Ahhh…the open house debate..
Sellers have been extensively trained and groomed over the years to demand open houses from their real estate agents. Like clockwork on Saturdays and Sundays, homeowners scurry around their homes in an effort to get the home show ready for the “hoards” of people that will come through the home.
Like clockwork, people show up: maybe a lot of people come in or maybe two people come in. Like clockwork the real estate agent gets names of potential buyers, and like clockwork…your home is not sold.
Here is what you need to know….open houses DON’T SELL houses. Shh…your real estate agent doesn’t want you to know that. They want you to pay them to hold open houses so they can get buyers and sell them OTHER houses.
The data does not lie.
According to the National Association of Realtors 2007 Profile of Home Buyers and Seller, 52% of buyers didn’t go to open houses, and only 16% of buyers went to open houses frequently. Of the 48% that actually attended an open house at least occasionally, only 24% of those found them useful, so that is 11.52% of the buyer pool.
What is more interesting is that when asked WHERE the buyer found the home they purchased they were
34% of buyers real estate agent first introduced them to the house.
29% of buyers first found the house online
14% of buyers saw the yard sign
8% found out about it through a builder or their agent
8% found out about the house through a friend or relative
3% found the house in the newspaper
3% knew the sellers
1% saw it in a home book
Hmmm…where are open houses on the list?
Not there. The reason…Open houses are an antiquated selling technique. 84% of buyers are searching the internet for their house.
The secret…open houses used to be the #2 way that a buyer found an agent after a referral from a friend. In this year’s survey it dropped to #4. Maybe if you are getting some reticence on the part of an agent to do open houses for you, it might be because it is no longer paying off for them the way it used to.
So…do you want to pay your agent to sell your house or themselves? Your money. Your choice.
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