Open House

What is the truth behind open houses? Can an open house help sell your Utah home? Well, today I'm going to tell you the truth. The National Association of Realtors did a study on this exact question. How many homes are sold as a direct result of an open house? Less than 7% of homes are actually sold as a direct result of an open house.

Open Houses Don't Help Sell Homes

If 10 people walked into an open house, less than not even one out of the 10 would actually be a candidate to buy that house. So the chances of you selling your house at an open house are slim to none. I know that's a big shocker for everybody, but let's think about the logic of it. So you have your house for sale, you put an open house sign in the yard, you put a sign out on the corner of the street, you put up some balloons. And then it's just a sign that says, "Hey, come on in."

First of all, you don't even know if the person that's walking in your house is even a buyer. More than likely, it's a nosy neighbor. It's somebody that's like, "Oh, an open house, let's see what kind of decorating they do." You know, they're just curious. What person that's just driving around and sees a sign is like, "Oh, let's just stop off." It may actually be a buyer. It may be a buyer that's looking to purchase in that neighborhood. But what other things do they not know? Is the house, what price range is it? How many bedrooms? Does it have a pool? Is it updated? All of these things as an open house sign, it's totally random.

Open Houses Generate Leads

So when you're doing an open house, the big, big secret amongst Utah real estate agents is that open house is the best lead-generating activity that realtors can do to pick up buyers. So nine times out of 10 when a buyer walks into a house and it's an open house, they may have some information because now the internet, so I'm sure they could look it up and see, but nine times out of 10, when a buyer walks into an open house, they don't know... It's normally missing something. It's normally not the exact house that they want to purchase.

So what does the agent do? The agent gets that buyer's name, phone number information. "Oh, you wanted a house with a pool? Oh, I actually have a house at 123 Mulberry Street that I can take you to see."

So agents love to do open houses, especially new agents, so they can pick up all the buyers that are swimming around in the Utah real estate market. And it's a freeway that they can actually get buyers to go ahead and sell them other houses.

Our Open Houses Are Better

So it's a big misconception out there in the Utah real estate industry that open houses sell houses. Now here when you work with me as your listing agent, we have a really aggressive marketing strategy in how we use open houses. So with us, what we do is we would typically photoshoot your house on a Monday, and go live on the market on a Wednesday. And then Saturday, we do a really, really big open house.

The difference between my open house and everyone else's open house is my open house, the only people that are coming to that house are realtors with real buyers with real money, who are really going to buy a house, who have already taken a look at the information on the MLS and scheduled an appointment with me. So by the time that buyer is coming to the house, they're not coming to check it out, they're coming for confirmation that that's the house that they want to put an offer on.

Now, the best thing about our strategy is when we put it on the market on Wednesday, we don't do any showings Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. And Saturday, we do a big open house. But this is what we call a private open house. This open house is only open to the MLS. So we're not advertising just a broad spectrum open house on Zillow, realtor.com, all these different things, because we don't want... As a professional listing agent, I know what sells houses. And what sells houses is real buyers with real money that did research on your house, that really wants whatever your house is; a three-bedroom, two-bath, with a pool, in this price range. That's who I want walking around your house. I don't want just any looky-loo, any person off the street walking inside your house. I wouldn't even do that with my own house.

So if you're looking for an aggressive agent that knows the business inside and out, knows how to do a correct open house, not just a sign of the yard and let all your nosy neighbors come in, if you want those kind of results, my information is down below and I would love to be your listing agent. Thanks for watching this video. See you on the next one.

If your looking for a licensed Utah real estate agent give us a call at 435-414-8597

Related Articles: