Improve Your Open House Opportunities

By Mark Whitmer, Regional Services Director - CENTURY 21

Open houses can be extremely effective in getting buyer leads, yet so many agents never realize the potential, nor do they spend the time preparing for success.

If your business purpose is to create customers and convert them to clients, then logically, there is only one justification for holding an open house in the first place...to create SALES.

Tips to guarantee you get the most out of every open house.

Contact every person in the neighborhood. Tell them that you are holding a VIP open house and that they are invited. Make it at a time before the public shows up and tell them that. Use a card-style invitation then follow-up with a phone call. (Obtain a list of filtered phone numbers from your title company to make sure their not on the DNC list)

Use an effective script. One that enrolls them into the action you want them to take:

"Hi, this is ___ with Century 21 ___... the reason I'm calling is we are holding an open house at your neighbor's home on (date) from (time to (time). I would like to invite you to come out and preview the property. By the way who do you know who would like to live in your neighborhood? (Wait for answer) Thank you for your time, I hope you can come visit us on (date).

At the open house you have an opportunity to make your open house an experience to remember. Many open houses are so boring that they make a poor impression.

Create an experience. In its purest sense… Have appropriate music playing in the background. Use as many of the senses you can to stimulate your visitors. Ask them to sign-in (gather their data; email address, etc) and offer a premium to do so like a Starbucks card, a report of some kind or a gift that will make an impression. What would you expect from a sensational hotel, for example?

Follow-up. Use a great follow-up script that asks great questions that will lead to setting an appointment. Ask questions like: "So, when do you plan on moving?”, “How long have you lived in the area?”, “Where did you move from?”, “If you were to move, where would you go next?”, “And when would that be?”… Remember, sales can make you a living, and skills can make you a fortune!

Meet people - Add Value. This is a critical part of business that most people overlook. You see, it's not in the advertising of the open house as much as it is the goal of meeting people, adding value, and digging for motivation so that you can be in the position to help them.

We can only do business with people who trust us. Therefore, we need to get to know more people.

Create more customers. In everything we do our job is to do one thing…create more customers. The only way we do that is to get more appointments and more signed contracts.