How to Plan the Perfect Open House
Have you ever spent time and energy planning an Open House, just
to have less than five people attend?
Have you ever had a ton of people show up at your Open House, and been unable
to convert a single one of them into a sale or a future client? Are you unsure about why your Open House
failed?
Open Houses are now more important to the real estate agent than
ever. A report in 2015 by the National
Association of Realtors Home Buyers and Sellers indicated that 48% of home
buyers cited the Open House as an important source for most of their
information. The reasons for this are
obvious, for many it’s the first time that they’re getting to smell, see, and
feel the home in person. It’s also a
way to see what other people think of the house, which is a powerful push in a
person’s perception of a particular home.
I’m Cindy Bishop of Cindy Bishop Worldwide. I pride myself not
only on being a successful real estate agent with over 28 years of experience,
but a knowledgeable and helpful trainer and coach. I’m committed to making everyone who comes
into contact with me succeed, and have compiled the following open house tips
for you, both from my own experience, as well as teaching and coaching friends
of mine. Use them to succeed, and
contact me if you have any questions at all!
Here are the best ways to make your Open House perfect:
1. Pick
a unique property, that’s easy to find.
We often don’t have control over which property we’re showing,
but when we are able to select a house at which to host an Open House event, we
should look for properties with the following:
* A
direct route to them with very few turns.
Street names are easy, and street signs are visible.
* Properties
that are well kept, and visually pleasing from both the inside and outside.
* A
home with some kind of “conversation starter”.
It has a unique feature, and is not just four walls. It might have an
infinity pool, a walk-in closet, or a newly redesigned kitchen.
* Your
signage should be larger than life. On
the event day, you need something to make the signs stand out even more. Balloons are often used, or you could even
try streamers, or pinwheels. Be
creative, just try to find something professional, but that catches the light
and people’s attention.
2. Have your Open
House event at the right time.
* Don’t
have your event after dark. Plan your
event to end at sunset.
* Consider
having a separate open house preview, for neighbors only. And then an open-to-the-public type of event
later. Neighbors love this preview event
concept, because it makes them feel special, and they love suggesting who
should live in their neighborhood. It
also allows them to start thinking of friends and family they want nearby, and
they become part of your sales force for you, as well as your advertising force
for the actual open house.
* If
you do have an event only for neighbors, consider taking out a camera and
interviewing and recording them talking about the neighborhood. This is something you can add to your
website, or social media, or have on repeat loop during your Open House. For example, imagine how powerful it is to
have a recorded testimonial from a mother in the area about the school district?
* Don’t
pick a date and time where people are not available, for example, the majority
of people work Monday through Fridays from 8am-5pm, and may not be free on a
Wednesday at 3pm. Additionally, people
are usually not free on holiday weekends.
3. Make your Open
House event the right vibe, and the more exciting, the better!
* Entertaining
music is a possibility, but be careful that it’s not distracting and that you
avoid certain genres or language that may be offensive. Music may be seen as a way to cover up noises
or mechanical failures in the house.
Make sure that you’re sensitive to how the music is being perceived.
* Snacks
are a must! Try wine and cheese, or
beer and wings. The most important part
about the food is that it needs to match what type of neighborhood you are
in. Fried chicken and hamburgers
probably aren’t appropriate at a million-dollar listing, but champagne and
caviar probably aren’t appropriate in a first-time homebuyer situation,
either. Just a word of caution; however,
if you are serving alcohol, be very careful about who you serve. You may even want to get someone on your team
to help you out with this. The last thing you need is for someone to drink at
your open house as a minor, or someone to drive off over intoxicated and get
into an accident. If in the right kind of setting, having comfort foods is
especially welcoming and makes many visitors feel more at home. Careful to avoid foods with bad odors or
smells, as you don’t want them attributed to the home.
* Consider
leaving a hand-written sign to “Help Yourself” along with a list of
ingredients, so that visitors feel like they are able to eat the snacks
provided without fear.
* Consider
having a slideshow or interactive photo board featuring the home at various
times of year. You may want to show the
home off in summer months, for example, if it’s currently January and the
garden and pool are frozen over.
* Consider
making a table, desk, or station with local school information, neighborhood
information, etc. The more resources you
can provide, the better. You want the
guest to stop at this station and pour over the resources, and ask as many
questions as possible.
* Make
sure to engage each and every visitor so they have are interested, and want to
stay longer.
4. Don’t just
advertise your Open House, create buzz around it.
* Create
an event on social media, and share it with all of your friends and clients, as
well as everyone on your e-mail lists.
Facebook ads have become an amazing resource for reaching a ton of
people in your area that wouldn’t have been in your networks otherwise. And it’s incredibly cost-effective, for what
it does. You should filter the Facebook
ad to include only people in targeted zip codes. You can also un-invite or exclude people who
work for other realtors or competing brokerages.
* Flyer
surrounding businesses and schools in the area of the listing. Knock on as many doors as possible.
* Visit
neighbors’ homes with nice newsletters or invitations. The nicer the invitation, the higher the
chance that they will pop in to see what all of the fuss is about. Some agents
even suggest using wedding style invitations.
* Don’t
just advertise on one channel. You can
try Facebook events, Twitter, your own website, your e-mail list, your
newsletter, NextDoor.com,
and even Craigslist. Just make sure you
follow all of the appropriate advertising and marketing laws as designated by
your brokerage and state laws.
5. Logistics,
Logistics, Logistics
* Make
sure everything is in order so that you look your best, and the house looks
it’s best. it should be clean,
lightbulbs should be new, dust should be gone, air fresheners should be working,
the climate should be controlled. I’ve even heard of certain agents baking
cookies in advance of the big event so that the house feels and smells extra
homey.
* Consider
removing clutter, which makes navigating the home difficult. You can also remove or hide offensive art, or
anything that might make someone feel uncomfortable. But be careful- make sure the homeowner doesn’t just throw
the clutter into closets or cabinets!
People care more and more about storage these days, and if it looks like
the cabinets and closets are busting at the seams with junk, they’ll
automatically assume that the amount of storage space in the house is not
sufficient
* Use
natural light to your advantage. Make
sure all window treatments are open and all curtains are drawn. All light switches should be turned on,
regardless of where they are. You don’t
want someone afraid to go in the basement, or thinking they aren’t allowed to
enter the garage.
* Make
sure the home owner is not present. The
last thing you need is them having an emotional breakdown because they are
going down memory lane, or answering a question incorrectly. People also feel
uncomfortable freeing roaming when the person who owns the property is looking
over their shoulder.
* With
that said, valuables, if left in the home, should be secured. At the very least, you should know what they
are and where, and make an inventory of them.
I strongly advise you insist that the home owner take them out of the
property before the open house, so you’re not held liable for them in case of
damage or theft.
* Use
your team. If you are alone at an Open
House, you may be spread too thin. If
you leave for a minute to check that a sign on the corner hasn’t fallen down,
you may miss someone who pops in to find no one there. Have one person for signage and the guest
book, one person on food and drink detail, and that leaves you free to talk to
and engage guests.
* Have
a loan agent or lender on hand, in order to answer any potential questions the
home buyer may have about the process.
* Make
sure you have the necessary paperwork required.
You can print out a copy of the MLS but it’s strongly suggested that you
make a booklet, flyer, or something more personalized to the property, and to
yourself.
* Make
sure you know the neighborhood, and have done comparisons of values in the
neighborhood. You may lose credibility if someone asks you a question and
you’re unfamiliar with this territory, and I’m sure you’d rather look like a
pro!
6. Use
the Personal Touch
* It’s
not enough to have each visitor sign in.
You should take detailed notes on your conversation with each person. If you can’t remember this, a helpful
suggestion is to hide a notebook or tablet inside a kitchen drawer, and make
notes as the day goes by.
* You
should remember one thing about each visitor and bring it up at some point
during their tour of the home. “Jerry, wouldn’t this be an amazing place to
store your golf clubs?”
* Don’t
try to sell anyone. They will come to
you, and request the information they need, when they need it. This is a time to establish relationships. Your only objective should be to make this
home (and yourself) memorable.
7. Follow Up
* Add
all visitors to your e-mail list, as well as your newsletter list. AM Open House is a great app and resource to
make sure you’re keeping on task with this.
* For
those visitors who were seriously interested in the home or in you, handwritten
cards should be sent out thanking them for coming, and encouraging their
business in the future. Take out that
handy notebook you stashed, and make personal notes in each card. They’re more likely to keep it the more
personal it is. Above all, make sure
your contact information is on each card.
* Some
agents even send videos. You could
forward on a Facebook live video of the open house, or send a YouTube video of
the listing. You could even send some
kind of greeting card video for a special way to say “thanks for
attending!” BombBomb is a great resource
for this type of video.
* Text
message is a wonderful way to contact people, and has a 95% open rate. It’s less invasive than a phone call, which
people may avoid answering if they don’t know a specific caller. Send a very specific text message with a
thank you, the property address, and more information on the property, or a
link for more information.
* Send
a follow up to the follow up starting with the subject header “I forgot to tell
you…” - You can then point out a feature
you neglected to tell them about on the current property, or even point out
other properties that you may have listed, if this one fell short for them.
Of course, the best resource for an Open House is a coach, who
can suggest strategies unique to your community and clientele. Not only is this more effective, but a coach
should follow up with you to make sure that everything went smoothly, and
question each step if it doesn’t.
I’m happy to meet your coaching needs, and can be contacted
through either one of our
websites.
Cindy
Bishop is the Managing Director of Cindy Bishop Worldwide, a real estate
education company specializing in Continuing
Education and Business
Development to the Real Estate Community.
Cindy is an active coach specializing in real estate agent business development.
cindybishopworldwide.com
bestrealtortraining.com
