Inspiration

The Benefit of Open Houses

RAT 45 (Rawlings Agency Tips)

Open Houses are hugely popular with overseas estate agents, and they are becoming increasingly popular here in the UK – and with good reason. They bring a number of benefits to your business – and you might be surprised that it’s not just about selling the house on show!

I’ve conducted over a hundred open houses. They are hard work. But the dividends are brilliant. Let’s just look at what an open house actually is. An open house is where, for perhaps three hours on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon one of your instructions is open to the public and manned by you or one of your staff. Most of the visitors will of course be nosey neighbours – but that’s fine! More about them in a moment.

An open house should receive priority advertising and massive temporary board coverage – in fact, the board coverage is perhaps the greatest benefit. Because an open day is your excuse to cover your area with pointer boards. These are like “for sale” signs, but smaller, probably with the words “open house” on them. They appear on numerous roundabouts and road intersections locally and have an arrow literally pointing in the direction of the show house. Part of the hard work is getting up early and staking these in verges, or securing them to lampposts, trees and telegraph poles.

And hey presto – what do you then have – in terms of local board presence you have an apparently massively increased market share – just what you always wanted. And it’s at the weekend – just when Mr and Mrs local homeowner are visiting friends or, going shopping. And who do they see as the most proactive local agent? You! They can’t fail to notice you. I also used to put up flags and bunting at the house itself to really draw attention to the event. Not very British I hear you say, but the idea it to be memorable and different. The alternative is to do nothing and remain average!

And I personally wouldn’t be too worried about the board planning regulations, because you will have taken them down the same afternoon, so it’s a non-issue by the time the planning people get into work on Monday morning.

So who comes to the open house? Everyone and his wife, or possibly nobody! In some ways it doesn’t really matter. The client is impressed, and the locals see your boards. However, if you’re good, you’ll actually send an invitation to all the neighbours within say five streets of the house on show. This invitation is like an advance “sold in your street” card and effectively says “we’ve just taken on a house like yours – why not come and have a look?”.

Remind the client that neighbours are an excellent source of buyers, and such viewings should be encouraged. A particular upside of this is the number of neighbours who are prompted to sell themselves as a result of seeing a show house. It gets the mind working and can be a tipping point. And you’ll be in pole position to pick up the instruction as you will have engaged them in conversation.

You can also use open houses to secure an instruction. On an appraisal, tell the client that if they can go ahead today, you’ll be able to secure an extra large local advert in support of your recommendation for an open house. Even if they don’t want to do an open house, at least they know you’re keen and are prepared to be proactive on their behalf.

Obviously you’ll need to keep an eye on security at the property, so do ask to see people’s ID, which of course is a great way of getting their contact details! You can also take the opportunity of asking them if they would like to receive details of other properties, or your report on price trends in the area, newsletter etc. It’s all part of being active in developing local awareness of your agency, what you do, and who you are.

Oh yes- you might just sell the house as well! Give it a go!

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© Richard Rawlings 2010
Richard Rawlings is the founding director of Estate Agency Insight, which specialises in helping estate agencies harness opportunity through innovative method, marketing, publicity, and training. He can be contacted at or on 0845 838 1354.

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