Showing Owners You’re Hustling For Them
I know many agents who swear by doing Sunday open houses.
They claim to pick up new clients that way, and — at least occasionally — actually find a Buyer for the house they’re holding open.
While there are ample reasons to do Broker open houses (see, “Open House as Hypothesis“), my own experience with Sunday open houses suggests that they are less effective.
Reality Check
That’s because serious Buyers invariably are already working with an agent; so, they typically view (pre-screened) homes at their convenience, during a private showing during the week set up by their Realtor.
Meanwhile, those who come through an open house who don’t have a Realtor yet are usually months — or years — away from being ready to buy.
Finally, I think open houses are subject to the law of diminishing returns: one every few weeks assures that the listed home has good market visibility.
However, doing them every weekend — or even back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday — attracts ever less traffic.
Keeping Clients Happy
Which leaves one, obvious-yet-unstated reason that some Realtors do (too?) frequent open houses:
It shows clients that they’re hustling for them (or at least, gives them that impression).
Unfortunately, a lot of the things good Realtors do — weekly networking, blast emails, keeping the listing fresh on MLS, pitching colleagues one-to-one — are invisible to clients.
By contrast, Sunday open houses offer public, tangible evidence that their Realtor is promoting their home.
P.S.: Of course, the agent actually hosting the open is often a stand-in for the listing agent, who has better uses for their time.
