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Thu 8 May, 2008 01:54 pm
I have heard mixed things about open houses. Is this is a good way to sell a home? How often should you hold an open house? My realtor thinks these are a sign of desperation (well we are getting a bit desperate) - my stager thinks these are a good thing as if you have a home that shows well it can convince some one on the fence to buy.
So assuming your home is priced low (which ours is); and shows well (ours does - we even hired a stager and have been told by various realtors); are open houses a good thing or just a waste of time? Maybe our realtor is just lazy.
I have never given in to a realtor's suggestion to hold an "open house" when selling. I always wanted to see who is coming and looking at my house. If people are interested in your house, they will make an appointment to see it.
Open houses are there for realtors to make new connections with potential buyers (not necessarily your property) and for neighbors to take a look
at your house.
I would not do it!
Open House w/ Stager - fabulous idea.
They can be time wasting but, it all depends on your guy (or gal) and you as well. Your person sounds a bit lazy to me - are you priced below market? Is your competition above/below you? Are they doing open houses? All kinds of things to take into consideration.
See if your Realtor would do a caravan at the same time? Where they bring in other realtors to get the property seen.
Well, I think it's a matter of opinion, Linkat. Personally, I think it's a lazy way to sell. If you are taken to the house by a realtor, the seller's realtor should be there, too, to answer any questions. Often that doesn't happen, so more delays occur while they find out what you want to know. Here they have a lot of those lock boxes so their realtor doesn't need to be there. I think that's a really slovenly way to sell.
When I sold my house, my realtor was there at every appointment and we didn't do any open houses.
A lot of people are looky-loos (myself included) and I didn't want a bunch of non-serious buyers through my house.
Staging is good, as is freshening up the paint, etc.
We laid out our dining table with a place setting for two, including wine glasses, had flowers in several rooms, made sure everything was gleaming and smelled nice, had the bed covers turned back invitingly, and we had classical music playing. We also planted flowering plants for the yard. I spent $7,000 repainting the outside, the kitchen and a bathroom and I'm convinced I got another $20K for it.
What are you going to do? Open house - yea or nay?
quinn1 wrote:Open House w/ Stager - fabulous idea.
They can be time wasting but, it all depends on your guy (or gal) and you as well. Your person sounds a bit lazy to me - are you priced below market? Is your competition above/below you? Are they doing open houses? All kinds of things to take into consideration.
We are priced below market - for us we bought 9 years ago so we dropped our price low. Similar style places are priced all around us, however, we are the largest size for the price except one and the one larger unit is very outdated. We have had two open houses - we planned them at the same time as another neighbor to take advantage of those going to each.
CalamityJane wrote:I have never given in to a realtor's suggestion to hold an "open house" when selling. I always wanted to see who is coming and looking at my house. If people are interested in your house, they will make an appointment to see it.
Open houses are there for realtors to make new connections with potential buyers (not necessarily your property) and for neighbors to take a look
at your house.
I would not do it!
That's fine in a market where there are lots of buyers, unfortunately in today's market you need to accomodate the buyers not the sellers.
Besides you get a list of who came to the open house.
cj, why do you want to see the people who are looking at your house?
If my house was on the market, I don't care who sees it....I've gone to open houses of neighbors, and subsequently told other people I knew who were indeed looking to buy.
I figure the more lines I have in the water, the better.
Linkat - I had them when we sold our first home...they didn't really help at all. I don't remember one person who put an offer in from those.
I do think that it is a way that realtors use to get new customers. That is how ours lassoed us. She got our name and our e-mail address and all of a sudden we started receiving e-mails of all the houses in that area. It actually was a help - but I do see it as more of a tactical thing.
but it can't hurt
quinn1 wrote:See if your Realtor would do a caravan at the same time? Where they bring in other realtors to get the property seen.
Funny you bring that up - we were going to ask him to do that.
I always thought the whole idea of an open house was to get other realtors to look at the house to begin with so that they'd know what is available when someone comes looking to buy. I don't know of any individual buyers that have ever been to one.
Chai wrote:cj, why do you want to see the people who are looking at your house?
Chai, I have had bad experiences with realtors, so I like to talk to prospective buyers. I also like to see and talk to sellers when I am interested in a new house. My last house was sold mainly because I had an opportunity
to speak to the seller and answer a lot of specific questions the realtor did
not know.
Mame wrote:Well, I think it's a matter of opinion, Linkat. Personally, I think it's a lazy way to sell. If you are taken to the house by a realtor, the seller's realtor should be there, too, to answer any questions. Often that doesn't happen, so more delays occur while they find out what you want to know. Here they have a lot of those lock boxes so their realtor doesn't need to be there. I think that's a really slovenly way to sell.
When I sold my house, my realtor was there at every appointment and we didn't do any open houses.
A lot of people are looky-loos (myself included) and I didn't want a bunch of non-serious buyers through my house.
Staging is good, as is freshening up the paint, etc.
We laid out our dining table with a place setting for two, including wine glasses, had flowers in several rooms, made sure everything was gleaming and smelled nice, had the bed covers turned back invitingly, and we had classical music playing. We also planted flowering plants for the yard. I spent $7,000 repainting the outside, the kitchen and a bathroom and I'm convinced I got another $20K for it.
What are you going to do? Open house - yea or nay?
Well we had two (each one a month a part for each other) - just wondering whether we should have another next week (that would be another about a month since the last one.
Our place is freshly painted, set table as you described, we've planted some flowers, bed done up, music and candles lit prior to make it smell nice, pretty much the way you described. We spent quite a bit as well, painting and getting things to look updated and nice. We have new hard wood floors, new tile in the kitchen, bathroom all have tile, bought new rugs and pillows and stuff to decorate living room. Rented storage to take out all the extra crap, we have professionally done walk in closets and built in closets and shelves in our laundry/storage room.
Chai wrote:cj, why do you want to see the people who are looking at your house?
If my house was on the market, I don't care who sees it....I've gone to open houses of neighbors, and subsequently told other people I knew who were indeed looking to buy.
I figure the more lines I have in the water, the better.
I don't care if the neighbors look - one let me know how nice our place shows. I prefer not to be there so that the people viewing the home are not intimidated or can envision it as theirs - not ours.
Mame wrote:If you are taken to the house by a realtor, the seller's realtor should be there, too, to answer any questions.
When I sold my house, my realtor was there at every appointment and we didn't do any open houses.
A lot of people are looky-loos (myself included) and I didn't want a bunch of non-serious buyers through my house.
Our realtor or a rep from his office is always there when there is a viewing. Honestly I don't care who looks at the place - what does it matter as long as I get a buyer?
mismi wrote:Linkat - I had them when we sold our first home...they didn't really help at all. I don't remember one person who put an offer in from those.
I do think that it is a way that realtors use to get new customers. That is how ours lassoed us. She got our name and our e-mail address and all of a sudden we started receiving e-mails of all the houses in that area. It actually was a help - but I do see it as more of a tactical thing.
but it can't hurt
whenever I go to an open house, I always give a false name and address. I don't want anyone calling me.
You are smart...that was my first experience - now I know
Linkat, if it's better than the other two on the market, the price is reduced, and it's done to the nines, I am baffled as to why it's not selling. Sounds like you're doing everything you can.
1. How many buyers came through both open houses?
2. Is the housing market depressed in that area?
3. Are you marketing to the right age group?
If Open Houses work there, then do 'em! I just prefer serious buyers (especially when done by appt) because then I don't get my hopes up. But at an Open House, who cares? You're not there, you don't know how many are coming by, and it matters not at all.
Good luck with selling it. I hear housing prices have really dropped in the States lately but probably that's a regional thing, too.
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