Four Reasons You Should Have an Open House

If you have followed us on social media for more than 5 minutes, you know all three members of Team Winslow spend most of our weekends at open houses, highlighting homes people have entrusted us with selling. Recently we had a conversation with other realtor friends about open house best practices and someone replied “I don’t have any best practices; I haven’t done one in so long. I mean, why would I since homes are selling so fast?”

It was everything we could do to keep from choking on our beverages.

Open houses really aren’t about getting your home sold quickly. Open houses are also not about getting buyer leads for the listing realtor (although that helps our sellers too).

No, Open houses are about getting your home sold at the right price and best terms possible.

Here are the four main ways Open houses help our clients.

1)    Open houses Create a Sense of Urgency. We had more than one transaction in the last year in which we received above asking price offers specifically requesting our seller accept the offer prior to the Open house. Clearly fear another buyer would fall in love with the property and lock it up works to our seller’s advantage and causes buyers to move quickly and also aggressively with price and terms.

2)    Open houses are convenient for buyers. Gone are the pre-covid days when people would go to Open Houses just to creep on their neighbors or binge on free cookies and juice. We haven’t offered snacks at an Open House since the pandemic, and while we may again at some point it’s not what brings people to see us. Some buyers have been intimidated by the market and others don’t want to shop with the pressure of a realtor and a private showing. It’s a low commitment way for new buyers to begin their search, or for some who are battle worn from being in the market for a while to see a home without going through the full process of a showing with their realtor.

3)    Open houses are convenient for sellers, especially if they still live in the home. At some of our busiest Open houses we have seen as many as 30 groups of people tour a home. That’s not a normal outcome, but it does happen on the hottest of homes in the right price range. Imagine what it would be like to have all thirty of those interested parties see the home in a private, one hour showing? Open houses make it much easier for homeowners to show the home.

4)    Open houses help us get to know potential buyers which increases our confidence when it’s time to make a deal. Most buyers who come through an Open house are already working with another realtor they are committed to use in the transaction. When those buyers come to the Open house it gives the listing realtor an opportunity to meet the buyer, learn her story, and gauge real interest and commitment. It builds trust and rapport on both sides and is our favorite reason for conducting Open houses.

     We understand why other realtors don’t do Open houses. We are a team with ample human resources. We are exhausted after we get up early on the weekend, put out signs, bring our A game during the event, and hit the follow-up hard after the guests are long gone and the signs are loaded back up into our trunks. We know we couldn’t have kept this pace as individual realtors over the last 18 months and have much love for other realtors who are working hard in a wild market.

      However, we came to play and leverage our God given time, talents and energy to do the best job we can for our clients. Yes, it would be easier to stay home and hope our marketing works and brings a good outcome. But easy is not how we roll at Winslow Group Real Estate. Give us a call or message us to set up a consultation to discuss how to put this and the 11 other core elements of our marketing plan to work for you.