How2 Do A Leveraged Open House

We all know that one of the best ways to generate new business from buyers is to hold an open house. But if all you’re doing is putting out a sign and sitting in the house for four hours, you’re not going to get much done. That’s a pretty “passive” activity, just sitting around waiting.

Instead, think about doing a “leveraged” open house, one that takes your open house and turns it into a much more activity by leveraging your activities: direct mail, phone calls, and follow up. You can take these active steps to generate more visitors than will come from a simple ad in the paper. And you can leverage the open house by using the resources that are provided in Randcenter, particularly through CrossSearch and Direct Mail.

Here’s how to execute the Leveraged Open House. Note that you can really only leverage the open house if you have at least 10 days advance notice, so that you can get out your direct mail piece. If you don’t have that kind of time, you’ll have to go right to “step two” and start calling the neighborhood.

1. Direct Mail the Neighbors
The purpose of leveraging the open house is to generate some excitement in the neighborhood, by inviting the neighbors to the open house. Obviously, you need to know the neighborhood to locate the adjoining streets. But once you have those streets, you can go into XPressDocs and send an open house greeting to the block. Here’s my suggested language, so long as you get approval from your seller:

Mr. and Ms. Smith just listed their property at 123 Main Street and asked me to invite you to our open house on Sunday, May 7th from 1-4PM. We’ll have property information sheets and information on the local housing market. We hope you can attend!

That text should fit within the space limitations set out for the card. Just cut and paste it into your card. If your address is longer, you’ll need to cut it back a bit.

2. Courtesy call the neighbors
To leverage the mailing, you should follow up with a courtesy call. The key to the courtesy call is that it is NOT a prospecting call. Instead, it’s just a courtesy to let the neighbors know not to be alarmed if they see strange cars on the block. Here’s the basic dialogue:

Hi Mr. Smith, this is Joe Rand from Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty. I’m calling to let you know as a courtesy that we’ll be holding an open house on your block on Sunday from 1-4PM. Just in case you see some unfamiliar cars on the street, don’t be alarmed. I wanted to let you know about it and also invite you in case you were interested in seeing what’s on the market in your neighborhood.

Courtesy calls are amazing. Seriously. You take a call that would otherwise be a solicitation and turn it into a great service. Agents who make these calls universally tell me that they rarely, if ever, get a bad reaction, and that they are ten times as likely to get a very nice “thank you” from the neighbor. And if that neighbor is at all interested in the real estate market, they’re going to ASK YOU about what’s going on in the house.

Also, remember that courtesy calls are NOT governed by the do-not-call list, because they are not soliciations. You are calling on behalf of your seller to let the neighbors know that there will be a potential disruption on the block that weekend. You’re not trying to get business, you’re delivering a great service to the neighborhood!

3. Print up Show Sheets
You will find good show sheets on Randcenter in the Hudson United Flyer utility. Make up 15-20 show sheets of the property (be optimistic!).

4. Print up Market Stats
Since you’re going to be sitting all day in a particular town or village, go into the “Local Market Stats” program on Randcenter and print up some market stats for that neighborhood to give out to prospective buyers. The program is self-explanatory.

5. Sign Everyone In!
We have a Guest Registry for open houses in available in the Downloads section of Randcenter. Instead of having people sign themselves in, sign them in yourself so you can read the writing AND so that they don’t trick you by giving you an obvious fake name. Explain to them that the owner requests that you get everyone’s basic information before letting them through the house.

Alternatively, take a look at the Open Home Pro app available for iOS or Android. With the app, you can have people “sign in” to your open house right on your tablet computer, and then arrange for follow up emails.

Finally, follow up with all visitors.
According to NAR, 92% of agents never follow up with visitors to the open house. Even if they’re just nosy neighbors or lookyloos, people that come to an open house are good leads that you should be adding to your database for follow up. After the open house, call them back for some feedback. Here’s a good dialogue:

Hi Mr. Smith, this is Joe Rand from Better Homes and Gardens Rand. I enjoyed meeting you at the open house on Sunday, and the owner asked me to follow up if you had any feedback on the property.

What did you think? You can be honest?
What kind of home have you been looking for?
Has anyone been helping you with your search?
What areas are you looking for?
What homes have you seen that you like?
What’s your price range?
What’s the name of your lender?
When do you think you might start working with a Realtor to help you find a home?

The point of the “Leveraged Open House” is to use the tools available on Randcenter to turn what is essentially a passive activity (placing an ad and hoping people show up) into an active activity (reaching out to people in the neighborhood with the purpose of informing them of the open house).