Taking Your Open House to the Internet

Open houses. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they’re an important part of the process of selling a home. There was an interesting statement about open houses given by a real estate agent in Florida. This person wrote: “Physical open houses in our area are no longer a productive use of our time because most prospects want to search [for] property on the internet, see photos and read the description when THEY want to . . . and if they like it enough to want to see [the home, they] want to schedule [a showing] at THEIR convenience, not ours.” So what do you think of this person’s assessment of open houses? Do you feel like the same thing is happening in the Mother Lode? It is true that the internet has drastically changed the landscape of how real estate is done. With this in mind, maybe it’s time to consider a new strategy to open houses. There's a great blog post offering one by Lola Audu entitled: How Come No One Came To Visit My Open House - Part 5. In it she talks about the “virtual open house” which basically is holding an open house on the internet. Here’s how she says to do it in two summarized steps:

(1) Create a blog (or make use of any social networking site) where you'll feature your open house. (I can help you with that.) Include pictures, a virtual tour, video, slideshow, map link, etc.

(2) Email your seller's friends, family and anyone you (the agent) and your seller can think of invitations to visit the home on the internet at the same time your physical open house is scheduled to take place. Give invitees the time and specific web address to visit. You can even offer an incentive for people to do this (ie. have a prize drawing for those who sign in or leave a comment). Also, ask your invitees to email their contacts in similar fashion, especially anyone they think might be potentially interested in the home. (These can take part in the drawing, too.)

The bottom line of the "virtual open house" is you’ll be (1) maximizing the power of the world wide web to supplement your physical open house, (2) advertising your open house beyond the local market and (3) increasing your chances of selling the home thus making your open house a success even if you only have a limited number of people viewing it physically. Contact Mike C. at the Corporate office for more help getting your virtual open house up and running and click here to view a sample Sugar Pine Realty virtual open house.