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Real Estate Sales Tips That Really Work for Open Houses

By March 8, 2016 Real Estate
real estate sales tips open house

You put a lot of time, effort and also some money into holding an Open House, so you want it to deliver results for you and your seller to make it completely successful. The sellers have high hopes that you will bring them an offer from a ready, willing and able buyer. As a successful Realtor, when you hold an open house, you have three goals:-

  • Sell the house
  • Impress at least one visitor enough that they want you to represent them to sell their own home or to help them find a new one
  • Reinforce your position in your market that you are the first person future buyers and sellers should contact

You can achieve all three goals by following some proven open house sales tips. Firstly you want the sellers to do their part by staging the home so it stands out and by giving it the ‘Wow! treatment’. You want neighbors, casual visitors and serious potential buyers to visit. You also want visitors to spend time in the property and then to take away something valuable, useful or attractive that positively reinforces both you and the visit in their minds.

Let’s break your plan of action down into three phases – Before, During and After the Open House Presentation

Before the Open House

  1. Make sure your sellers are really pumped up to make it a success. They should put it in show home condition. If they put in effort they will have some ownership for its success
  2. Ask them for names and contact details of people they would like to visit during the presentation. At this stage it does not matter if the contacts are currently looking for a new home; what does matter is that they come and are impressed. Firstly, the visitor might know someone who is looking, and that gives you a potential buyer you would not have had. Secondly it gives you more contacts for your own future marketing. A lot of Realtors are not comfortable asking for referrals, so this is an excellent way of getting them. And, thirdly it adds to the traffic – this, on its own, encourages the drive-by folk to stop and come in
  3. Personally send invitations to these people, to neighbors, and to contacts on your database. A lot of so-called farming is just sending out ‘stuff’. Sending out open house invitations tells everyone you are a busy and successful professional, as well as actually advertising the property
  4. Prepare good leaflets that really show the home off to its best – focus on the advantages and benefits of living in the home and in the neighborhood. Do not just reproduce the listing sheet
  5. Prepare a professional-looking packet for each visitor. Include property details, testimonials from your other buyer and seller clients, a personal note from the current owners about why they love this home, questionnaires on needs and wants for visitors to fill in and either talk with you at the presentation or to mail to you, later, so you can follow up with them. Include other details as you think fit, as well as your own contact details on everything in the packet
  6. Market the Open House on your own website, your company’s, the MLS, Realtor.com, and use new photographs, a slide show and a virtual tour. Make sure the local papers also know

Include, in your marketing, that all visitors will receive a gift to remind them of their visit. Have a small gift box of cookies, an attractive mug or anything that visitors can take away with them that will be unique to you and the visit.

During the Open House

This is where you do the selling to reinforce your marketing. You want visitors to stay for as long as is sensible, you want them to feel good about their visit, and you want them to remember the home and you. The home will have the Wow factor, so all you have to do is:-

  1. Personally welcome each visitor
  2. Ask them to sign in – for the gift (and your records)
  3. Personally hand them the home’s packet
  4. Ask what, in particular they are interested in. Direct them to a particular feature of the home that relates to what they just said. Even if they say they are just looking, mention the home’s best feature, and ask them to make a point of looking
  5. If you have too many visitors to show the property to, personally, make sure you remember their names and use it to start the conversation about what they liked most, before they leave. The longer they stay, and the more comfortable they are, the more they will like the property and the more they will be impressed with you
  6. Tell every visitor you are grateful to them and you will personally follow up with each one
  7. Give each one the gift basket or other item you promised them 

After the Open House

  1. Follow up, immediately by email, if you can
  2. Then phone each visitor. You want them to tell you if they are interested in the home and ask how else you can help them
  3. Refer to things in the packet they took – like the questionnaire, if they are not ready, willing and able to make an offer

All being well one of the visitors will want a second showing but if not, you have some good contacts for the future. Successful Realtors make open house presentations a source of buyers for the property and a source of future clients.

If you would like to learn more about the kind of gifts you can provide at your open houses, please click here to contact us so we can help you make all of your open houses really successful.

3 Comments

  • This is some really good information about how to make an open house run better. I like that you pointed out that you should hand them a packet about the home once they walk in. That does seem like that would be a good way to answer questions quickly, and give them something to help remember the house. It might be a good idea to have a realtor help you make the packet.

    • wp-admin says:

      Emily, Thank you so much for your comment! I definitely agree that a realtor should help make the packet, as they know exactly what will grab a buyer’s attention and how to answer their common questions!

  • Open house sound like a really helpful real estate trick. I am not really good at being happy and personable all the time. So, it does seem like a good idea to have a professional realtor manage an open house for me.

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