OPEN HOUSES

Weekly Objective: To successfully complete your first open house this weekend! This week’s plan will be as follows:

Monday: Selecting the property

Tuesday: Researching the area and property

Wednesday: Driving traffic to you open house

Thursday: Converting visitors

Friday: Final Prep for the Open House

DAY 1

Monday’s Objective: SELECTING THE PROPERTY

Choosing the right property is key to having your 1st successful open house. Here are some keys to consider.

  1. Make sure you are strategic in the property you choose. Pick a home near a major street in a densely populated area. Stay away from rural areas where traffic is minimal.
  2. Find a home with a large buyer base. Remember the average sales price is in the treasure valley is $250K.
  3. Find a home with good curb appeal.
  4. Identify a home with great listing pictures. This will come into play later in the week as you begin to advertise this property on social media and in your email blasts. Having a property that really pops visually will help you drive traffic.
  5. Select a home in an area that you know.
  6. Select a new listing. New listings are exciting and will likely get more traffic than a house that has been on the market for a while.

Action Items:  Identify prospective open house options. A couple ways to do this:

  1. Go to the Closed Facebook Group: Silvercreek Agent Forum and post that you are interested in sitting an open house this weekend.
  2. Search the MLS for active Silvercreek listing and strategically identify properties that fit the criteria listed above. Then call the listing agent to see if that agent is willing to let you host an open house.

Below is a video that summaries some of the key points in today’s lesson:

 

DAY 2

Tuesday’s Objective: To become an expert on the home you will be sitting and the area in which the property is located.

Knowing the Home:

  1. Ask the listing agent to walk the house with you and point out the house specifics, features, improvements, upgrades, plumbing, electrical, heating, roof, etc. Get ALL the information, more than what’s listed on the MLS.
  2. Have HOA costs, taxes, school districts, CC&R, shopping and neighborhood info
  3. Be an area expert. Research the area and comparable pricing, pull neighborhood comps. Try to tour other nearby ‘for sale’ homes before the open house.

Knowing the Area:

  1. Have market statistics for the area prepared and know all similar inventory.
  2. Know school districts, shopping and neighborhood info.
  3. Research the area and comparable pricing, pull neighborhood comps. Try to tour other nearby ‘for sale’ homes before the open house. This comes in handy when handling price objections. For example the home you are sitting might be $10k more than a similar property why? Is it because your property has been completely remodeled? The only way to know these things is to tour other homes. Do your homework!

Action Items:

  1. Call the listing agent – ask to walk the house with them (preferred) or if they are unable to, have a detailed phone conversation with them and ask questions about the home (features, improvements, etc). Complete all tasks in “Knowing the Home” section.
  2. Go to listreports.com and sign up for a free account. Once signed up go to your dashboard and click on “New Listreport” follow the tutorial and enter the address of the property for the open house. It will take a day for Listreport to generate the reports. You will receive an email with a link to your property marketing materials. Download the Open House Flyer, Open House Sign in Sheet, and Neighborhood Report for the Buyer. (See bottom of post)
  3. Contact the title company of your choice and ask for a prelisting package that includes a copy of the CCR’s etc. You might also ask the listing agent if they already have the info on file.
  4. Log into Paragon and pull a list of all listings in the immediate neighborhood. Depending on the number available try to preview as many as possible prior to the open house to familiarize yourself with as many of the competitors as possible.

 

DAY 3

Wednesday Daily Objective: Learn how to effectively drive traffic to your Open House!

Watch the first 9.5 min of this video today and the rest tomorrow:

Having a successful open house is all about promotion! Your primary objective it to let as many people know as possible about your real estate activities, especially as a new agent.

Action Items:

  1. Video: Make a short informal video of you in front of the house inviting people to your amazing open house!

Once the video is complete, email it to everyone in your database. Will they come? Probably not but you are messaging to them that you are active in the business and doing a great job for sellers. Over time they will see you as the real estate expert and call you for their real estate needs. Consistency is the key to this strategy!

  1. Do a Facebook boost or Ad targeting potential buyers for the property. Run the campaign 3 days prior. Spend $30 on this marketing.
  2. Take the open house flyer you have created with listreports and personally knock 30 homes. 10 to the left, 10 to the right and 10 across the street.
  3. Put out as many signs as possible! Get as many signs as possible and get your name out there!
  4. Promote online, Zillow, mls, Silvercreek Website etc.
  5. Put an open house sign in the front yard that says the day and time of the open house.

 

DAY 4

Thursday’s Objective: How to have successful conversations during the open house!

Watch from 9 min to completion:

5 Questions to Memorize!!

  1. How long have you been searching for a home?
  2. What websites have you been visiting?
  3. Have you found your ideal house?
  4. I see a lot of homes before they hit the market are you interested in that?
  5. Do you need to sell a home before you buy one?

What to do with neighbors who visit the home?  Embrace them and try to determine which sellers are interested in knowing their home value. Offer to do a CMA and add them to your database.

Action Items:

Practice the 5 questions with a spouse, friend or co-worker! Knowing exactly what to say will give you the confidence you need to start meaningful dialogue.

 

DAY 5

Friday’s Objective: Ensure that you are prepared to host your first Open House and know how to properly follow up with leads!

Conducting a successful open house is all about the details. The experience you offer visitors during the open house is an audition of your skills and professionalism.

Please be mindful of the following as sellers are entrusting you with the safety and securing of their home.

Safety Precautions:

  • Before an open house, tell sellers to lock up and hide all:
    • Prescription drugs
    • Valuables (jewelry, cash, etc)
    • Personal information (mail, bank statements, anything with sensitive information)
    • Anything that can be used as a weapon (guns, kitchen knives, etc)
  • Unlock all doors before an open house. If there is a dangerous situation, you and others can quickly exit using any door.
  • Remember to lock up afterwards and check the rooms AND crawl space! People target for sale homes – they use side doors, garage door openers in unlocked cars, or hide during an open house to access a house.
  • Ideally have 2 agents work the open house – good for safety and can help if potential buyers connect more with one agent than the other.
  • *This has mixed reviews*: Put a sign at the front door saying the open house is being recorded for security purposes (whether it is or isn’t because it will deter theft). Though some agents argue that it deters people from feeling comfortable while at the open house.

Before the Open House:

Print:

  • Copies of your listreport to hand out at the Open House
  • Sign up sheets (and remember to bring a few pens)

Setting up Signs:

  • Set up signs on way to open house (20-30min prior to start)
  • Put signs on every major road leading into the subdivision/street
  • Add a rider to your signs to say the open house hours (optional)
  • Attach balloons or flags to get attention

After the Open House:

  • Turn off the lights
  • Lock ALL doors and windows
  • Take down open house signs

Action Items for After the Open House:

  1. Leave a Thank-You note for the seller in their house.
  2. Give listing agent or sellers feedback (an open house report) that evening.
  3. If you used a sign-up sheet (these are general guidelines and ideas, remember to check their preferred method of communication):
    • Email the customers that night with info about the house AND other similar listings. Sometimes people will be interested in seeing other homes on Sunday and you could get a client out of it.
    • Follow up with a phone call a couple days later.
    • Follow up again right before the weekend to see if they want to view homes that weekend.
    • If they have an agent – forward those names to the listing agent, so they can follow up.

Download the attached “Open House Super Packet” of letters for ideas and verbiage on how to follow up.

Read the Guide to Open Houses – for ideas from our own top producers about how to host a successful open house.

RESOURCES:

OPEN HOUSE SIGN IN SHEET – PDF

SAMPLE LIST REPORT – PDF

OPEN HOUSE SUPER PACK – PDF

GUIDE TO OPEN HOUSES – PDF

 

 

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