Open houses…a thing of the past?
Here’s an interesting article I found in one of my E-newsletter. It echos some of the things I have been saying for years. Statisically open houses account for less then 1% of the homes sold in the US so why would agents do them? Because it’s what they’ve done…They don’t know how else to find buyers…because it shows the homeseller that you are busy trying to sell their home.
Is that good marketing? Shouldn’t the job of an agent be to “find a buyer for that home” rather then hoping someone comes into the open house and they can afford the home or even want something like it.
Over the last two years there has been a noticable increase in negative commentary about open houses. I’ve heard “They’re a total waste of time” and “I stopped doing them years ago” but the one comment that has stuck with me the most was made by a Realtor at a recent conference. She stopped advertising open houses in newspapers and noticed the number of people attending the open house didn’t drop at all. I’m not sure if this is more a comment on the complete lack of value provided by print media or that having an open house is more about looking busy than effective marketing.
“The sellers expect it” is an oft repeated statement for doing lots of dumb things. Most commonly used to justify advertising a listing in the newspaper I have also heard it used as the reason for having an open house. The counter for both should be “But where are you looking for your next home?” The answer is almost always going to be “online”. End of argument.
To be effective, marketing has to engage; simply throwing something out there and hoping it sticks wastes time and money. For sure we have tested and proven what works to find a buyer for a home. Our marketing plan is built around finding the proper buyer for the proper home..isn’t that what homesellers really want after all?
For more information about how we find buyers for our client’s homes feel free to contact us at 623-362-3060 or visit our website at www.valleyREadvisor.com.
