Having a bad turnout at an open house can be disappointing. It can feel like wasted time and money. A down market changes the game when it comes to open houses. It's time to get creative!

In today's tech age, however, a successful open house all comes down to proper marketing.

Marketing starts on the inside of the home. A home must be staged to its full advantage. If the budget allows, hire a professional cleaning crew and staging team to come in and make the home a showpiece. Sometimes professional teams have access to a warehouse of furniture. This works great if the home is unfurnished, is stuck in a time warp, or is the culmination of a very particular owner's taste.

If your agent budget doesn't allow for professional staging, be sure to give your buyer a homework list of things to do. This can include everything from minor repairs that will keep the home competitive with comparables in your market to cleaning and decluttering. It's up to you to guide your sellers.

The next marketing step is taking it tech. You should have an open house calendar on your website at all times. This should list the time and address of any open houses, as well as a link to the MLS listing. Create a twitter account to make weekly updates about the latest events and ask your Realtor friends to follow you.

Send out announcements to your network of real estate agents and make personal phone calls to specific agents you think may have clients interested in your type of property. In a business where networking is paramount, getting your name out and making connections is important, especially for new agents.

Go old school and canvas the area with signs and posters. The community needs to know about your event in order to attend it! Proper signage may pull in a prospective drive-by buyer or two as well. This is also a time to be neighborly. Go door-to-door or hand out flyers to neighbors advertising the event. People love to stay in their neighborhoods and "move-up" or they may have friends or family that would love to live nearby.

Finally, make the open house an experience. Have good food and drinks. This means more than a candy bowl by the door. What would you like to eat during an event? You want foods that are easy to eat with your hands, aren't messy, and don't smell up the house. That means lay off the garlic!

Setting an ambiance is important and the kind of mood you set is dictated by the clientele you are serving. Is this an upscale group that has refined taste? Should you have a theme or entertainment? Are you catering to a younger crowd that likes things flashy and easy? Or is this a budget friendly home that should appeal to young families?

Don't pressure people. This is an open house, not a smarmy timeshare sales pitch. Every guest is a good guest in a down market. You may initially be frustrated by lookyloos, but a depressed market changes things. You never know who knows who and who is buying.

Published: July 12, 2011

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