Let’s talk about open houses.

In this shifting market, we can’t underestimate the importance of organizing open houses. It is still a seller’s market in some areas—homes are still selling fast if they are priced right. But homes are starting to stay on the market a little bit longer.

As we transition to a more balanced market, that gives us the opportunity to hold more open houses again.

We’ve got some processes and systems for you.

(1) How to have a successful open house, and all the steps involved; and the things we all miss…

(2) Follow-ups, some drips, and how to connect and engage with people.

When it comes to open houses, you need to prepare for:

1. The actual open house events, the logistics, the partners/sponsors.
2. A deeper presence in social media to market your event.
3. Ways to connect more efficiently and effectively with the people attending your open house.

So let’s dive right in.

How to have a successful Open House 

A successful open house has three stages: before, during, and after. All your planning and preparations have to be done before the open house. One of the most crucial things to prepare is marketing. You need people to come to your open house, and you need to let them know that your event exists. 

The usual marketing stuff: putting up signs, handing out flyers, putting on posters in the area; they all still work, to some extent. But in this day and age, you are not doing enough if you aren’t doing marketing online, mainly email marketing and social media.

Create a short form (60-sec) video and email the video as an invitation to your database

Don’t make TBC (Terrible Broker Content). Pay attention to your tone and energy in the video. Show them a peek of the area and the house. Invite them to your event in an engaging manner. Let your audience get a connection with the house: highlight what you liked about the house, where it is located, and what restaurants, schools, parks, and other facilities are near the area. This is what we mean when we say "Give value."

“How is that house and that event going to be of value to me? How is it something that I might be looking for in a home?” These are the questions that your audience wants you to answer. Give it to them.

You can use MailChimp or Active Campaign to send these out via email. MailChimp is free for up to 2000 contacts, and you can look for other companies that provide similar free services. Post it on social media as well. The places you want to be in are Facebook reels, Instagram reels, Tiktok, and YouTube shorts.

Send this at least 48 hours before your open house. This also allows some time for the post to hit some people on social media. Create a title that can engage the local audience. Social media algorithms are favoring content in local areas, so the address might be a good place to start. That also lets your audience know where the property is going to be.

The mistake I see a lot of agents or brokers make most of the time is that they just pop up the signs, show up, and wait for people to arrive. There’s no thoughtfulness in producing an amazing open house experience for the people they are inviting. That’s why I am sharing our “playbook” on how to prepare for these mega open houses (you can download it here).

Boost your Facebook/Instagram posts or create an ad about the open house 

You can use the same short video and put a few dollars behind it to boost the post on those four social media outlets, especially Instagram and TikTok. Just make sure the video is as engaging as possible.

Target an audience for 3 days: Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (if your Open House is on a Sunday). Remember that sometimes it takes more or less 24 hours for Facebook to approve a boost post, so try to get started on Tuesday, because it might not get approved until Thursday morning (or midday).

Invite the neighbors to the party

You’ve already put in the work, putting up the signs and all that. How hard can it be to door-knock? Why not do it right from the beginning?

Take the time to door-knock for an hour two days before, a day before, or the day of. Have a flyer to hand them that has a photo of the house and the price. Let the neighbors know that you’re going to be there—let them know who you are and what you’re doing to get that home sold.

Tell them that you wanted to give all the neighbors the opportunity to see the house before anyone else. If it’s an older home, invite them to see the home and offer them some cupcakes, tacos, or whatever food and refreshments you have prepared. If you have a raffle or some other giveaway, it might make the invitation more appealing.

You can even do a special event, like a pre-open house mixer, for about an hour or an hour and a half, just for those in the neighborhood. Send them an invitation with a gift card voucher. Just make sure to mail out those invites ahead of time (to around 50 to 200 neighbors).

Do a little something extra. Because of the world that you came into two years ago, during the pandemic, where the market was doing amazing. That’s shifted.

We have to put a lot more work into the things that we do now. You want to build relationships everywhere you go, because someday, one of those relationships will lead to an opportunity for business. It is also about playing the long game through establishing trust and relationships.

Also, remember the 10-10-20 rule. Statistics show that when a house in a neighborhood goes up for sale, or when a house sells, within twelve months, one more property, either 10 houses to the left, 10 houses to the right, or 20 houses across the street (10 to the left and 10 to the right), will also go up for sale.

If the neighbors already know who you are, your chances of getting that listing will be a little higher than if you do nothing at all.

Put out 20 to 30 signs

It is better if you hire somebody (for around $50) to put up and take down the signs after the event. If you are a new agent, you can connect with a more experienced agent and volunteer to help out with putting up the signs for their open house. That way, you gain experience and, more importantly, connections.

But as much as possible, leverage this one (unless you are working for a brokerage that does it for you). Because you will be needing your energy for other tasks during the open house, especially in following up and creating relationships. 

So map out where the signs will be and how many are being put out so the person putting them out has direction. Also, based on experience, we’ve lost signs before, and having a map helps you track them down.

It is always a good idea to do local company advertising to help raise awareness

If you have friends or are connected to small business owners in the area, ask them for permission to put up a flyer in their shop or ask for help in sharing your marketing post on social media. This will help you a lot in bringing more traffic in, and extending your reach, making sure your open house invitation arrives to people in spheres outside yours.

Again, building relationships. The friendlier you can get with the businesses that are close by, the more they’ll allow you to do that.

Have an escrow, home warranty, and inspection company help [legally] with the food layout

Especially if it is the first big open house you’ll be organizing. Invite those partners that you have, and present a plan along with what kind of help you need from them. You get support in the preparations, and they get an opportunity to market their business to the people who’ll be attending your open house—it’s a win-win.

Have a sign-in process in place for the guests attending the open house

This is for safety purposes. You can use Open House Pro or other software/app, have them scan a QR code before they enter, or even get their name and contact details as you walk with them and talk to them. Some sellers don’t feel comfortable letting strangers into their homes without getting information as to who it is that is coming into the home.

Lastly, once the open house is done, send out a video thanking all the visitors

Make sure to mention the location, because chances are, your guests have been to more than one open house. This is a good first step in the follow-up process: it allows you to continue to communicate with them and let them know who you are.

Offer them value: if you have off-market homes, offer to text them or email them the details. These people are looking for one thing: real estate. Give them what they want.

The Follow Up

Now that your open house is done, the next step is to focus on the follow-up. This is the most important part. In fact, it is so important that I made a separate video about it. You can watch that video here, or read my blog about the follow-up process.

Remember, hosting an open house is just to get the people in and gather information: their names, contact information, and what they are looking for in a home. The job doesn’t end there.

What really gets you the business is the follow-up.

Chances are, during the open house you can talk to them but you won’t have time to go in-depth about what house they are looking for, if they are a potential buyer, or they will just mention in passing that they also plan to sell their home but haven’t found a good agent yet, if they are a potential seller.

The follow-up is what gives you an opportunity to (1) continue communicating with them, (2) provide value to them, and (3) a chance to invite them out for coffee and talk more in-depth about what they need.

If you are just a starting agent, you can do this manually. But if you have a lot of attendees at your open house, automating the process can give you that leverage you need. You can download the open house drips we use here.

Some agents might say, “I reach out to them, but they are not just getting back to me.” Well, that’s because you’re not giving them value. What is it that your people need? Are you really giving that value to them when you reach out?

These webinars are free, but we also do coaching on the side, so if you want some one-on-one or group coaching, let us know. We are happy to assist you.

I hope this helps you gear up to succeed in this market shift. 

Thanks for reading A Brilliant Tribe!