Thread: Driving Traffic to Open Houses

Over the last few years I measured this for my agents. It seems that 5 to 10 directional signs will get more visitors than a photo ad in the Sunday newspaper. The best is to do both of course, but the ads cost $! When we put out a bunch of directionals at least one or two are stolen or blow away.

Also, sometimes there just isn't anyone looking and no amount of signs or ads will change that.

I agree. I used to advertise in the paper and would still not get a person through the house. Now I just throw out some directionals and it works just as well.

Does anybody still read the paper? You might want to try Craigslist (unless you live in Austin ). Directional signs are good too, as well as letting all the neighbors know - they love a chance to snoop around people's houses, and can be great for spreading the word.

I always do both... directional as well as in the newspaper. Doesn't your company pay for your advertising in the paper... we get free color pictures for open houses.

Also I put out a open house sign at the property with the day and time attached to it. I put it out on the Tuesday before the event. This has helped a bunch. People are able to plan for it rather than react to it.

Besides all the tips given so far, you should check you Remax corporate website to see if you have the open house feature on it. This feature allows you to set an open house date for your listing, so it will be featured on the main corporate site as well as all the prospect buyers that have signed up to receive emails about open houses, will receive about yours.

All the Remax and Prudential sites done by reliance network have this feature.

I have multiple autos. The evening before I parked my extra BMW in front of the home I was to hold open the next day. Then I had the owner park his Mercedes in the driveway. Then I drove up in my other car. Many people/customers don't want to be the only one in an open house. Activity breeds activity, so the next day I had 5 buyers come through and the listing sold that week. The week before not one person came in, they just drove by.

I agree with the person who mentioned to see if you can set a flag on the website to note the date and time of any open house. My wife regularly searches on Edina Realty's site and often she'll pull up the same house over and over and then once in awhile we'll see it's got an open house and go. I think she may even get mailed open houses.

Originally Posted by Blue_Pearl_Granite

I have multiple autos. The evening before I parked my extra BMW in front of the home I was to hold open the next day. Then I had the owner park his Mercedes in the driveway. Then I drove up in my other car. Many people/customers don't want to be the only one in an open house. Activity breeds activity, so the next day I had 5 buyers come through and the listing sold that week. The week before not one person came in, they just drove by.

Interesting...

Put a sign out front that says "FREE BEER."