With TV journalists embedded with U.S. troops on the front lines in Iraq, war has never been closer to home or more morbidly compelling with real-time accounts and photos of the action. Retail reports are already showing a decline in sales since the war began due to the 'CNN' effect.

So how do you get homebuyers to come out when they would rather be home watching television?

The answer: business as usual, only better.

With experts predicting that the war in Iraq could go on for months, homebuyers will have no choice but to allow life to go on. The lease will be up, or the transfer will go through, or the last child will leave for college, or a baby will be on the way. Will you be ready? Here are some strategies that will help those buyers think of you.

Step up open houses

Give consumers a reason to leave the house by opening your listings for viewing.

Open houses do more than enable you to attract buyers, they can also galvanize sellers to do those last-minute clean-ups and fix-its that help sell the home.

Make sure you have extra security and services by inviting a mortgage broker and another Realtor to accompany you. Not only will you be able to get buyers prequalified, you will turn your open house into a homebuying event. This will impress both sellers and buyers.

If you are a new agent, and don't have listings of your own, offer to sit open houses with the listing agents in your office. You'll be able to learn from a pro how to handle new customers, and you might be able to work a deal to help the listing agents with other time-consuming work like showing these new customers other homes in exchange for a piece of the commission when something closes.

Highlight a neighborhood with a tour

Do you have a house you want to showcase in a neighborhood with a few too many listings? Then put the spotlight on the neighborhood, and turn too much competition into an event.

Contact the other agents in the same neighborhood who have listings and arrange a neighborhood tour for homebuyers where everyone cooperates and everyone benefits.

Choose a time of three or four hours and advertise the event with cooperative monies.

Include a virtual tour of neighborhood amenities with your listings. This can be used over and over every time you get a listing in the same neighborhood. Show parks, shopping centers, and activities such as neighborhood parades, ball games and cookouts.

Let the best writer in the bunch draw up a feature sheet about the neighborhood to give out at every participating open house.

Designate participating open houses with balloons or flags.

Have prizes ready for buyers who see every home, such as coupons for house cleaning or landscape services or other after-move services. Have buyers take the neighborhood sheet to each open house where the listing agent will stamp the sheet.

This is a case of competitors pulling together for the good of all, and it creates a lot of good will, in the neighborhood and among participating agents.

Plan a homebuying seminar

Homebuying seminars are terrific events to get buyers away from the television, and they are surprisingly easy to put together. If you have a large conference room at your brokerage, ask to use it for an evening to hold your seminar. If you don't ask a local title representative or lender who will also speak at the event.

Invite current buyers. Advertise in the newspaper and on your Website.

Due to limited seating, you must require reservations with full contact information including e-mail. Do not let buyers simply show up. Ask for business phone numbers and e-mail.

Confirm the reservations one day in advance of the seminar. This gives you the opportunity to confirm that the contact information you have is legitimate. It will also tell you how much seating you'll need and how many refreshments to serve.

Prepare the room, and serve refreshments.

Limit the seminar to under two hours, making time for various service providers to speak:

• You open the seminar with tips for shopping for a home: size, price, neighborhood, etc.
• A mortgage broker can speak about rising and falling interest rates and how to shop for a loan
• A title company representative can speak about the importance of insuring title
• A real estate attorney can speak about contracts
• A home inspector can speak about the importance of a professional inspection before buying a home
• You close with the importance of working with professionals, including what makes Realtors a homebuyers' ally

Allow plenty of time afterward for questions and answers.

Buyers and sellers will love your enthusiasm and be glad they decided to leave CNN behind for the day!

Published: March 31, 2003

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