Conducting a Successful Open House

Open houses are one of the best techniques to gain clients, especially if you are a new agent. Many agents choose this technique as it does not require cold calling, something most agents try to avoid at all costs.

Spending the extra time to market, set up, and create a proper follow-up system will significantly increase your return on time spent.

How Should you Market an Open House?

Facebook

I would first spread the word via social media. Here, you can post on your profile, groups, and even Facebook marketplace.

You never know who may be lurking on your friend's list that's in the market to buy a home.

Posting on your personal social media profile also allows for a great opportunity to build credibility.  

Open House Signs

Open house signs are a must as hundreds of people will drive past these during the open house. You would be surprised at home many people are in the market to buy a house and just happened to be driving by.

I recommend placing the signs out the evening before that way you are not rushing in the morning to set them out. Additionally, you may be able to get more visitors from people who saw the signs the night before.

Open House Mailers

If you are hosting an open house and want to send mailers, there are some pre-made templates you can use. Although this may not be the best way to attract buyers, this is a great way to generate listing clients.

Potential sellers will see the effort you are putting into the open house and how when the time comes, they would love to have someone that puts this much effort into sales represent them.

Especially, if this open house is in your geographical farm, you want to ensure all of the other homeowners know you are conducting an open house. Simply being present in the area further reinstates you are the go-to agent for that neighborhood.

Get Open House Mailers

Mailer Templates

Open House Flyers

Flyers make for a great opportunity to market the open house while also prospecting for listings. You can print 25 - 50 flyers and door knock in the neighborhood the day prior.

When speaking with the neighbors, let them know this is a great opportunity for their friends to move in next door.  This is a lighthearted conversation where you're simply trying to make an introduction which may lead to the homeowner asking you to represent them in the future.  

The relationship could also prove useful if you have a client in the future who wants to buy in that neighborhood but there is nothing listed. You can then readout to the homeowner you established a connection with, to see if they are open to selling.

This strategy of gaining listings from buyer clients works impressively well.

Landing Page For The Open House

A great technique I have seen is creating a landing page for the open house. A landing page is a simple, one-page website where you can showcase the information about the open house.

Landing pages are very easy to create and make for a wonderful way to collect email addresses, especially from those who cannot make it.

In lieu of responding to inquiries on Facebook, Instagram, etc, having a landing page will give you a place to direct all inquiries.

Open House Sign-In Sheet

There are a few options for how to go about collecting leads generated from hosting an open house.

The first method is going to be the classic piece of paper and a pen. Funny enough, I still use this method as its fool proof and unlike an electric signing, nothing can break.

What information should you collect on the sign in sheet?

I prefer to keep my sign-in sheet relatively basic, only collecting the needed information:

• Name
• Email
• Phone (optional)

The alternative to a paper sign-in sheet is using your computer. Here, you could open a spreadsheet or a form, allowing guests to sign-in.

This method is easy as if they signup via form, you can easily upload into your CRM.

The downfall here is if your computer dies or a guest does not know how to use the computer, it can add complications.

How to Follow Up With leads from an Open House

The time has already been spent to generate leads from an open house. To prevent the time being wasted, you will want to ensure you have a follow-up system in place for leads generated from open houses.

There is no right or wrong way to conduct follow-up. The main takeaway is to simply have some sort of process.

Example follow-up process for leads:

1. The day after the open house, send them a video text. Simple, yet effective, video that lets them know it was great meeting them.
2. Create a search in your IDX site with the criteria they are looking for.  
3. Add follow-up date for 2 weeks out.
4. 2-week touch point. This will be a check-in asking them if they have any feedback on the houses they have been receiving, change to criteria, etc.

An alternative solution to following up with open house leads is add them to your email marketing drip campaign. If you already have a template built for buyers, you can easily add the open house visitors into that campaign.

You can also make a custom campaign, just for the buyers you meet at open houses. This custom campaign can start off with referencing the open house and asking questions about their future purchasing plans.

Additional Tips For a Successful Open House :

Booties For Open Houses

Having open house booties will show your clients you are taking the extra time to care for their homes. Booties for your open house are simply shoe coverings for guests to put on their feet. Having anywhere from 15 - 50+ people show up, quite a bit of dirt can be tracked in. Here is where I buy the booties I use for open houses.

Open House Thank You Notes

There is something to be said about the ole fashioned thank you note. Spending an extra 5 minutes to hand write a thank you note to guests will set you very far ahead of other agents.

Imagine if the guests viewed 3 other open houses that day. At the end, all agents follow up but you were the only one who sent a card... I would imagine you will be their new agent. Here are the thank you cards I use.