I have been dealing in real estate sales for more than 14 years and I often get property sellers asking me about the effectiveness of doing open houses. It seems like a viable method to get a property sold. You open the property for viewing between a certain period of time and buyers can come in if they happen to drive past the area. As such, an open house would be more suited to landed properties. The truth is, do open houses really make a difference to the seller? Let us take a look.
1) Open houses are not necessary to sell a home
In the past, when digital marketing was not prevalent, open houses would be a very useful form of marketing. Placing banners by the road to attract passer-bys. These days, buyers search for a property online, take a look at the photos, learn about the location using Google Maps and if everything is suitable, call the property agent marketing the property and schedule a viewing. The notion that someone will go past a banner and suddenly decide to purchase a property costing a couple of millions of dollars is not going to happen too often. The key to selling a property should be pricing the property right and ensuring maximum exposure on the best advertising platforms. Currently, such platforms are online property portals and social media.
2) Open houses are more useful to property agents than property sellers
An open house means that you or someone from your family has to stay at home during the duration of the open house. You can leave the property to the property agent but that depends on your level of trust with your agent. If the open house is from 2-5 pm, that takes up valuable time, especially over the weekends. The fact is if you hired a very experienced agent to sell your property, chances are that your property is not the only property that he or she is selling. Thus even if an open house is arranged, chances are that it is not he or she that is going to be stationed in the property. It may just be a new rookie. Instead, an open house gives the property agent a chance to meet other potential sellers in the area. It also gives the impression that something extensive is being done to sell your property.
3) Majority of buyers that come in are not serious
Due to the curious nature of some people, if you put up a sign saying that there is a huge detached house with top of the line fittings and a lap pool perched on the roof of the property, chances are that many people would like to see it. Whether they could afford it or not is a different issue. The curious nature of people poses a problem whereby you get browsers coming into your property, not for the sake of seriously looking for a property but more to take a look at an interesting house. Trust me, there are loads of people who have nothing better to do than to view properties when they have no actual intention of committing to one in the near future. These buyers are unqualified and are a pure waste of time. Yes, you could get such buyers when u advertise online as well but then your property agent should pre-qualify the buyer with some question before arranging for a viewing. There are actually not many ready buyers in the market. If you get too many browsers coming in and out of your property, there is a chance that something might get damaged eventually. Also, imagine a situation whereby so many people come into the property during an open house. Your property agent may find it difficult to follow up with so many of them. The serious buyer may be lost in that whole pool of browsers.
4) Your neighbours will come by
Since you have an open house, some neighbours will come over and take a peek. The common knowledge would be that these people might have family members looking to live nearby. The truth of the matter is that they will only purchase your property when you are selling at a distressed price. If they were really looking for a property in the area they would have responded to your online advertisements and made an appointment rather than walk in during the open house. Neighbours will come in, poke around your home, make comparisons, get a feel of what their property is worth and get to learn more about you as a person from the way you live.
Thus, in my opinion, open houses do not aid much in selling a property. A property sells because it is priced right and it receives maximum exposure. Your real estate agent should be advising you on your pricing and you should be listening to him. Do not think that there is a miracle agent who can sell your price in an instant at a record breaking price. There is no agent that can guarantee that. Every experienced property agent has cases whereby he or she has sold a property on the first viewing at a record price. However, if you go through their portfolio, that is not the norm. In truth, the resale market is currently weak and it may take many months to sell a property. What you want is an honest property agent. Not one that promises you amazing results through open houses.
Yours Sincerely,
Daryl Lum
