9 Open House No-No’s

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When buying a home, there may be no single event as important as the open house. Attending an open house gives you the opportunity to see, feel, and experience the home for yourself, far beyond what’s possible from looking at photos, taking digital tours, or driving by on a sunny afternoon. The open house is when you really get to find out whether you can see yourself living in the home or not. 

But if you want to get the most from an open house, there are some things to keep in mind (and some costly mistakes you’ll want to avoid). Not only is it possible to cost yourself money at an open house, but in some (rare) instances, a seller might not even entertain an offer based on somebody’s behavior at the open house. 

So if you want things to go smoothly, and want the best opportunity to buy your dream house, here are nine things you should never do at an open house: 

1. Keep your shoes on when you’ve been asked to take them off

No one likes to walk around without shoes on, especially in somebody else’s home. But as an open house guest, you need to respect the seller’s instructions. If you refuse, you might be asked to leave, and blow your chance at landing an accepted offer. 

2. Let your children roam around unattended 

Parenting is difficult, and bringing your kids along with you to an open house is understandable—after all, they’ll be living there too. But when touring an open house, make sure to keep an eye on your children, because, as we all know, they tend to get into things, and a packed home is full of all sorts of interesting items. A good rule of thumb is to just pretend that you’re at a museum. 

3. Loudly make negative comments about the house

We all have opinions, especially when it comes to a house that we’re considering paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for. But keep your negative opinions between you, your partner, and your agent, because if the seller’s agent overhears you, they might not only feel insulted, they’re likely to relay the comments to the seller, who might not take them too kindly if you put in an offer. 

4. Pry into the seller’s personal belongings 

Being allowed into someone’s home for an open house does not give you carte blanche to go through their personal stuff, no matter how intriguing it might be. Opening dresser drawers, touching clothing, pulling back bedding, and rifling through bookcases is a no-no, and violators are likely to be asked to leave. You’re there to see a property, not personal property. 

5. Overshare 

Unless you’re a trained spy, you probably don’t think too much about tempering your speech when chatting with strangers. But an open house is an exception, and you might want to consider what you’re revealing during conversations with (and around) seller’s agents. Even though talking about how much you’re pre-approved for, where your kids go to school, how desperately you need a new home, or that your lease is ending soon might seem harmless, it can put you in a poor position when you begin negotiations, so act accordingly. 

6. Make an offer

Even if you absolutely love the house and would be willing to give up a kidney for the chance to live there, you don’t want to make an offer during the open house. Not only would this be out of the norm, but it would also reveal your eagerness and put you in a position of weakness during negotiations. So even if you’re absolutely obsessed, take a deep breath, step outside, and regroup with your agent and your loved ones before making a decision. 

7. Spend too little time there (if you’re interested) 

There’s no need to spend hours at an open house, but if you walk in and walk right out, you might be doing yourself a disservice. To be sure, sometimes you know that it’s not a fit right away, but if you dolike it, there’s nothing wrong with spending some time looking around and taking in the details. At the very least, it might help you remember the little things that you’ll be thinking about once you start planning to move

8. Lie about your intentions 

Some people like to play games, but there’s really no upside to being disingenuous about your intentions during an open house (or after). Whether you’re just there to look, or are truly serious about making an offer, don’t present yourself otherwise. Not only is it bad form, but word can travel a lot quicker than you might think, and the next time you want to be taken seriously, you might not be. 

9. Show too much enthusiasm 

When we love a property, it can be difficult to contain our excitement, especially if we’re not used to playing our cards close to the chest. The open house, however, is one occasion when you’ll want to put on your poker face and play it cool. If you show too much enthusiasm, the seller’s agent (and therefore the seller) will know that you’ll do just about anything to get the house—and that’s not the position you want to be in. 

We are happy to attend an open house with you! Just reach out – Kevin and Jennifer Hanley, REALTORS 904-515-2479 HanleyHomeTeam.com The Hanley Home Team of Keller Williams Realty Atlantic Partners Southside

Do Open Houses work…Or are they a waste of time?

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There are definite reasons to hold open houses, and reasons to not. Read more to evaluate your best course of action!

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels.com

When you hire a real estate agent to sell your home, one of the first things they’ll suggest is hosting an open house so that potential buyers can casually check out your property on a weekend afternoon. But while open houses are promoted by agents as a great way of finding a buyer, a US study by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that the success rate of open houses is a mere 2% to 4%. Similar studies in other countries have mirrored these results.

That means out of 100 open houses, only 2 to 4 homes are purchased by buyers who came through the open house. Of course, the vast majority of open houses are not conducted well, and many are unnecessary. Out of 100 open houses, perhaps only 20 are done correctly. 

They’re held at the wrong times, wrong days of the week, wrong times of the year. They are not marketed effectively, the homes are not prepared, and the agents are unskilled at communicating value to potential buyers. Eliminating the 80 useless open houses would make the purchase percentages look more like 10% to 20% of homes being sold on open house. In other words, the chances of selling your house based on an open house are higher if the open house is done well, according to best practices. 

Consumer sentiment about open houses has waxed and waned over the years, along with the ups and downs of the real estate market. In 1995, 41% of sellers tried open houses to sell their homes, according to data from NAR. By 2000, it had dropped to 28%. Beginning in 2003, however, as the market started to heat up again, that number began rising. By 2014, 51% of all sellers were using open houses, though not all agreed they were effective. 

Some 45% of sellers have recently found open houses only “somewhat useful” and another 12% didn’t consider them useful at all, according to the NAR. This is survey data, so there is no evaluation of what those sellers meant by “useful” and “somewhat useful.”

So with all the sketchy data, why do real estate agents still promote open houses as a listing and selling tool? Let’s look at a few arguments for and against open houses, and explore the pros and cons.

Reasons not to hold an Open House

There are many people—agents and consumers—who argue against open houses. Some sellers just don’t like the idea of random people and neighborhood “lookie-loos” traipsing through their house. Some are concerned about theft. 

Some agents are concerned about their own safety when holding an open house, especially in out-of-the-way locations. Some agents consider it a waste of their time, based on the low potential results…they’d rather be managing other aspects of their business (or golfing) during that time. 

One of the main arguments used by sellers and the general public against open houses is that agents only use them to find buyers that they’ll take away to other houses. 

But this is not necessarily a bad thing. Real estate is a community product and selling it is a community event. Buyers may meet an agent at your open house, then go buy another house…but another buyer somewhere is meeting another agent at another open house, and that agent is bringing the buyer to your house. 

Open houses bring buyers out. By having an open house, you’re contributing to the overall health of the industry. As many as 45% of buyers use open houses to research the market. Many go to open houses, then discover they like the neighborhood and look for other homes in that area with their agent. Your house might be one of their “test” houses, or it may be one that they decide to buy because of another person’s open house in your neighborhood. It’s a network.

Reasons to Hold an open house

In addition to being part of a network of buyers and home sellers, consider these five additional reasons to hold an open house:

1. Get “shoppers” out of the way

A lot of buyers will want to see your house as soon as it’s listed. You can quickly become overwhelmed by the repeated appointment requests. Showing your home is disruptive and quickly becomes annoying. Having to keep the place clean and be ready to vacate on the spur of the moment may seem fine for the first two days or so, but you’ll quickly lose patience. 

A better approach would be to take a day trip away from your home on the first weekend of your listing and let your agent hold an open house. 

Your agent can get a ton of those early “shoppers” through your house at one time, rather than bothering you with appointment after appointment. Most of those buyers (99.9%) will eliminate your house as an option during the open house. Some will want to view it again. And some very small percentage may want to make an offer. But the biggest reason to hold the initial open house is to get the lookie-loos and initial round of buyers out of the way. They’re just shopping, not buying.

You may want to ask your agent to hold the house open on both Saturday and Sunday of that first weekend. By doing a “new listing” open house, you won’t eliminate all appointments (some people can’t come during the open house time), but a large percentage will come during the open, and that means those people won’t be bothering you during the week to set appointments.

2. Create an “auction effect”

There is a principle in psychology called scarcity – it’s the desire that’s in all of us to want to get something valuable before someone else does. For instance, have you ever heard of a situation where more than one person was interested in a house? In those situations, there was a bidding war, where several buyers competed for the same house. In most cases like this, the house sold for more than the owners were asking – and the buyers felt great about it because they won. Someone else wanted the house, but they got it first!

Situations like this are called the auction effect. Your agent can orchestrate a sense of scarcity using an open house as the centerpiece of a plan to generate a lot of interest very quickly.  Again, this is best done at the start of the listing period, or at a significant price reduction if the house hasn’t sold yet.

3. Raise the profile of a community

While open houses may be declining in many parts of the country, some neighborhoods are finding them effective ways to raise the profile of an entire community, if a number of open houses are all done at the same time. 

Recently, four neighborhoods in the Lemon Grove area of San Diego teamed up for a joint open house with 25 of the area’s homes open for viewing on a single day. The result was that the entire area saw a spike in sales of 20%.

4. Get valuable feedback

A new listing open house is a great time to get feedback on the property. Information is valuable. Your agent should be asking things like, “How does this house compare to others you’ve been seeing?” “What do you like about the home?” “What would prevent you from making an offer?” Your agent can use different techniques to gather feedback, such as surveys, direct conversation, feedback forms, etc. 

It’s very important that you then take that information to heart. If you keep hearing the same messages over and over again, then those things are real. Those are the very things MAY prevent your home from selling for as much as you’d like, or as quickly as you like. It doesn’t hurt to listen and then have an open-minded discussion with your agent about how to remedy those issues.

Contrary to popular opinion, most agents are not trying to keep your house price artificially low in order to move it out of inventory and get paid faster. Most agents will just tell you the truth, and back it up with evidence, including comments by buyers. 

5. Showcase a unique property

In some cases, a house is just too unique to market without an open house.  Art professor Mercedes Teixido and her husband had three open houses in six weeks showcasing their Pasadena, California home. Their house, they say, was the kind you had to see to believe. “It had a unique sensibility,” Teixido said, with spacious rooms and a large amount of built-in furniture that was crafted by hand. Sometimes you have to get people into a house in order to get them to fall in love with it. Many houses in less desirable locations have sold because someone went inside on an open house and fell in love with it.

Final Word

When you hire us to represent you in the sale of your home, we’ll discuss the pros and the cons to having open houses as part of your marketing plan.

We’ll let you know what’s happening in the market—whether open houses are effective right now or not—and whether your house would benefit from open houses, given its style, price, and location.

Please call to set a listing appointment, if possible at least 2 months before your planned move. Kevin and Jennifer Hanley, REALTORS http://www.HanleyHomeTeam.com Keller Williams Realty Atlantic Partners Southside

Open House Checklist

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The run-up to an open house is as important as the event itself. Preparing yourself and others for the event is crucial to not only showcasing a property, but also building relationships with neighbors, future buyers, and people who may just provide that essential referral. One of the best ways to ensure success every time? Make a checklist of what must be done, and set up alerts on your calendar to remind you to do the tasks on your checklist.

Below is a sample checklist of a successful open house plan:

1 week before: Create flyers with date, time, and contact info for the open house, and home/mortgage info on the house. Create a Facebook Event and invite friends, fans, and prospects.

6 days before: Call all your buyers to let them know about the open house. Hang 25 flyers and 25 door-knockers around the neighborhood.

5 days before: Check on the status of the flyers. If you run into people in the neighborhood while you’re there, introduce yourself and let them know about the open house.

2 days before: Be sure you’ve memorized the house and its details, and know its floor plan well enough to give effective tours that showcase the property. Create an attractive sign-in sheet, featuring your photo and contact info, and offering a line for their own contact info (including email address!) and space for them to share where they heard about the open house.

30 minutes before: Make sure the house is clean, and smells clean (many home sprays are clean and pleasant; avoid overtly floral or scented scents, as many people are allergic or sensitive to strong scents). Place at least 4 directional signs, each with eye-catching accessories, such as balloons to grab people’s attention and pull traffic from main intersections (don’t forget the sign license as they are required in some parts of the county).

10 minutes before: Open house and front door. Put at least two signs and 4 attention-getters out front, and an “Open” rider on the sign. Play background music, preferably something instrumental and subtle, at low volume.

Within 24-hours after: Follow up with all contacts by phone or email.

From open house to open house, you’ll refine your plan. Take notes. Write down what seemed to work, and what bombed. Over time, you’ll have a custom checklist which will help you efficiently and effectively prepare for blockbuster open houses.

Open houses are a lot more work than you might think!  Need someone to help you with your open house? Get in touch! The Hanley Home Team – expert real estate agents (and open house agents!)  Kevin and Jennifer Hanley, REALTOR – Keller Williams Realty Atlantic Partners Southside 904-515-2479 http://www.HanleyHomeTeam.com

 

Should a Seller be at Home During a Showing?

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A delicate subject we sometimes have to approach with clients selling their home is the importance of steering clear of showings and open houses while prospective buyers are touring their home.

It can be touchy. After all, how do you kick someone out of their own house? Many buyers are anxious about the showing and open house process. They feel the need to hover in the wings, which I understand. There are several reasons why this is not the best idea.

Four Reasons Why Owners Sticking Around for a Showing/Open House is a Bad Idea:

1. We’ve had experiences where prospective buyers have actually passed on a showing once they’ve found out the current owners were home.

2. It’s important that buyers be able to visualize the home as “theirs already.” They need to be able to imagine living in the house, which is pretty tough to do with the owners making a sandwich in the kitchen.

3. Presence of a seller makes the prospective buyer feel guilty for “judging” the home. If the buyer isn’t given free range to evaluate the home, the doubt is enough to put them off the property entirely.

4. If all goes well, the buyer may want to stay for a time at the house and chat with the agent. This is a good sign (it means the buyer may be moving towards an offer), but with the seller present, it’s all but impossible.

We try not to offend our clients when we ask them to understand these reasons. While we empathize with the nervousness that accompanies the sales process, our goal is the smooth sale of their home. A little space for the prospective buyers is an important ingredient.

Stress-free showings are just one part of our approach to marketing your home to sell. Get in touch and we’d gladly show you what else we can do to get you top dollar for your home: Kevin and Jennifer Hanley, REALTORS – http://www.HanleyHomeTeam.com or http://www.HanleyShortSales.com