 Posted 2/28/2008 10:13:43 AM
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We are considering hosting one or more open houses to sell our home (in a midwestern neighborhood). Does anyone have experience to say if they work or not?
My impression is that attendees typically aren't as serious and may not have their financing in place. Do realtors host open houses as a legitimate way to sell the home, or are they more interested in getting a list of potential clients to eventually help buy homes in the near future? I don't want to commit to several hours every few weeks and a bunch of traffic if it is a long shot to get a buyer this way.
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Posted 3/26/2008 3:24:07 PM
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| We've been debating the same issue and I would like to get other people's feedback regarding their experiences. I hate the idea of loading up the van with the kids and the pets for a few hours when it is possible that no one will show up other than nosy neighbors. I also would like to feel like we are doing everything in our power to market our house aggressively, so I am really torn on the issue.
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Posted 3/26/2008 6:53:02 PM
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Indy Jeff,
Having sold our house in east TN several months ago (FSBO), I completely understand your question about hosting an Open House. Will it pay off with an offer? Is it a waste of time? We were also in a neighborhood with about 12 other houses for sale by realtors. This did not include new houses either. We hosted only 2 Open Houses for the reasons you're concerned with, however we also coordinated ours with the other Open Houses in the neighborhood. That way we did no advertising other than an Open House sign in the yard, and one in the neighborhood entrance.
We also laminated a home-computer made sign "Realtors Welcome" to put on top of the Open House sign in our yard. (The lamination is for better weathering) Our first offer was with a realtor that we negotiated a flat fee of about 1%. It fell through, but we kept in touch with some other serious contenders that we closed the deal with.
To answer your question directly... if your house has just been put on the market in the last few weeks, I'd recommend having at least one coordinated with any others in your neighborhood. A possible second if traffic dramatically slows, but not a third. It's just too much time and effort for the slim likelihood of an offer.
This is my first response on this site, so I hoped it helped just a littel bit.
Thanks,
Allen
FSBO Plus !
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Posted 4/9/2008 9:48:45 AM
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When we first listed our house FSBO, we hosted 2 Open Houses. Both were on days when our neighbors were having an open house. They were about 3-5 hours long. The first open house, NO ONE EVEN SLOWED DOWN! Yep! 4 hours, and not a sincle looker!
The second open house, we had slightly better luck. Only slightly though. No one came the whole day. Just as we were about to pack it up and end it, someone slowed down. I waved her over to come look. She parked her big SUV well up into our new lawn instead of using the large circular driveway. She collected a flyer, than literally RAN through each and every room in the house. The visit took 90 seconds, maybe 2 full minutes.
After her sprint through my house, she left her SUV parked in our yard and ran across the street to the neighbor's open house, where she continued her speed viewing. Less than 2 minutes later, she climbed into her SUV and drove off, leaving ruts in our yard! The ruts were the only evidence that anyone even came to the open house, as we never saw or heard from the woman again.
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