Long lived the days when people did not have the internet and all the resources that is allows be to have at their finger tips. Being a newer agent, I have to say understanding the importance/lack of importance is one of the key things I leaned in real estate school. I always thought an open house was a great resource to help try and sell a home. However, I learned that in reality a open house is more beneficial to the real estate agent, than the home owner and trying to sell the house.
TODAY , people have technology at their finger tips and they can use that to do all kinds of searches of homes for sale, values (maybe not accurate values on places like Zillow, but at least an idea on value) and everything from neighborhood information to full history of a home. In a way online real estate websites have helped the real estate world to create smarter buyers and sellers, however there is also the other side that the internet has given a false power (sometimes) to people to think they know everything about the real estate world. This transcends over into the idea that real estate agents MUST have a open house to sell the home. This is not necessarily the truth. Open houses are a great opportunity for an agent to show that they are trying to do various marketing efforts to get some traction/buyers on their home. Unfortunately, the statistics show that very few homes really sell because of an open house.
As a newer agent, I like the idea of doing open houses for someone selling their home. It does not necessarily need to be my listing, because I can volunteer to run an open house for someone else’s listing. This helps me in several ways:
- I feel that it helps to show a seller that there is activity happening to try and get bodies to walk through their home, that they might not get with look e loos online.
- As a newer agent I like the fact that is helps to educate me on another area of the valley that I can become knowledgeable about and know for future when showing places to clients.
- As a newer agent I like being able to meet people and talk real estate. This is something you need to go through to become more confident and knowledgeable for future conversations you are having with clients.
- Finally, this is an opportunity to meet potential new buyers for either the home you are doing the open house for OR other homes.
So bottom line is NO I do not feel it is not a good idea to do an open house (for either your listing or someone else) because there really is a benefit in many ways for all parties. Having an open house really also gives the opportunity for the seller to have real feedback from people that go through the home. This could be good advice to maybe understand why the home is not selling and you can not necessarily get this sort of thing from those searching around for homes on the internet.