This week we give you the inside scoop on why we believe the old fashioned humble open house done in a thoroughly modern way is an effective marketing tool and helps sellers ensure they get top dollar on their home sale. After over 3000 sales, we have some good insight to share. If we can help you in any way, give us a call at 703-822-0207. We’d love to help you.
Open houses, hot or not? In or out? Old school or new school? Today we’re gonna tell ya.
We wrote seven things out here that we think are benefits to open houses and I know that sometimes there’s people that, they don’t want their neighbors to go through their house. They don’t want people that can’t afford their house going through their house and maybe they have tables of all these little fragile glass items that they don’t want broken. We totally get that and if somebody doesn’t want an open house, no issue there, but we think that it’s really a benefit, so we’ve got seven things to share with you today, so hit it off, Jim.
Benefit #1: Focus on that launch weekend
It’s getting more exposure for the property because not only are we gonna be putting the listing and property information online, but actually advertising the open house, putting it on all the online sites, doing social media, really just blasting it out there and getting it in front of as many potential buyers that we can.
Benefit #2: Social Media Marketing and Videos
It used to be that we would just put an ad in the Washington Post, blow up some balloons, and just hope people showed up. And now, we do all the old school things, but, as Jim said, we’re doing videos, we’re putting it on kinds of different channels of social media and so our open houses are super well-attended and what’s that doing is increasing exposure for the sellers.
Benefit#3: Creating a sense of urgency & fear of loss for potential buyers
This is one of Jim’s favorites. A lot of potential clients, they might come through with their realtor on Friday, Saturday, and they’re coming back for another look on Sunday. They bring some family, want a second opinion. They go in there and there’s 10, 15 groups going around, seem really interested in the property, that’s gonna create that sense of urgency, make them go oh, I might have to put in a better offer, really put my best foot forward. That’s gonna increase the demand and, ultimately, what the seller might get for the property.Exactly, they’re thinking if I don’t step up to the plate, maybe one of these other people going through will.
Benefit #4: Cross-promote listings
We cross-promote our listings, so we had three people through yesterday who the house just wasn’t right for them, so it’s not like we can sell them a house that didn’t match what they needed and so we told them about three homes that we have coming soon that are gonna be on the market. One of them’s this week and the next couple weeks are gonna be the other two. Maybe those homes are right for them and maybe your home will be the beneficiary of some buyer we met at a previous open house. Or even open houses that are the same time. We might tell them about one that’s around the corner or maybe even outside of the range they were thinking that they just didn’t even realize might be a good fit.
Benefit #5: Keep home clean & pristine
And then also, a lot of sellers, as Tom said, they’re worried about people coming through, maybe getting the property dirty. We’re making sure we have booties in the property. We have signs, let people know take off your shoes. We’re keeping an eye on that to make sure that the home is left how we got there. Exactly, I wear my thickest socks to an open house knowing I’m gonna be walking around in my socks for two hours.
Benefit #6: Community and upgrade knowledge
Another benefit is that we know a lot about the community and we know a lot about each home that we’re in, so we can share upgrades and the years that they were done and how much it cost and commuter routes, how far it is to the grocery store. Those kinds of things with potential buyers that they don’t even know, maybe they’re out of town and here for a house hunting trip and a lot of times their agent has no clue of, so it really helps to let them know the benefits of the house.
Benefit #7: Quick feedback and gauge interest
And then lastly is it helps get quick feedback and kind of gauge interest from the market. Any agents that show the property to their client, we’re reaching out to them to get feedback, but they’re sometimes a little bit more coy, not giving us all the information, just in case their client might be interested, whereas we have somebody walking through on a Saturday or Sunday open house, they’re gonna be a lot more candid with their feedback, comparing it to other ones they’ve seen, what they think about it at that price point, and things that the seller might be able to do to improve it a little bit. It helps us get that quick feedback and see if we might need to reposition or readjust a little bit early on in the process.
So, hopefully you’ll agree that these are some persuasive benefits to having an open house and if you’re thinking about selling your home, we’d sure love to work with you. Give our office a call, 703-822-0207.
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