’t in the market to buy stops at the open house just to look, other shoppers view this person as potential competition. This creates a sense of urgency for the more serious buyers.
Believe it or not, 21% of our listings have sold to someone who came through an open house. In fact, one of our recent Verona listings sold for full asking price to a buyer that came through an open house that another one of our agents hosted.
Obviously not all open houses are this successful, but I believe they do help speed up the sale of a house. I think the reason many agents don’t think they work well is they don’t have good methods of promoting an open house. We like to have an open house scheduled with a time and a date when the listing initially goes live on the market. This way all the buyers who are browsing online immediately see that there is an open house scheduled. This can help create some urgency within buyers if they like the property because they want to see the house before their competition (other buyers looking for similar properties) . In fact, we have sold a number of properties recently within the first week, prior to a scheduled open house because buyers don’t want that competition.
Other ways we promote open houses are through our blog, Craigslist, and we plaster it all over social medial. All these things add to the number of people who see there is an open house scheduled, which ultimately adds to the numbers of people who show up at the open house.
Open houses do work. So don’t let your agent take the lazy way out, ask your Realtor to do an open house within a week or two of your initial listing. Also, make sure they promote your open house well.
