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I always leave a fake name and number. Many people go to open house either to look at their neighbor, something to do on a Sat or Sun and want to get a feel for the prices for an area they plan to move to. When I sell my house there will be NO open houses.
If you aren't interested in buying at all you should have the common courtesy to tell the agent at the Open House that instead of writing down a fake name & number and making them waste their time afterwards trying to follow up with you. You sound like a real winner there!
Also if you do hire a agent to sell your house make sure you tell them upfront there will be no Open Houses either because I would save a lot of time & money not promoting your house.
One of the reasons that agents hold open houses is to get contact information from prospective buyers. It's also the reason so many of those "buyers" leave phony names and addresses.
Thankfully when we went to open houses we didn't really have anyone call us from leaving our information. Sometimes they did but it was often to see whether or not we had any interest in the property. There was one lady who was definitely a little nuts---she could tell we had an interest in the property and kept calling my husband, asking us if we would buy it (the woman was desperate to sell) and she went on and on about our little kitties and how much they would like it. She was probably a cat lady because she was VERY into the cats.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thundarr457
I always leave a fake name and number. Many people go to open house either to look at their neighbor, something to do on a Sat or Sun and want to get a feel for the prices for an area they plan to move to. When I sell my house there will be NO open houses.
I guess it depends on your area. By me, open houses often do the trick when trying to sell. The apartment we ended up buying was from us attending an open house. Not even sure that I would have made an appointment to see this place.
If you aren't interested in buying at all you should have the common courtesy to tell the agent at the Open House that instead of writing down a fake name & number and making them waste their time afterwards trying to follow up with you. You sound like a real winner there!
Also if you do hire a agent to sell your house make sure you tell them upfront there will be no Open Houses either because I would save a lot of time & money not promoting your house.
Frankly the new idea of putting down my personal information on a piece of paper for a stranger is ridiculous. If I want their help I will contact them.
And if a seller doesn't want an open house that's their choice. If you are saying that means you refuse to do the rest of your job, expect to be fired.
This wasn't an open house, but still rather strange...
When my husband and I were looking at houses, our agent made an appointment to see the place (which we worked around because they were trying to move their stuff out).
We arrived on time, the agent unlocks the door and we find one of the owners sleeping on a pallet in the middle of the living room floor! She was apparently there trying to pack stuff and got tired, so she took a nap. When we came in the door, she woke up, apologized a couple of times and moved outside to smoke while we looked at the place. We didn't buy it.
Different People react differently to different stuff.
It seems excessive to me, but some agents have success getting clients with just all sorts of stuff that is well outside tangential to real estate practice.
If the agent picked up a couple of buyers who thought this was cooool, then the event was a success.
If it works, it works.
HS band and hot dogs just strikes me as downscale and annoying.
I found a rare pay phone and wrote down the telephone number and will use that number from now on.
Passive aggressive crap. Why go to all that trouble? The agent is just doing their job. So YOU just say "No, thank you," when asked for the phone number. Or ask for their card so you can contact them later if you have a question. Problem solved. Geez.
I have seen this before
My agent told me when she first went to see a house I looked at with her, the owners and family were sitting around smoking in the living room. LOL
Needless to say, the house never sold and was eventually foreclosed on.
You have to wonder how these people were maintaining the house too.
I ask for the agents card, no need to call me. Also, I make the agent work for their commission, come pick me up and drive me to the house!
I been to some interesting open houses in NJ, they were giving away cigars, some good snacks and one was even having a bbq, felt very welcoming for sure.
The dog part is not cool, even though I love them, but what if someone is allergic to dogs?
This wasn't an open house, but a showing my husband & I went to that was set up by our realtor. The owner of the house was there, but that doesn't bother me as long as they don't follow us around or try to engage us in conversation or "sell" the house. (that's their agent's job) If someone just hangs out on their back patio while I'm looking, I wouldn't mind.
But in this case, the lady of the house was in the kitchen in her bathrobe cooking bacon! She disappeared from the kitchen and when we went upstairs to see the bedrooms, she was sitting up in her bed, in her robe, working on her laptop and eating from a big plate full of bacon. She was very nice and said "oh, don't bother me, I'm just trying to get some work done!" She wasn't intrusive, but it sure made us feel uncomfortable!
We didn't buy the house, but not because of her. It was because the house was really, REALLY lived in. LIke really dirty walls & doors & door trim; bad stains on the carpet; kids' bedrooms with stuff everywhere and posters all over the walls with thumb-tacks. It was a beautiful home, but WAY too lived-in (literally) to be on the market!
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