As a real estate agent, holding open houses can be a great way to generate leads and increase sales. You have the opportunity to chat with current and potential home buyers, and if you invite the neighbors, you can collect their contact information and become their future real estate agent.
What are some ways to make your open house stand out and get people to attend? How do you get people to use the sign-in sheet and give you their contact information at an open house?
Although selling a listing at an open house is rare, holding an open house can still be effective in exposing the home to a wider audience. Plus, using it as a lead generation source can be beneficial.
Are Open Houses a Waste of Time?
No way! They can be one of the best things you can do to get real estate clients and deals.
You should be doing an open house every weekend because it is a great opportunity to meet new people and promote your business.
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Open houses are important because they are often the first time potential buyers will meet the agent. It is estimated that over 80% of buyers use the first real estate agent they meet.
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Many of the people who attend open houses are potential future sellers who are interested in seeing what kinds of properties are on the market and what they are worth. As a real estate agent, it is important to be knowledgeable about the market and be able to answer any questions that these people may have. Open houses are also a great opportunity to start building relationships with potential clients.
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The key to selling more homes is to talk to more people. This can be done by holding open houses and talking to the stream of people that come through. For new real estate agents, this is a great way to learn how to talk to buyers and sellers and increase confidence.
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If you only have a few people come to your open house, or no one at all, you can still use that time productively. Bring your laptop and work while you’re there, or use the time to write handwritten notes.
If you’re looking to grow your business, open houses can be a great opportunity.
Open House Planning
You cannot simply post your open house on MLS and social media and expect it to be successful. You need to plan ahead and create a marketing campaign.
Here is your open house planning guide:
Open House will be hosted between 1 PM – 4 PM on a Saturday with 12 PM – 1 PM being neighbor time. This means that only neighbors will be allowed in during this time.
Monday
Make sure to pick a property that is in a good location and is affordably priced. This will help attract potential buyers to your open house.
. Make a post on your personal social media platforms about an upcoming open house event. The goal is to generate interesting content for your followers and keep yourself at the forefront of their minds.
Canva can help you create flyers and door hangers for your open house event.
These designs were all created using Canva
Tuesday
. 1. During this market intelligence session, take 20 minutes to become familiar with recent sales in the area, schools, restaurants, community issues, and events.
Make sure you have plenty of materials printed up to advertise your open house. This includes flyers with all the relevant information about the house and your contact information, as well as door hangers to hang on nearby houses. You should print out a lot of flyers and door hangers to advertise your open house. The flyers should have all the relevant information about the house and your contact information. The door hangers should be hung on nearby houses.
and attach to sign Put a sign rider that says “Open 1 PM – 4 PM Saturday” on your open house sign, and attach it to the sign.
Wednesday
to design this document. Prepare a document with answers to commonly asked questions about your home. This document can be professionally designed or simply formatted. Use information from your home and from your market intelligence session to design this document.
You will need to prepare a hook and draw in order to fish. A hook is a sharpened piece of metal that is attached to a fishing line. The hook is used to catch the fish. A draw is a device that is used to pull the fish onto the shore.
Thursday
Launch a Facebook and Instagram ad only to people who are in the community/area where you will be hosting your open house. Use your hook and draw to entice people to attend. Run the ad for three days.
2. Pick up printed materials and door hangers
from. 3. Choose where you will be getting your food and drinks from (if you plan on having them at the open house).
Friday
1. Deliver the door hangers to the neighbors
2. Gather your open house materials
Announcing our upcoming open house! Come see our new models and get a feel for the community on Saturday, August 10th from 10 am – 2 pm. Make sure to share our open house event on your personal social media channels(Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.)!
Print out your most recent sales figures and market data sheets. Having physical copies of these documents will help you keep track of your progress and analyze your marketing strategies.
5. Print a REALTOR information page
Saturday
It is important to be aware of the other properties on the market in the area so that you can provide accurate information to buyers.
Pick up some food and non-alcoholic drinks from a local shop. Local coffee shops are great!
3. Set up signs
Post a social media video of your setup process and invite guests to take a video tour.
5. Set up signing sheets and/or open house app
6. Prepare open house scripts
7. Hold Open House!
The strategy below refers to the need to follow up with each person that signed in at open house.
Sunday
Make sure to add all names into your database, setting a reminder to follow up with them weekly for the first month, bi-weekly for the second month, and monthly for the third to sixth months. Use a follow-up script like, “I just wanted to follow up to make sure I wasn’t dropping the ball.”
10 Open House Ideas That Will Actually Get You Leads
1. Live Stream Your Open House
If you want to give potential clients the feeling of being at your open house without actually being there, you should live stream it. The best time to start the live stream is when the house is already filled with people. This will create more interest and bring more people in. It’s like MTV cribs for selling a house, as Gary Vaynerchuk, an online marketing guru, told us. You should walk around with your phone or tablet to show off the best features of the home and the flow of the house. Too many agents just focus on one room. The best live stream should be at least 10 minutes long so that you have plenty of time to walk around the yard and show off the amenities. You want as many people as possible to feel like they can envision themselves in the home.
2. Use Your Open House Marketing to Build Your Personal Brand
As a real estate agent, you should take your open house marketing seriously as it reflects your personal brand. People are more likely to trust and resonate with your brand if you take the time to market it properly.
If you want to do your real estate marketing yourself, there are many tools you can use to create templates, flyers, and banners. Furthermore, it would be excellent to have a personal hand in marketing your brand because you better understand your values and objectives. No one knows you better than you, so who better to help tell your story?
3. Rearrange the Home Virtually and Send it to Your Open House Visitors
An idea that can be beneficial to us was given to us by a top notch Manhattan real estate agent. It is vital to use what they perceive their dream home should look like to our advantage. Helping to fuel their imagination by showing them pictures of different uses for each room in the house virtually staged with different styles and décor. The more versatile a home looks, the more appealing it will be to buyers.
4. Drop the Alcohol
. The possibility of free alcohol is a great way to get people to come to an event, but it’s usually best if the event doesn’t actually have any alcohol. If the event is invite-only, then having some alcoholic drinks is fine, but if it’s open to the public, it’s better to not have any.
5. Following Up is Everything
The simple act of following up with people after an open house can be powerful, but the challenge is finding the right people to follow up with so you don’t end up wasting your time. Some people use predictive apps like SmartZip, kvCORE, or BoomTown to identify leads, as they use billions of data points to generate their recommendations.
6. Focus on the Features That Makes Your Listing Stand Out
There are always houses on the market, so to make your listing stand out, focus on the essential features of the house. Talk about unique things like a huge yard, or the proximity to parks and social amenities. Focus on the things that make the property stand out, and don’t be afraid to sell it!
7. Use the Neighbors to Your Advantage
Before holding an open house, it can be helpful to let the neighbors know in advance. People are often more likely to give you a referral if they know the person they’re buying a house from, so this can be a valuable way to connect with potential buyers. To do this, you can invite the neighbors to the open house in person. We suggest doing this for the 10 nearest houses on both sides of the street.
8. Work with Other Agents
Having another agent from your office hold an open house for you is a great way to increase your brand awareness and attract new clients. You can also use this opportunity to increase your own knowledge of a new area orzip code. By holding an open house for another agent, you can learn more about the local market and get experience working with new clients. You may also be able to negotiate a referral fee for any new clients you bring in as a result of the open house.
9. Turn it Into a Garage Sale
The sellers need to declutter their house anyways, so why not work with them to advertise their garage sale? You can make homemade signs or posters to put around the neighborhood to let people know about the garage sale. That will increase foot traffic, and then you can bring them in to show them the house. Even if they aren’t interested in buying, they will likely have a direct referral for you or know someone who is.
10. Use Facebook and Instagram Stories to Promote Your Open House
Our idea was to use a live stream to showcase your open house. You can use the stories function to promote the live stream beforehand. This method is very hands-on because people can quickly reply and send you a DM to inquire more about it. They can reach out to find where the open house is, and tag their friends and family on social media who might be looking in the area.
Summary
Congrats! So let us summarize the entire things we said here:
? Use social media to your advantage
? Follow-up is key!
? Feed your buyers’ imagination
? Think about the needs of your guests
? Work with other real estate agents
? Be creative with your signs
? Think outside the box
