But Open houses DO sell houses!
I love reading posts on Active Rain. J Phillip's post - The Great Open House Debate inspired me to write my own post about open houses from a completely different perspective.
There are differing opinions on the usefulness of open houses. Some agents say an open house does nothing for the seller but is simply a tool for the agent to pick up buyers. Granted, a buyer may not walk in the door and write and offer on that particular house, but it doesn't mean that someone who comes to the open house won't end up buying it.
Here's my point:
There are a lot of homes on the market. Many homes in Silver Lake, Echo Park, Los Feliz and the surrounding areas I work, do not have lockboxes. If you list such a home, there's a lot of work involved in setting up appointments and personally showing properties to buyers and their agents. (Fodder for a later post, no doubt)!
Enter the Sunday (or Saturday, or weekday evening for that matter) open house!
Voila!
• You don't need to make any appointments.
• If there are able and willing agents in your office who'd like to hold your listings open to pick up some buyer, you don't even need to host the open house yourself.
• A lot of buyers can all be "handled" in one fell swoop by having the house open to the public.
• For every agent and buyer that attends the open house, that's one less appointment you'll need to schedule.
How is that for saving yourself time and energy?
Personally, I work with a lot of buyers. It's terrific when I can tell my clients "the house will be open on Sunday from 2-5- let's go take a look at it then". There's less work for both agents. I don't need to call the listing agent for an appointment, the listing agent doesn't have to call the seller to check their schedule, and the seller doesn't have to constantly pick up and leave the house for buyer visits without a lot of notice. That's not just a win-win, that's a win-win-win!
Another huge plus for us as agents- We can only see so many houses on broker's caravan and some listings are not even open on broker's caravan. If you want to stay on top of your game and be an expert in your area, you must know the inventory. Visiting open houses on the weekend affords you this opportunity. I will see houses even if I don't currently "have a buyer" for that particular property.
I need to know what's on the market, see what the house is truly like (virtual tours and online photos can conveniently leave out the "down side" to any property), and be able to accurately compare one house to another to keep my knowledge base current.
Whether you represent buyers or sellers or both, you need to truly know your comparables in order to have a handle on pricing.
Hmm- how did this photo get left out?!
So agents- if you think open houses are a waste of time and not making you any money, think again. There are a lot of agents out there like me. I am going to your open houses, I am sending buyers to your open houses and eventually I am able to SELL these properties BECAUSE of your open houses. It may be three degrees of separation- but when escrow closes, can you honestly say that holding your listing open did not get the house sold for your client and put money in your pocket? Maybe it's time for a new perspective!
Broker Associate
Keller Williams Realty, Los Feliz
213-215-4758
http://www.LApropertySolutions.com
Hi Jenny,
I'm with you on this one. It seems that short sales would benefit the most. So many of them are hard to show. They're in the right price range that buyers want to see, but sometimes impossible to get access to. Last weekend, I took buyers out and we have 4 of them on our list and none could be viewed. So, we just moved on. They have to realize that they are competing with REO's that can be seen at any time.
Saw your comment on another post that you aren't receiving comments on many of your posts. I think it has to do with where you post them. When I do them to my outside blog, not much happens, as I'm new to AR and not highly searched at this point. But when I post to members only it's better (and of course a chance to be a featured post). Good luck!
Hi Karen- thanks for commenting. I agree with your point on short sales. Many times the owners are still living in the house but make it impossible to see. I can't imagine how listing agents deal with that type of client. Short sales are hard enough as it is!
As far as getting comments on my posts, I post them to some of the groups I belong to but not all of them and I don't even have an outside blog! I guess I need to post to more groups. Perhaps there are just so many people blogging that the only blogs that get read and commented on regularly are the featured ones. I'm guilty of reading mostly featured blogs myself! Looks like I need to break that cycle!
Hi Jenny
I agree with you completely. In fact just a couple of months ago my broker asked me to do an open house on a condo for him, I sold the condo that day and listed another from a client I picked up at the Open House. I also picked up a client at an open house, listed their very expensive home, and am now looking for a downsize for them, a new condo for their children and a recreation property for them as well. They didn't like the house I was doing an Open House on at all but you just never know.
Hi Jennifer- exactly! You picked up business for yourself and becuase you held the house open, someone who saw it that day could very well end up buying it. Alot of people have their own agents and are looking at open houses on the weekend. Nothing says they won't go to their agent and write up and offer on that condo in the future.
Hello Jenny,
Great Post. I love your perspective of open houses, it can truly make things easier for us agents and our clients.
Thanks for sharing,
Matt Naumann
Hi Matt- Thanks. So many people write posts about how Open houses are a waste of time and I'm always waited for a comment that reflects my sentiment. Nice to tknow I'm not the only one who sees value in the for the seller, the buyer and agents on both sides of the transaction!
I'm on the pro-open house part of the debate. I track the sources of my closed escrows. When I was a newbie, open houses provided an avenue to hone my people skills, my ability to market the open house, get my name out, find new clients.
Last year, 15% of my escrows were from leads I developed during an open house. The best one was when a prospective buyer checked out the house. Although he didn't buy the house I was showing, I managed to convince them to let me list their house, and then I showed them one of my listings that met their requirements.
Result? I listed their house. They bought another property I listed, thus enabling me to double end it. Total escrows: THREE!
By the way, here's a copy of what I posted about open house (this is the same house where I generated that seller lead that resulted in 3 escrows for me)
What I did to get 70-80 groups to come to my open house
Hi Pacita- I'm glad to hear you have such great results with open houses. I'll definitely go take at your post about getting all those folks to come! I actually don't do many open houses myself any more, but I attend a TON of them. There are simply too many properties on the market to be able to see them all during caravan plus some listings never seem to be shown on broker caravan (that could be fodder for another post completely!)
When I wrote this post, I was mainly trying to let listing agents know that open houses are hugely important to the sale of their listings. Many agents, like me, will send clients to see properties during open houses once I have previewed them. The listing agent may not think the open house is doing anything for them but it allowed both of us not to have to make an appointment to show it and my clients may very well make an offer after seeing it. There are alot of advantages to having a house open, whether held by the listing agent or someone else. As long as the sellers are willing I say do it and save yourself the time of having to are and schedule showings during the week.
Hi Jenny - I love open houses - both holding them and attending them. In fact I have made an appointment today to write an offer on one of my listings for a couple that attended my open house there. The only way to sell a house is to make sure it is exposed to as many people as possible, and an open house is a quick and easy way to do that. I have written a couple of posts about this, and the things that I do to promote my open houses and make them fun and successful.
Hi Susan,
It's nice to know I'm not alone in realizing the value of open houses. Congratulations on getting that offer put together! For a while there I was seeing nothing but negative posts from agents about what a waste of time open houses are. For listing agents that don't like to hold them open, they should still find other agents who DO like open houses. The more accessible a house is to other agents and prospective buyers, the faster that listing will get sold!
Thanks so much for reading my post and leaving your coments!