Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
When deciding who will list your property, it’s likely you will come across many real estate agents who enthuse about the values of an open house. While they may tell you that this is the best way to make a home sale more visible, what they don’t tell you is how advantageous it is for your agent.
In fact open houses have many more advantages for agents than for sellers and the statistics on how well these open houses actually do are quite shocking. According to the article in RisMedia, less than 2% of homes sold nationally are as a result of a buyer visiting an open house and who isn’t accompanied by an agent. The article points out that serious homebuyers will be working with a real estate agent who will schedule their appointments.
One of the biggest problems with holding an open house is that it attracts the wrong kind of traffic and open houses are rarely attended by serious buyers. You might find your neighbors come by just to see what the inside of your house looks like, as well as others who are looking for ideas for their own home renovations. You may get a few people who dream of owning a home such as yours but are not yet able to purchase something that costly.
You are also likely to get quite a few unqualified buyers who are actually serious about purchasing a home. While this might sound like good news, it does mean that most won’t be able to pay your asking price. When you first looking to listing your home you’ll probably find your real estate agent talks about the importance of any showing qualified buyers around your home, a fact that is completely ignored during an open house.
However, an open house is a good way of making it appear as if your real estate agent is working hard for you. You’ll be able to visibly see all the work that goes into hosting an open house but this completely ignores everything that happens behind the scenes in which is far more likely to find you a real buyer. Opening up your home to complete strangers also puts you at risk of theft as your property will be open to anyone and everyone passing by. If things get busy it’s impossible for a real estate agent to watch everyone.
One thing to remember is that an interested buyer will always take the time to schedule an appointment to view your property, and while a good real estate agent can market a home more effectively it’s not necessarily worth your while to have an open house.
