I'm doing exactly the same thing.  

   I've compiled a booklet on home buying to give to non-represented buyers, in the hope that they will consider me as their buyers agent.

But apart from that, I'm just hoping it won't snow too much today, on the bright side it does put of the looky loos.

Raffle a Gift Card:

For Broker Open House, I raffle a $50 gas card; now-a-days with the gas prices going up and the amount of driving we Agents do...it brings more agents and they leave a business card.  This also increases your network.

For Public Open House, I raffle a $50 dinner or shopping gift card

Both are tax deductable.

Good Luck with your Open House.

You should only hold open houses in homes with swimming pools. Take one of those floating pool lounge things withyou. Stick a sign on the front door that says, "We're in back, come on around!"

Then, when the visitor rounds the corner you look up from your floatie lounge, beer in hand and say, "You could be doing this right now if you bought this house!"

Sure makes the day go faster!  :)

I'm a real estate auctioneer, so Open Houses are important; we allow significant access to the home because the winning bidder must sign a non-contingent contract on auction day. All due diligence is done before the event. One thing auctioneers do at an Open House is to allow visitors to guess how much the home will sell for on auction day, offering a cash prize (usually $100 to $250) to the closest number to the actual sale price. This is helpful in three ways: It gets the visitor to imagine the auction's potential and decide if it might be a "deal" or not; it gives me data to share with my seller to prepare them for the outcome (the median of numbers collected is often fairly accurate); it gives me a reason to call everyone who participated after the auction to discuss the outcome and hopefully generate more business or at least name recognition.

I'll be at an Open House near Sedona, AZ next Saturday for an auction on the 28th. So far, NO bidders have registered. Somebody's going to get an amazing deal on a beautiful home on the golf course! Anyone who attends my Open House will be strongly encouraged to bid -- Aaaahhhh!!! The stress of it all!

You have received some great advice so far.........here is my .02

I often use "display tags" to highlight the often overlooked features of a home.  Things such as a fireplace mantle, built in bookcases, kitchen features, a special door or special windows, anything that you can "brag on" should be listed on individual cards and placed around the "feature".  I find these[placards]tends to make the showing a bit more formal, adds a nice touch and helps keep the home on the mind of the "looker".

P.S. Don't forget the basics.........make sure it is festive!  Good Luck!

Open house?  Only if it has a comfortable couch for me to nap on while waiting for no one to come look at the house. LOL  I despise wasting time, so if I have to be there I might as well catch up on lost sleep.

Okay,  the truth is we don't do open houses.  We had a seller ask if they could do one recently and we said, "sure, knock yourselves out".  They picked a super nice day -- nice a sunny but a little too cool for the beach and no major events to compete with.    They didn't even have any neighbors show up.  Now they understand why we don't waste our time doing open houses. LOL  (Oh well, they would have been home all day anyway so it wasn't a waste of their time.)

I'm a relatively new agent, so I don't know if this is a common tactic or if it's just something agents in my office taught me to do. I make up some really nice, professional looking invitations to my open house, usually only if it's the first one I've held at the home. I then walk around two days before the open house and invite the neighbors, telling them about all of the upgrades or changes that the homeowners have made as well as noting that they should bring anyone that they would like to have as possible neighbors. I also send out those same invitations to my SOI that live close enough in CA and tell them to come visit me and check out a really great home on the market. It does bring some looky-loo neighbors, but as a newer agent I'll take any traffic I can get! :-) I've had neighbors even comment about how hard I'm working to  get this house sold for my client...and when I tell them that's it's not even my listing they're even more impressed. Hey, definitely worth it to me to have a reputation like that!

I read this a little different then most. I read it as you were looking how to get people to show up in the first place.  

1. I put a sign rider on the house the monday before the open house saying open Sunday 1-4 or whatever time I choose.

2. Go to 100 closest houses around it with flyers and door knock inviting them to the open house. This gets me some personal one on one time with future buyers and sellers prior to the open house. I also write down the address of people that were amazed what I was doing. Great to add to mailing list. (If they have a dog...I have dog treats with me and tell them the dog is also invited and lean down and tell the dog there is more treats where that came from if you bring your owner to the open house) - gets a laugh every time.

3. Put an open house add on our MLS and Craigslist. I usually have 7-10 people per open house show up.

Good luck - Hope your open house went well.

Todd

Great topic for a blog!!!!

In my two years of real estate experience: I had Open houses with a traffic I couldn't keep up with and had to stay an hour or two pass scheduled time. I had Open houses when noone showed up. In my opinion, the success depends on the property location, your signage and the effort of following up with folks who have contacted you about the property.

A day before, I get my nephews to help me put the flyers on neighbors doors. Make sure to check on the solicitation laws in that area before you do that ;-)  - if you want to be present during your Open house! (Kidding!!!) I knock on folks doors and just simply say: "Hi there, my name is Irina Allison, I am a real estate broker, I would like to invite you to an Open House at...address. If you have any friends or relatives looking to move into the neighborhood - please, let them know about tomorrow open house house and definitely come check it out to!"

I know you get a lot of lookers and nosy neighbors....but I still believe that an Open House is about starting a word of mouth....and I am all about creating a BUZZZZZZ... about my listing!

Good luck to all,

Irina

I like your new pic. I put up Big Bright Ballons on my signs, along with Open House signs. I get people to stop to see why I have ballons out. I also send invitation/flyers to most brokers in the area to let them know. I absolutly hate Open Houses though, I try not to do them. I agree they are a waste of time.

Combine open houses with 2 other agents in the same area on the same day. Advertise 3 Open Houses in 1 Neighborhood this Sunday only....draws attention and clients will be drawn to the one area of interest.

I think Laura has the best idea, other than yours of staying home and forgetting about it. For best attendance, have more than one going on in the same neighborhood to get more interest. OR THE ABsolutely BEst, SUReFire way, Is TO MAKE Your significant OTher STanD OUT on the CURB in a CLOwn SUit! 100% FANTAStic-GUARanteed RESults. Or not....you will have to choose who gets to do that fun job (just kidding, never done that) Don't do open houses either.

I do open houses quite often and usually put out seven signs.  I actually am going to list a home from someone I met at an open house two years ago and am working with a few buyers from more recent open houses.  I follow up with notes and e-mails and also enroll them in Lowe's items of value if they indicate that they are interested on my open house sign-in sheet.  Follow-up seems to work best for me.    

We hold our waterfront homes open on a weekend usually twice a year in the late spring or early summer  (depending on the weather)  and in the fall.  Both times of the year have been a huge success,  as we do them by pontoon.  We notify the public and have a sign up sheet,  first come,  first serve. Our last outing it took 3 pontoons to accomodate.

There was a color tv given away and other smaller gifts raffled.  We even stopped at one of our local on the water restaurants,  where we had hot dogs and hamburgers after the open houses.

Lots of great comments...here's what I do...

I'm mostly a buyers agent so I don't usually have more than 2-3 listings at any given time.  When I do an open house I do it for all my listings on the same day - for 1 hour each and on a week night.  I find that traffic is more concentrated, buyers view other attendees as their competition, buyers make quicker decisions, and offers generated are generally better (closer to/above asking, less contingencies, etc.) than those on homes where I don't have an open house.  I do advertise my open house night in our local paper, on my local information web-site, and do about 100 flyers around each home.  

One "trick" I use - in my small community I'm well known for my banana bread and chocolate chip cookies - so every open house guest takes home a goodie bag with either a small loaf of bread or a few small cookies.  Each home I list has business cards with a picture of the home and brief description on one side and my business card on the other..each goodie bag is tied with a piece of raffia and holds that card.  It's a great reminder of the home they viewed - and makes it easy to contact me.

There were some people that had some good ideas over in the other disscussion thread we had about a month ago.

https://www.reliberation.com/blogs/beckytroutt/archive/2007/02/24/open-houses-seem-to-be-a-flop-now-a-days.aspx

Thank you Mary! Another point is there is safety in numbers.

"Mary Welch said:

I think Laura has the best idea, other than yours of staying home and forgetting about it."

Make it a great week!

Laura Kelley

www.LauraSanDiego.com