For years, real estate agents have hosted open houses and considered the open house a cornerstone of an effective selling strategy, but the modern-day open house is taking on a new shape. In today’s real estate market, it takes a unique perspective to make a home stand out from the crowd and pull in more potential buyers.
With so many ways for buyers to join the market nowadays, real estate agents need to think creatively when it comes to hosting open houses. Here, we’ve collected some of our open house tips for sellers that can help attract more guests to your open house.
THINK ABOUT THEMES
Our first tip for improving turnout at your open house is to work with a theme. Themed events are one of the best ways to get the neighborhood talking and pull in a wider net of buyers. Everybody likes to be treated to a good time, so it goes without saying that your open house will attract more buyers if it’s a good party!
A source of inspiration for creating a themed open house is to consider the house itself. We highlight what’s special about the property, just like we do when staging a home. Does it have a large backyard? Host a cookout. Is the kitchen extraordinary? We could host cooking tutorial. Check out the landscaping. Maybe a luau-themed event would suit it, or maybe we could host a pool party. We aren’t afraid to get creative.
HOST MULTIPLE OPEN HOUSES TOGETHER
At the Beatty Pittman Team, we take the opportunity to co-host multiple events at the same time. This strategy is especially effective if the street plan is pedestrian-friendly and inviting to block party-type get-togethers.
Hosting several open houses simultaneously carries some important benefits. The top ones include the buzz it creates as it becomes a must-attend event that buyers will flock to; in addition, if a buyer who is interested in a house down the street attends and checks out your open house, they may fall in love with your home. Hosting multiple open houses simultaneously allows us to reach more individuals than doing so separately.
VARY OPEN HOUSE HOURS
If our open house doesn’t bring in as many guests as we would have liked, we may look into changing the time of day to host the event, which can yield a boost in guests.
A healthy majority of open houses are held on weekend afternoons, especially Sundays. There’s a good reason to do this; it attracts a lot of busy people. We also consider hosting at alternate times, like mid-week. If potential buyers work from home or follow non-traditional schedules, we can target a brand new group of interested parties who haven’t been available for Sunday open houses in the past.
FOCUS ON THE NEIGHBORHOOD
One element of the open house that other real estate agents overlook frequently is the unique feel and ambiance of your neighborhood. Instead of hosting cookie-cutter events that aren’t adapted to the area, we try to cater your open house to the liking of buyers who might live just minutes away.
Your Beatty Pittman Team agent will focus their energy on the kinds of ads and swag they use to get the word out. We may deliver special boxes of candy to the front door of the neighbors or print hangers that can hang from door knobs or car windshields. Also, we will ask nearby homeowners what makes their street special and try to design the marketing of our open house around that.
CATER YOUR EVENT TO THE LOCAL BUYERS
Even when your neighborhood doesn’t have a distinct feel to it, we can use the open house as a chance to target groups of buyers that might not have been called out before.
At Beatty Pittman Team, we do research about the groups of homeowners and potential buyers in your area. Younger neighborhoods will likely respond faster to online marketing on social media sites like Nextdoor, while an older clientele might value in-person engagement from their agents.
If many homeowners work on the weekend, reschedule your event to mid-week. The goal here is to design our open house to match the needs of the area rather than using the same formula for every property regardless of location.
GET CREATIVE WITH SIGNAGE
In today’s digital-first climate, it takes a lot to stand out from competitors. But year after year, the agents with the most striking visuals in their advertising tactics draw the most diverse group of guests. Your signage matters, so we’ll consider swapping out old-school curbside signs with directional signs and flags or using LEDs.
We will invest in large-scale poster boards, laminated materials, and metallic signs because it’s easier to reuse signage if they are rigid and long-lasting. After we take a drive around your neighborhood to see what other house signs look like, we’ll try to create ones that are obviously distinct without being unprofessional.
STREAM OPEN HOUSES ONLINE
Sometimes, the best way to invite more buyers to events is to use the internet as a hub. Social media sites like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook are all easy to use for live streaming, and more sellers than ever are meeting new buyers on the information superhighway.
If your projected buyer pool skews younger, there’s a good chance that we can target them by hosting an open house online. Millennials are both the largest group of first-time homeowners in the U.S. and the most likely to find their home on the internet.
CONTACT A LOCAL REAL ESTATE AGENT TODAY
If you have any questions or comments about boosting attendance at your home’s open house, reach out to the Beatty Pittman Team today for more information! We have a lot more open house tips for sellers, and we’re happy to share. If you’re ready to find success on the Wilmington, NC, real estate scene, reach out to us today.
