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I had friends who bought a 1/2 million dollar home this way. Their house they lived in for almost 20 years wasn't even listed, and didn't have an agent. On the way to a more specialty grocery store, saw the sign, thought the street was nice, so stopped and walked in. They didn't just buy on that street, they bought THAT house.
The Denver market is very hot and open houses are pretty common. It's not unusual that a listing will come on the market and they won't accept any private showings, just do an open house on the weekend and end up with multiple offers by end of business on Monday.
I sell 25% of my listings using open houses. They may not work in every market but if done correctly they do work. I personally door knock and invite the neighbors to come over before the public open house. They are the biggest cheerleaders for the neighborhood and will send friends and family who they know may be looking in the area.
The real estate industry finds that 1% of sales are due to an open house.
Realtors hold open houses for one reason. If your home is in a desirable area, and located correctly they hold an open house.
Reason they hold open houses: They can get a lot of people into some of them. Especially people from your own neighborhood, which they can often get a listing if that person is thinking of selling. But the most important reason, is to find potential buyers, which are rare for the home they are holding the open house at. But they can sell them other homes. People like to look at homes above what they can afford or qualify to buy, to get ideas of what they would like in the home they buy or how to improve the home they do buy.
Open houses are really good for the agent's business, to hustle for potential listings, and potential buyers for other homes. A lot of trouble without results for 99% of the open houses.
I understand the real estate business, as I entered it as an investment broker in 1972 and stayed till I finally retired. I never held an open house, but know what the other agents were doing and why. They even teach holding open houses in classes, not to sell the home but as a way to get listings and buyers for other homes.
It depends on your area and the market but yes, they can be productive. Our market in the Tampa Bay area is very strong and well maintained, appropriately priced homes sell within a few days. An Open House allows your property to be exposed to as many buyers as possible. You will definitely get your share of looky loos and curious neighbors but with enough advanced marketing and proper signage, you should get some serious, qualified buyers through your door. Good luck!
I am not and have never been a real estate agent. But I used to do real estate marketing for years and this is what I learned from the brokers / agents I worked with over the years. Open houses are great for agents. They get a lot of people in the market to buy a house (or who will be soon) and don't have an agent yet. So it's a great way for the agent to get more clients. I went to a seminar at the NAR convention one year where the speaker actually said, open houses don't sell houses, they sell agents. They are also great for people who want to check out your house, see what kinds of expensive things you have and what kind of security system (if any) or large dogs you have, so they can come back later and rob the place.
I do think there is tremendous benefit to brokers' open houses, however. Great way for agents to give professional feedback and sort of case it out for any buyer they may have.
It depends on the house (is it particularly attractive, especially from the street?); the market (is this an area where there are a lot of people out looking around for a house?); and the realtor. A realtor whose first idea, right off the bat, is an open house may not have a bevy of buyers in mind that would be interested in your property or your area. Keep looking for another realtor. I had a realtor very familiar with my neighborhood, had sold most of the properties in there, for years, and within a week or so, found a likely buyer. But he still did an open house that next weekend. Result? A bidding war, incited by that open house. There were two additional interested parties who made second trips, and, in the end, the place sold to the originally interested party, over asking price (which was set kind of high to begin with). So...it depends.
In my area, it is VERY common for apartments to have open houses. The multi-million dollar homes? Yeah, not so much. But apartments? A large majority, since there are so many coops here.
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Originally Posted by nidss77
is it me or the open houses never seem to bring in any real buyers? just people who are curious or maybe thinking of buying down the road but not serious? wouldnt any real buyers come with an agent and a proper appointment?
We did not have our own agent. We went to any open house that fit within our price range. And we liked going to open houses better, because we could maybe hit up 3+ places in a day, rather than deal with agents who were sometimes late for appointments.
BTW-We almost put an offer on one place (open house) and then ended up buying a different place that we also saw during an open house.
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Originally Posted by unit731
Today I would write down their license plate number and write down their name and address and verify by driver license or other forms of ID. And a lot depends on city/town neighborhood. If you are in a high crime area might not be the best idea.
If someone wanted my driver's license to look at a house, I would also turn around and walk out like the other person who replied to this comment. I live in a major city and we have open houses all of the time here without issue. You guys must live in some rough areas.
We sold one house because the people came to our open house. The buyers said that seeing the number of people at the open house spurred them to go ahead and make an offer.
Opposite here. There were a few houses I didn't bother putting an offer in on due to the sheer volume of people at the open house.
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