Open houses are often commonplace for real estate agents. It’s easy to get in a groove (or in some cases a rut) with your open house presentation, and for better or worse sometimes it’s best to make some changes to spice up your open house game. In most scenarios, it’s best to try to improve engagement with your prospective buyers.
In order to do so, you may need to get out of your conventional comfort zone in order to better market and show your listings during open houses. Here are some of our open house ideas to improve engagement.
Start Advertising Early
Open houses for many homebuyers are often spur of the moment events as they drop in and make plans typically on the day of the open house; however, you will likely see a major uptick in your open house attendance and engagement if you advertise early in the week. Starting your advertising and marketing efforts at least a week out from your open house allows homebuyers to plan around their busy schedules.
Additionally, by doing a little early week prep for your open house, you can better prepare to present your listing, get more up to speed with it, and generally have the best open house you possibly can.
Market on Social Media
Social media should already be part of your marketing strategy and should also come second nature when it comes to promoting your open house. Social media gives you so many options for promoting your listings that the sky really is the limit when it comes to exactly how you execute advertising on your favorite apps.
If you’re promoting an high-end listing, you may even want to include details in the event that you’re hosting a barbecue or food truck for your open house. Any details that make your open house more of a destination and less of a “showing” will help engage more prospective buyers and draw more legitimate leads through the doors.
Host a Private Open House for the Neighborhood
Have you ever taken a stroll around a neighborhood, maybe even your own, and wondered what a house looks like on the inside? Perhaps you’ve always wanted to take a peek in your neighbor’s home, but never had an opportunity or didn’t get a chance to know them personally enough.
Offering a private open house for the neighborhood is a great way to open new doors for both the neighbors but also to drum up some new business. Private open houses in this context can allow neighbors to get together meet neighbors they never knew they had, and potentially build your client book of business for future buyers.
Engage Buyers Personally
All of the marketing in the world can’t replace the personal touch of an agent showing a home. Yes, if you build it, they will come, but they’ll likely only hang around if you make the personal effort to engage with your buyers.
Greeting buyers, understanding what they’re looking for, and finding solutions to their pain points should be a top priority for you as an open house host. Buyers are more than willing to tell you about themselves if you’ll take the time to engage them and help find not only the right home but a solution to the reason they’re looking to begin with.
