One of the best activities I did for my business was an open house and it never failed me and should never fail you if done correctly. An open house will always be one of the top ways an agent can generate business because face to face lead generation is where most of us are at our best. This is the best opportunity for the consumer to meet you and get to know you and with enough skill they will even like and trust you.
So what was my goal for an open house? My number one goal was to capture a contacts Name, Email and Cell number and win the right to meet with them for an appointment outside of my open house and share solutions to their challenges in today’s market place. Some of you may say Wade the goal is selling the listing you're hosting an open house at, and I say "yes I get it" and I also say “The blind squirrel does find a nut once in a while” but focus on contact capture and setting the appointment.
So where do we start?
Setting The Stage – Pre Open House Strategies
- Select properties on salability, location, traffic, curb appeal, condition, style, area, price.
- Choose the date a week or two out to properly plan for the event.
- Consider working the open house with another agent to be able to control the crowds.
- Preview and tour the home and comparable homes, so you really know your market.
- Decide about food, beverage and entertainment for the event.
- Strategize where the public looks for open houses online and offline to generate more traffic. Check out www.preopenhouse.com
- The day and time will not matter if you have prepared and marketed the event properly.
- Post a sign rider on the property for sale sign for the week or two prior to the event.
- **POWER TIP** Market and advertise only the start time of your opens. Open @ or Open from …… This will make people call you and leave you their name and number ( lead capture) to ensure you don’t leave before they have arrived and you will call them when leaving. You also now can leave if nobody comes within an hour and not be held hostage to an open house that has nobody attending. Make sense?
- Join forces with other agents and other listings in the area to drive your activity and traffic count up for the open house.
- Announce your open house event using Facebook Live, Email your database, Social media posts.
- Door knock and invite all the neighbors in the area of the open house and have them come to the open 15 minutes prior to the public start time. When the public arrives the open house will already have the neighbors there and creates a buzz and hype for the public arrival thinking this is a hot listing with traffic arriving early.
- Drop a post card or door hanger invitation for the surrounding neighborhood when someone is not home to be invited in person.
- Door knock the Expired listings and for sale by owners around your open house listing and offer to show their properties and give them a taste of how hard you work to market homes.
So there you have some of the pre open house strategies and I trust some of these will help you plan better or consider making adjustments to what you are already doing. Don’t hesitate to share in the comments below some of your own strategies, we would love to hear from you!!
Strength and courage,
Wade
