Marcia and I do pretty good with open houses.  The key is to draw them in - so what better way then tons of signs?  Now you may not have a ton of signs but other agents with other homes for sale in your properties neighborhood might - Try a combined open house.  Yes this it tricky cause not all agents want to play - but if you have a couple of listings around yours you might contact those agents and see if they would be interested.  You all could then combine your financial resources and put an open house ad in the local paper.  Do you have a flyer delivery service that will deliver your flyer's to all the RE companies in your area?  Yes, invite the agents too!  Advertise the combined open house that way too.  You could even put up open house flyers at the local market bulletin board.

OK no one is interested and you have to do it yourself.  How fast can you make up a postcard to invite the neighbors to your open house?  Get it in the mail for delivery by Fri. or drop it ASAP.

Put up all the open house signs you have.  Put balloons or flags on your signs.

Advertise you open house on P2 and in your MLS.  Is there an open house section in the paper, advertise there, but not worth it if there isn't one.

Remember it only takes one person who loves that house to buy it.

Oh we ask our favorite lender to come along that day too.  Prequal on the spot!

Hope this helps!

Jana

Sharron, you aren't a sucker you are being a good sellers agent and trying to please your sellers. Sellers don't actually, physically see all that we do so this gives them something to SEE.

I had a seller call me to put an ad in the paper and I quit doing this a few months ago as it is ineffective advertising. But they asked and I said yes, who knows?

Maybe have Steve do the next one. tee hee

Dear Sharon and Steve,

Post your open house everywhere! Put a sign in front of the house on the Monday before "Open Saturday 11-2" or whatever. Use Craigslist, pennysaverusa.com, use Vflyer.com, post on your blog, website, and use lots of signs. Does your area have a freee throw away newspaper? Advertise there. Send an email out to your database inviting them. Combine open house with a yard sale (very effective). Or if you see a neighbor is having a yard sale, open the house. We have an agent here that hires a hot dog vendor and invites the neighbors over for lunch. Think outside the box, and good luck!

Liane I may use some of those ideas too!  The hot dog idea is great, turn the open house into a block party!  

Jana

That's the trouble with 'teams', it's hard to say NO when there are two or more of you. I prefer to tell them that I feel the 3 to 4 hours is better spent showing buyers around and informing them and other agents about the features and availability of their property.

A comment that we hear from other agents regarding open houses is, "I know they don't work but the sellers think they do and they want me to hold one so I do."

So, with that logic I suppose if you were a mechanic and your customer insisted that you put water in their car instead of oil you would comply.... just who is the professional expert here?  The agent or the seller?

I establish right up front that I am a credentialled professional and that I am RISKING my own time and money to market their home for which I will receive no compensation unless their home sells....

With that FACT in mind, I will do everything I can to EFFECTIVELY market and sell their home as quickly as possible and for the highest price possible.

Some sellers don't want to 'play by my rules'..... guess what?  It's my time and money so I make the rules - PERIOD.  The seller needs me far more than I need the seller.

We do open house/yard sale/bbq.  Trust me, there is NOTHING like a yard sale to get people to the house.  Free hot dogs and water are a bonus for anyone that comes.   You then have a lot of people going through the house.  And you pick up a heck of a lot of leads for people looking to buy or have a relative buying, not to mention those that are looking for an agent to sell or another agent to sell their home when their present listing is up.  

I did an open house the previous Sunday ... perfect day for an open house, subdivision full of garage sales, the nearby traffic lights were out so everyone had to stop right where my directional sign was ... beautiful weather ... desirable neighborhood ... yet I only got ONE person go through!!! ... I told the seller how things went ... she's out of state for a few weeks, we talked about the fact that open houses nowadays simply don't work the way they used to when there were buyers cruising around every Sunday. I thought she GOT THE POINT!

Saturday night, around 11:00 pm I got a call from her (she works nights and knows she can call me until about that time but I sent it to my voicemail this time) ... asking if I could do another open house on Sunday ... my jaw dropped! ... thinking ... didn't she GET THE POINT??? In the morining I got another call, this time from her husband who is staying at the house alone while his wife is away ... he says ... "I talked to my wife just a few minutes ago ... she told me we are having an open house today?" ... So I gave him a straight answer ... "No, we are not!" ... boy, was he happy! ... turns out that with the forecasted mid 90s, he really didn't feel like leaving the house at all that day ... plus, he saw me suffer through half of the open house the week before as he stayed to keep me a company for a while that day.

Later Sunday evening, I called the wife and told her that we did not hold the open house ... explained to her once again that there are very few buyers out there going to open houses these days ... and offered her something else ... what we really need is bring more agents in, so I have scheduled a "self service" Broker's Open house for Tuesday. I won't be there but the husband will make sure to have the house ready for previews and I have posted it in the MLS with a note for the interested agents to call me for the lockbox combo ... I've done these before and alway got a few agents to show up.

Honestly, when it comes to weekend open houses, I am out of ideas that would bring people in. My experience with that last open house just showed me that even with a perfect open house day like that one, there is very little hope.

BTW, saying "NO" to the open house felt quite good!!!

Sharron... that's my grand-daughter.  She'll be two in August.  I was just saying the other day that it's time to update the picture...she's out there everywhere, lol, and I was thinking it would be great to show her as she grows.  She's cuter now than before anyway, lol.   She's gotten me some customers, that one.   I had two people mention to me that they called me specifically because of the pic.