Open House – Why have one?
Sunday was my last open house of the year! Although the last couple of weeks have been busier than the last month, the nearer we get to Christmas the quieter it gets. BUT Sunday I had a great open house! We advertised on Craig’s List, Realtor.com, RealtorHarb.com GlendaleRealEstateAgent.com and then print advertising, LA Times, Outlook and Leader Newspress.
Although I placed open house signs, most of the people that came did so because of an ad. This is always my preference, because I feel that if you read the ad, you are aware of the price and the size of the home; whereby if you follow directional signs you don’t have a clue as to what the house is comprised of. Often the buyer will drop in because they like the look of the exterior, but we are often drawn to what we can’t afford.
AND what is with all of the open house signs - is this joke? It is ridiculous! How many signs does one house require??? I counted corners with 5 and 6 different real estate signs.
Open House Hours – how does a Realtor determine which hours to hold a house open? How long is “long enough”? I have come to the conclusion that two hours is long enough; 2-4 PM seem like the best hours; in the winter it is getting dark @ 5 PM anyway. If someone wants to see a home it is fairly easy; they pick up the phone and call the Realtor, so sitting at a house waiting four or five hours for people to come in off the street has always seemed ridiculous to me. I want a busy open house, I don’t want lag time, and I want a constant stream of visitors. The more crowded my open house is the less apt someone is to steal something or to try to kill me!
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9/9/2008 9:11 AM
Los Angeles Real Estate Blog wrote:
I had an interesting question this morning, apparently this potential client caught the KTLA news blurb regarding the mother-daughter burglars preying on Pasadena open houses. Her home is not on the market, but she was appalled. There are two types of open houses: *Broker’s Caravan (or Broker’s Tour), primarily attended by Realtors. The Broker’s open is typically held when the listing is new, during this open house there are often a lot of Realtors coming and going. As a Realtor, we recognize suspicious behavior and I have never heard of problems during a ...
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