Before I begin, I need to let you know my bias. I have never been a fan of specific date and time generated real estate agent Open Houses. Nevertheless, in my many years in business I've given up many of my Saturday and Sunday afternoons hoping that my listing and a prospective buyer might find each other, when otherwise they wouldn't have.
Let me quantify that. Since Patty and I have been living in Dallas for the past five years, I've held at least thirty Open Houses. I've sold one house as a result, and that was to a fellow with a broker's license who insisted his purchase be a co-op sale. Since he wasn't an active broker, he had chosen to not join an association of Realtors, consequently, he was not a member of the Dallas area MLS.
Apparently he felt that going through Open Houses was the only way he'd find a home without the use of a Realtor buyer's agent.
As has been happening for about a year, more often than not the public Open Houses I've held in Highland Park, admittedly my listings priced at more than $1.5 million, have gotten no more than two or three lookers at each.
Several times I've gotten none at all.
Last Sunday, about a half-hour before my Open House was to end, a couple rang the doorbell. So far they were my only lookers, and it turned out they would be my last lookers.
They told me that they started their Open House home tour just before 2, the time that most Open Houses begin. Here's what they had found:
- Several were not open when they got there. They speculated that the agent had either decided to not open it at all, or had closed up and gone home when he/she wasn't satisfied with the traffic.
- Several - and they were furnished and being lived in by owners - had been left open for any who came by to be able to tour without anyone there to accompany them. In other words, the agent had unlocked the door, turned on the lights and left.
I'm not certain what the lessons are here, even if there are any, but it's certain that there were a substantial number of agents who had Open Houses in Highland Park last Sunday who felt no benefit would be gained.
As I have and always will, my listing was clean, neat, lights on and ready for visitors at 2 PM sharp. I was fully dressed in coat and tie, and was there throughout the entire time to be able to personally greet and show off the home to any and all who may come. And even though I went for an hour and a half without one visitor, nevertheless, I did not begin turning off the lights and closing up until the clock had struck 4 PM.
Our signs, mail-outs and ads had said that the house would be open for those two hours, and inferred that I would be there the entire time to show the home. I was.
BILL CHERRY, REALTORS
DALLAS - PARK CITIES
Our 45th Year
214 503-8563
Bill,
Presentation is everything and you made the difference! Congrats!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Such stories help reinforce my resistance to performing them and also realize the limited effectiveness Open Houses can have depending on local market factors.
I still encourage agents to hold Open House events, as long as the seller agrees to vacate for the afternoon.
Well advertised and located Open House works.
Some folks just do not want to work with an agent. Some agents just want to hand their buyer/clients a stack of cards and tell them to "hit the road", find the home and then call me.
It goes with the territory and we just take what opportunity presents to sell a listing.
Success??? For me?? I would estimate about one in ten homes sell at Open House.
If you are going to hold an open house at least you should be there. We do caravans and try to organize multiple open houses where the prospects get a card stamped and at the last house we have a drawing . Advertising is also key
I can't believe someone would leave an open house without coverage. That is outrageous.
Yvette, Charlie, Lenn, Michele and Mike --
I have long been a critic of the NAR's lax criteria for membership. Basically the things you have to have are a license, the money to join and pay dues, and sit through an ethics class. The NAR leaves it up to the appropriate states' licensing departments as to how much or little education agents have, and how much responsibility they place on the individual brokers to train and monitor those salespersons under their license.
It is outrageous in and of itself that, at least in Texas, people walk out of Quick Learn the Test classes, take and pass the state examination, sign up with a broker, pay their Realtor dues and are then deemed equal to all others, even those who have years of experience and have, on their own, taken years of continuing real estate continuing education classes.
In these cases that were reported to me by the visitors to our last Sunday's Open House, I don't know who the offending agents were nor which companies they represented. I do know they didn't work for me.
I wonder what each of the agent's Errors and Omissions carriers would do --- other than have a massive coronary --- if they knew the exposure these agent to law suits had taken on?
At least one of the offenders, you can bet, runs ads where he/she claims to have been voted the #1 Realtor in Dallas by D Magazine. Another bunch of nonsense that has no more basis than who the magazine says is the best shoe repair shop.