Open Houses | ROARing Agents

You might be surprised to hear that Open Houses have very little to do with selling the home. It’s about prospect generation. New agents think it’s important, the public thinks it’s important and when agents finally realize why you really do open houses, they just go along. The seller is happy and the agent is satisfied.

Let’s start with some best practices if you are holding another agent’s listing open. If you are new and looking for any opportunity, you don’t get to be super picky. Eventually, you will and here is what you should consider when accepting an Open House

Is the price point fit your desired clientele?
Is the house in an area you want to serve?
Do you have enough notice to learn about the surrounding inventory?
What are the agent’s expectations for signs and new prospects you meet?

Also, consider the goodwill you will gain with that agent. Sometimes you just take it because they need the help. Bailing them out of a tough spot will leave you quite memorable. Remember, there are no steadfast rules. You just need to look at the bigger picture in everything. This is a relationship business.

Preparation is the key to successful Open Houses. Remember, the only reason to hold an Open House is to find new people to help.

Preparation includes three pieces. One is getting the house ready. Is it staged, decluttered (especially personal items), and cleaned? What about touch-ups and small repairs?

Two is making sure people know about it.

Tell your lender
Tell your title people
Tell your office
Invite them to hold the Open House with you for security and support.
Connect with other agents holding Open Houses nearby, if you trust your skills, to send buyers to each other
Online ads
Send Postcards
Post on social media ahead of time (for the love of St. Joseph, don’t use Zillow links to promote your listing!)
Doorknock the neighborhood/Leave doorhangers
Offer special preview for the neighbors
Call around the neighborhood while obeying the Do Not Call List.
Tell your sphere that live within a relatively close range. (Everyone hates getting a messsage about a listing that is too far away.)
Put a rider on your For Sale sign showing the Open House day and time.
Ask the seller to put away medications and small valuable items because you never know who is walking through.
Talk an ice cream or food truck to stop by during your open to pull people in through that
Confirm the day and time with the seller. It’s amazing how often they forget and it causes problems especially if you’ve done your job and got the word out.

The third part is to know the neighborhood and have documents ready. As we know, people aren’t likely to buy your Open House. You need to show how well you know the market by offering them other options. You should have all of the stats, know the available listings regardless of price, know which ones are vacant and know the amenities of the neighborhood. I would visit listings, at least the vacants, in the neighborhood so I can speak about them from first hand knowledge.

The documents that you want include a sign-in sheet, a single printout of some of the comps (just one that you can’t give away), a buyer’s packet, a seller’s packet, a bio, and whatever else you might have around like testimonials, title reports, inspection reports and other items that show authority.

One idea is to not have all of this available in a physical form. Some of these items could be PDFs that you have saved on your phone. This way you can get their information in order to send it to them.

Now it’s the day of the Open House.

Show up early
Don’t park in the closest spot of the driveway. Make it easy for people to park.
Walkthrough the house
Turn on lights
Close toilet seats
Open curtains and doors
Make sure the temperature is right.
Set up refreshments if you brought them. I liked baking cookies for the smell. Just got a tube of Pillsbury cookies. Don’t do Cheetos like a friend did. That left a lot of cleaning to do afterward.
Turn on music or some ambiance.
Or turn on the TV for a game. It can make some people stay longer and the people feeling dragged out of the house will appreciate the game update.
Set out whatever documents you have brought along.
Once the house is set up, leave and put up as many Open House signs as possible. 1 sign = just don’t bother. 4 is barely acceptable. 8 is great. Some do 25-40 signs with some help.

Remember, the only reason to be there is to find new opportunities.

During the Open House:

Smile, it’s your most powerful tool. Get yourself in a positive state regardless of whatever is going on. Your attitude is so much more noticeable than you thnk.

Greet them when they come in. Try to figure out their DISC Profile so you know how and when to best approach them. There is no one right way to do this. Some agents try to talk to new people immediately. Of those some go right into real estate while others want to talk about anything other than real estate to let the people relax a little bit.

Other agents say hi and just let attendees go on and plan to grab them as they are leaving. That may backfire if someone else walks in and engages you while the first party walks out.

There are several ways to begin the conversation with at an Open House. Check those out.

All Open House conversations should eventually lead to “Why are you thinking about moving?” There is a story there and that story will give you their motivation. There are responses to “I’m just looking” here. It doesn’t matter why you want to sell them a house, it matters why they want to buy and you will get much further if you focus on that. You could also use the Mighty Script to dig deeper.

Do not ignore the neighbors! This is a weird thing I hear from agents. “Oh, I just had some neighbors in so I didn’t get any contacts.” You mean people that might one day sell their home? People that just might have been “secret shopping” you to see how you run an Open House and present a listing?

They might trick you by telling you that they just wanted to drop by and see the inside of the house or something. Get their information, ask them if they are curious what their home is worth, if they got the right price, would they consider selling and so on.

Somewhere in this process, you need to get their information of anyone that walks in there. You can have a sign in sheet and say the seller wants to know who came through the house, or how many people came through the house. Or you can be direct like a friend of mine and ask for their information because, “You’re going to spam them to death,” and then laugh. It can be a fun ice breaker.

I don’t know if it is worth fighting someone who doesn’t want to give you the info but try. Find out how they want to be communicated with and offer information like a neighborhood report or any of the things I mentioned earlier.

Some people are going to say that the house isn’t right for them. This is where your knowledge of the inventory helps as you ask what they want and tell them about other homes that might match what they are looking for.

After the Open House, you need to follow up with attendees. You either contact them later that day or the next day. Do not wait more than 24 hours!

They likely talked to multiple agents and you might not be the most memorable. You think you had great rapport and great conversations but, most of us forget someone’s name 3 seconds after we hear it. Don’t expect them to remember you even if they did take a business card.

Lastly, if you can, don’t give out business cards. Typically they only get touched twice; once when you hand it to them and when they throw it away or put it in a drawer.

Exercise: Either use my checklist or create your own. Checklists matter.

Do the work, get the results.

Next Lesson >> CRM (Client Relationship Management Systems)

Open Houses