OPEN HOUSE MYTHS

 

Ahh, Open Houses. When most people think about selling a house, usually one of the first things that comes to mind is an Open House. “It’s what is needed”, “the Realtor© should hold one every weekend until it is sold”, “it is incremental marketing for my house”, etc… Well, you may be quite surprised that an Open House is truly not what it’s all cracked up to be.

Myth #1: Open Houses Are Very Necessary and Effective
The short answer: no. In fact, with the current market as it is (VERY HOT), an open house isn’t even necessary! Did you (I) just say an Open House isn’t necessary?! Yes, yes I did… well, I typed it. Statistics show that the vast majority of home sales are from buyers who privately view your home via their Realtor©. In fact, some Realtors© don’t hold Open Houses. But why, why Anton? Let’s look at this from a real world, logical stand point… Our time is very valuable to us and with Open Houses having such a short window of prime time, in conjunction with knowing the offer due date and having access to your house via their Realtor at any given time, buyers usually schedule the viewing of the house when it is most convenient for them. Since time for humans is valuable and a Realtor© is human, believe it or not, the Realtor© may utilize that would be Open House time to something that is more useful, for this reason, some Realtors© do not hold Open Houses. Additionally, as stated above, the home is not likely to sell to anyone who walks through the doors at your Open House.

Myth #2: Open House Visitors Are All Qualified Buyers
No way Jose, far from it as a matter of fact. Since your open house is literally open to the world, people do not need to be qualified to enter your home. Neighbors that are bored that day, passing visitors who are thinking of buyer or selling (in the future), window shoppers or the people who are just simply nosy. I will state that every buyer who views your home outside of the Open House times, with a Realtor© is a qualified buyer or a soon to be qualified buyer. The Realtor© who is showing their clients your house off Open House hours makes sure their clients are qualified. This is because they do not want to be wasting their time showing unqualified buyers any house.

Myth #3: Open House’s Don’t Pose Any Security Risk
Open Houses definitely pose a security risk. I cannot stress this enough. Not only is it a security risk for your belongings but also for the personal belongings to the Realtor©. Story time! About a month ago all of the Intero Realtor© get a group email about one of our fellow agents’ experience at her Open House. Two 20+ aged females entered her Open House, posing as potential buyers. Both of them asked to be shown around, during the showing, one of the two girls broke away momentarily. She managed to find the Realtors© purse and stole multiple credit cards. The Realtor© did not notice this until after the Open House. When she looked at her bank and credit card transactions, sure enough, there were large bogus transactions the two girls managed to conduct. Yikes!

In sum: There is always a security risk with Open Houses and you should always put all valuables, especially small valuables such as laptops and jewelry, locked up.

 

Myth #4: Open House’s Are More Beneficial for the Realtor©
Well, after reading all of the other previous myths, why do Open House’s exist? Well, I’m not going to sugar coat anything here, your Open House is way more beneficial for your Realtor© than it is to the sale of your home. Your Realtor© sets their Open House signs out, which not coincidentally has their name and possibly the picture of themselves on the Open House signs, they are also now in front of people who may be thinking of selling or buying in the future. All of this equates to more exposure and potential clients for your Realtor©. If your Realtor© tells you otherwise, I can truly tell you that there is some gray area within their statement. Let’s think about it for a few seconds, here are the facts:

• Less than 2% of home sales are from Open House visitors (very slightly beneficial to the sale)
• Your personal items are at a security risk (not beneficial to the sale)
• The majority of the Open House visitors are not currently qualified buyers (not so beneficial to the sale)
• Open House visitors maybe in the market to buy or sell in the future (beneficial for you Realtor©)

Need I say more?

Open House Myth’s Conclusion:
With all of these debunked myths and the negative features of an open house + the fact that the Realtor© benefits more than the sale of your house, Open Houses are surprisingly not obsolete, yet. One of the key statements that I made was that “less than 2%” of Open House visitors are the buyers of Open Houses. Given so, any possibility of finding a buyer for your house is definitely worth exploring. In this case, holding an Open House for your home gives you a less than 2% chance of finding a buyer. Yeah, that is not a promising percentage, nonetheless, there is a slight possibility. However, if your Realtor© does not conduct an Open House, this isn’t something to be all up in arms about. I wanted to debunk these Open House myth’s as well as tone down the effectiveness of holding an Open House so you do not have some very high expectations of the results of an Open House. So, after your Realtor© holds your Open House, if he or she does, and they report back to you with very minimal results, this will definitely not reflect the outcome of the sale of your home. Keep calm, rock on!

 

About Author

Anton Bion is an experienced California Bay Area Realtor© that brings far more innovation to the sales of his listings. Anton has personally developed Interactive Listing™, a software platform that attracts more buyers and ultimately more offers by empowering buyers to digitally and instantly implement upgrades to the listing. This is a giant leap in technology within the Real Estate industry. Anton can be reached via email at Anton@MyCalifornia.Property or by phone: (408)460-6794. Thinking about buying or selling a home? Contact me and I will show you my extensive Sales and Marketing Plan. After an interview with me, I guarantee you will be 100% comfortable with me and my dynamic tactics.

There are One Comment in this post

  1. Michaelmom

    Greetings! Very helpful advice within this post! It’s the little changes that produce the most important changes. Thanks for sharing!
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    Reply

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