Open Houses: A Saga – Post #3
What is an open house? Well, I’m glad you asked. According to Merriam-Webster, it’s the following:
“1: ready and usually informal hospitality or entertainment for all comers
2: a house or apartment open for inspection especially by prospective buyers or tenants”
This series of blog articles will cover several different aspects of Open Houses but it will mostly be covered from the real estate agent’s perspective, as that’s the most technical perspective there could possibly be toward an Open House. If you are a buyer and not licensed to sell real estate, and you are looking for information on open houses, you can find more information in this series than you ever wanted.
I have broken it out into multiple sections and posts, and they are as follows:
- Blog Post #1: READ HERE
- Section 1. Open House Strategy
- Open House Checklist
- Blog Post #2: READ HERE
- Section 2. Open House Selection
- Section 3. Open House Preparation
- Blog Post #3:
- Section 4. The Day of the Open House…
- Section 5. Conclusion
Section 4. The Day of
Activities the day of the open house
Like the activities before the open house, there are still a lot of activities you could do on the day of the open house. There is the obvious, like putting the sign out, turning on lights, making coffee, cookies, putting out bottled water, setting up a “Make Offer” folder with ready contracts in it, setting out the sign-in sheet, showing up early, and making sure no lightbulbs need replacing or rooms need swept, and everything of that sort.
But there is some other stuff that you might not think about that a lot of agents are doing these days. Like, taking a Facebook live video to build awareness within your COI on social media, or doing the same thing on Instagram. People will often do those videos to invite their friends, but it is also a service-minded way of reminding all of their friends on social media that they are working in real estate and working hard for their clients and keeping them in top of mind for anyone looking to buy a home.
Realtors are often “Tagging” themselves at different locations on social media as another way of staying in top of mind of their COI. This is when the social media platform of your choice makes a geographic mark of where you are and allows you to post that on social media, along with a picture, some text, or a video to explain what you are doing there.
Things to bring with you to the Open House
Any refreshments you might be serving would probably need to be prepared beforehand, but they would definitely need to be brought to the open house with you. A sign-in sheet is a helpful way of obtaining contact information from prospects but it’s also a helpful way of allowing the seller, as you’ll explain to your prospects who show up to the open house, to know who has been in their home. It’s a courtesy to the seller and it’s a courtesy that most prospects are perfectly respectful of acknowledging. Also, bring flyers with your information and the home information for you to hand out to people while they are there.
Bring print-outs of the property from MLS and print outs of similar properties in the area so that you will have something to hand to people as they walk in and out. Firstly, you’ll hand them information on the open house home itself, as you are primarily there to provide a service to the seller; either directly or vicariously for the listing agent. But as we saw from that statistic provided by NAR, only 3-5% of homes sell as a result of an open house. So, by having done your research on the area and knowing of the other houses available in the area, and having print outs of those other houses available, you now have something to give to and talk about with prospects that are not in love with the house you are holding open. Hand those other houses to the clients on their way out—after you’ve qualified their interest on the open house and concluded that they are, in fact, not interested in pursuing a purchase of that particular house—so that they have been given all possible options for purchasing in that area and you have done your job as a realtor by providing it.
It’s also good to make sure that any possible needed toiletries (i.e., soap, hand towels, toilet paper, etc.) are brought with you, especially if the open house is being held in a vacant home. Along with toiletries, and keeping with the possibility of the home being vacant, it is a good idea to bring cleaning supplies with you (i.e., a broom, mop, rags, window cleaner, etc.) to give the option of sprucing up and giving prospects a clean area to be in.
Candles might not be a bad idea. A lot of people enjoy walking into a room that smells good. But it’s important to remember that not all people feel the same way about any given scent. It would be good to choose a subtle scent and to be sure that there are not too many candles out that could overwhelm someone with a sensitive nose.
Any work that you could do and keep yourself productive during downtimes between prospects. This could be a marketing campaign that you’re working on, or maybe (hopefully) another offer for one of your clients that you could work on, some CMAs for your COI to try and get some listings, or anything else that could keep you entertained and on your toes between people.
Section 5. Wrapping up
Concluding the open house and follow-up
After the open house is over, and everyone has left, it is important to make sure that you do a walkthrough of the house and just do a quick look over of everything to make sure things are as they were before the open house. Make sure you gather all items brought by you to the open house (i.e., cleaning supplies, refreshments, candles, sign-in sheet, flyers, all other work or personal belongings, etc.) and load them in your vehicle. After everything has been reviewed, gathered, and loaded and out of the way, go through the house and first make sure all of the lights are off, no water or toilet is running, and then, on your way out, check every single door and make sure they are locked precisely to the seller or listing agent’s instructions.
After all of that, and you are leaving the open house, pick up all of the signs you put out and take them back with you.
The most important part, arguably, is the follow-up. You’ve spoken to all of these people (hopefully) that came through your open house, and you had them fill out a sign-in sheet giving you their contact information and any other information that you or they felt was pertinent, so now it is time for the follow-up. Before your follow-up with your potential prospects from the sign-in sheet, preferably as soon as you are done locking up and have left the open house, follow up with either the seller or the listing agent, if it is not your listing. If they are your sellers, call them and tell them about the open house. Tell them how many people came, what kind of general feedback you received from people, their general impressions of their home, and your general impression of how the open house went.
It’s important to note that, if it is not your listing, you should not be contacting the sellers directly. You must always contact the listing agent and give them the feedback just like they were your sellers. They will be very pleased and will likely invite you to do more open houses for them in the future.
After that follow-up, within the next 24 hours, if possible, email or text everyone that came to your open house using the contact information from the sign-in sheet to thank them for coming to your open house. This might spark a conversation from someone, but even if it doesn’t a little bit of gratitude can go a long way. Your next step should be adding your prospects from your open house to your COI and setting them up on any drip campaigns that you might have going or any auto emails from the MLS that allow you to automatically send them available properties that meet their criteria as they come on the market. For more info on how to do that, check with your broker or your MLS.