Comments on: Checklist for Advertising an Open House

By: James

James — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:28:39 +0000

I have a Scottsdale SEO company that has been doing my Internet Marketing and I am impressed at the amount of search engine exposure I have received and the value it has brought to my marketing efforts.

By: Lynn W- Hawaii

Lynn W- Hawaii — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:16:44 +0000

Great post. I will use it in agent training. I beleive OH works for the right personality. Not all agent fair well.
Its a good way for Buyers to talk to and meet the right agent.
Thank you for the alternative ideas.

By: Justin Britt

Justin Britt — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:20:48 +0000

I think open houses are great and encourage all my agents to hold them. In fact, we’re going to begin rewarding agents by giving them the following privileges during their open houses:

1. Giving them leads off the website that come in during their scheduled open house time.
2. Allowing them to do live chat during their open house (when they’re not helping buyers at the open house, of course).

This will allow them to attract more business other then people just walking through the door and shows our appreciation because we know they’re working hard for the brokerage.

By: American Dream Realty - Hawaii

American Dream Realty - Hawaii — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:15:25 +0000

Geordy -

In my opinion that is not a good reason to hold them:

“Holding opens is largely about your client’s perception of what YOU are doing to sell THEIR home. It is the absolute easiest thing for your client to see. It’s a quantifiable effort.”

I would prefer not to hold them just to try and justify a commission. I would hope they are hiring for a lot more than baby sitting their home on a Sunday afternoon. Especially since the likelyhood of getting it sold from an open house is very low. Why not be honest with the sellers and let them know that a very low percentage of homes get sold from an open house. Then you can spend your time in more productive things.

Most sellers really do not like leaving their home so any stranger or nosy neighbor can come through their house.

As I mentioned though, you have a great list of things to consider if you are going to do them. Thanks for sharing!!

By: Drew Meyers

Drew Meyers — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:25:45 +0000

Robert-
You have an obvious bias, and I edited your comment to remove the self promotion.

By: Kristin Balsley

Kristin Balsley — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:15:09 +0000

A good, creative open house is still a great tool but the technology for marketing and promotion has changed dramatically. You may not get an offer at every open house but you will be able to increase your circle by meeting other agents and potential clients. It’s one of many tools that should be used in concert with one another in order to get the best results.

By: Geordy Rostad

Geordy Rostad — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:20:56 +0000

Openhomez,

I just discovered you site in comments on this blog the other day. It looks very promising and I’m hoping a few more people find our house via your syndication efforts.

ADR,

Thanks for reading my checklist. Make sure you follow that link to Spencer Rascoff’s comment on Zillow. Holding opens is largely about your client’s perception of what YOU are doing to sell THEIR home. It is the absolute easiest thing for your client to see. It’s a quantifiable effort.

Not only that, with the advent of technology, buyers WITH agents are finding homes on their own and instead of calling up their agent for a showing, they will take a Sunday and bounce around them on their own. If they see something they like, they may bring their agent back to it or just have their agent write it up.

Lastly, open houses are a great way to meet new potential clients. Both buyers and sellers. Sellers who see you out there, meet you and ask, “well what’s my house worth?” and of course buyers, “If this house doesn’t work for you, I have another listing up the road”.

-Geordy

By: Robert Dodd

Robert Dodd — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:37:31 +0000

One of the items listed was “Direct market to agents”

[removed for self promotion]

By: American Dream Realty - Hawaii

American Dream Realty - Hawaii — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:47:29 +0000

Nice post Geordy for those that spend their Sundays sitting an open house.

Agents are actually still doing open houses? I personally think there are more productive things to do to generate business than sitting at an open house waiting for a potential buyer to come that is not already working with an agent.

I am sure someone will respond that they have sold homes from them. I will agree that if you sit them every Sunday for years you will sell a few homes. I just think there are better ways to generate business that are more pro-active.

I guess if you are going to spend a Sunday sitting at somebodies house, there are some good ideas in this post that make it a little more pro-active.

By: Open Homez

Open Homez — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:26:07 +0000

Thanks for the mention Geordy. To add to Geordy’s comments here is a list of our current syndications and exposures of your listings. (not just Twitter).

http://openhomez.blogspot.com/2007/12/syndications-and-exposure.html

Our FAQs are here:

http://openhomez.blogspot.com/2007/10/frequently-asked-questions-faq.html

Enjoy! Thanks again for the mention. Larry