Open House Toolkit

Open Houses are one of the oldest tools in the book for serving our clients and, if we’re very, very fortunate, maybe even generating a me and me sale of the listing right then and there! Yet a primary reason agents do them is to add new clients to our sphere. Even as technology changes and lead generation techniques have evolved, many agents still find Open Houses to be a consistent and significant source of new clients—especially agents newer to the business or just moving to a new one. Yet there seems to be a stark divide between those agents who love and succeed with them and those who can’t stand them and/or don’t generate any new leads. We seem to either love them or hate them!

And yet they can and do lead to more business and more money in the pocket.

So what might be some considerations to make this tool succeed for you—or yield even more business if you’re already successfully doing Open Houses?

First, let’s think about the numbers. If you plan to do two Open Houses a month, that’s potentially 24 a year. Assume maybe only four units—couples or individuals—for each time. That means you get to meet about a hundred new prospects face to face—at the top of that communication pyramid. What would be a good conversion rate for that time spent? If we gain even two new clients a year, at an average side of $200,000, that gives a return of as much as $14,000 in Gross Commission Income. Not a bad hourly rate! And of course if we add even just one name a month to our database and cultivate them for the future, how much value might those names add over a 20 year span!

Next, how do you optimize your chances of gaining the confidence of those lookers? A few thoughts gained from our coaching sessions suggest:

Confidence: The goal is to show those new contacts that you’re knowledgeable and that you can provide excellent, personalized service. We can show that by the way we represent the listing, including, among others, market information and stats and even the tradition of baking cookies—or even providing a roast at our own cost to bake during the Open House—and by engaging the lookers with a questionnaire about their feedback on the home on a clipboard, with of course a space at the bottom for their contact information in case the owner has a question.

Attitude: We all have unique personalities, so our approach will need to be genuine, yet the goal is to be there if the looker has a question, to demonstrate our knowledge and our personality, in order to build confidence. Yet neither to hover like a used car salesman nor to seem engrossed in the TV. A fine line, and based on the stats above, one where we will not succeed 90% of the time and yet we can still achieve good business results. Most lookers will feel it immediately if you’re overeager, so let them see the professional in you and feel honored at the next step.

Ask for the order: Amazingly, we hear that not all agents actually ask the looker, once they’ve laid the foundation, if they would like the agent to help them with their home search. Again, the number of folks you can ask that question will be a small portion of the total, but if you don’t ask when the time is right and the looker is smiling at you, your success rate probably won’t reach that 10% level!

Spring is on the way—okay we had snow in April and it’s near freezing this morning—so get into Open House mode and win over those new clients!

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development