You may share a similar "first open house" experience. When I think back to the first open house I attended, it was before I was in possession of my own bright shiny real estate license. One Sunday afternoon, I was driving around a neighborhood in my new home city of Denver, pre-approval in hand for a loan up to $119,000. Oh, it was an exciting time.

I stopped in front of a house with a big "Open House" sandwich board prominently displayed on the sidewalk. I was greeted by a friendly real estate agent, named Monica. Monica gave me a brochure and invited me to look around the home. I liked what I saw and told Monica. Unfortunately, she said, there were already multiple offers on the home.

What a bummer!

Yet, Monica didn't let my interest wane there. She said, "Have you seen the one at 3943 Valley? It's similar to this one, but has a second bath. There's another nice home in this price range at 4401 Clay and it has a garage! And my office has a new listing coming up this week sometime that has … ." My eyes lit up. All was not lost? There were other houses as wonderful as this one? This magical all-knowing creature could help me get one for myself?

Monica assured me that there were indeed other wonderful houses and she would be absolutely delighted to help me get one for myself.

I excitedly offered my name and phone number to Monica without her even asking for them. Keep in mind this was before the era of online MLS listings, so I was truly dependent on Monica for that information. It's different today, obviously, but the philosophy is the same.

I raced home and literally waited by the phone to hear from Monica. When the phone rang, it was her! Over the next while Monica showed me several homes and I bought fairly quickly. Over the next two years I bought three more homes, using Monica as my agent.

So, here comes to moral of the story for agents out there.

How did Monica get my precious contact information and my loyal business? Did she coerce me into providing it with promises of lovely gift baskets or free market reports? Did she risk offending me with a request to sign in “for security purposes"? None of the above.

She inspired me to give her my contact information because she had something I truly wanted. That was: information, expertise, and access. She was also friendly and open.

Your goal when prospecting at an open house is not to pry conversation and contact information from an unwilling visitor. Rather, it's to inspire people to want to tell you their needs and wants.

How do you inspire a perfect stranger to think of you as someone they'd like to hear from again?

Having a conversational familiarity with the immediate neighborhood is huge. Projecting a confident, yet casual air of being a neighborhood expert is probably the best way to turn open house visitors into buyer clients.

It also helps to have a reasonable familiarity with other similar neighborhoods to offer as alternatives to visitors if they find that this particular neighborhood is too expensive for their budget.

The best way to learn a neighborhood is to be out in it. Know the inventory because you've seen it, smelled it, and touched it. There's a big difference between this knowledge and simply studying the facts and figures of the inventory on your MLS.

Once you've acquired your market expertise, it's pretty easy to communicate that expertise to an open house visitor.

Demonstrating your market expertise is best accomplished by talking about other houses and neighborhoods that compare favorably with the one you're holding the open house in. Do so casually, without any hidden agenda. If, as Monica did with me, you can offer up a few other homes or neighborhoods that might work for the visitor, they might just decide you're the agent for them!

Published: October 6, 2011

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Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn was a top producing real estate broker in Denver, Colorado before writing her first book in 2007. Since then, she has written several more books about the business of selling real estate including her flagship book: Sell with Soul: Creating an Extraordinary Career in Real Estate without Losing Your Friends, Your Principles or Your Self-Respect, the sequel, If You're Not Having Fun Selling Real Estate, You're Not Doing it Right and her latest, to be released in Spring 2011, Prospect with Soul for Real Estate Agents. Jennifer believes that the secret of success for real estate agents is not in aggressive marketing techniques or hard-core sales pitches, but rather in being competent in one's craft. Competence begets Confidence. And in today's world of increasingly suspicious and ad-weary consumers, having an air of self-assurance and enthusiasm will be far more effective than a slick sales campaign. Jennifer writes and speaks with this philosophy in mind. She preaches that salespeople should follow the Golden Rule in their day-to-day practice of business - treating clients and prospects respectfully, as the salesperson him or herself would like to be treated. Being competent, reliable and fair, and motivated by a true desire to earn a paycheck, not just show up at closing with hand outstretched. She is a regular contributor to several real estate newsletters and magazines, a member of the RE/MAX Hall of Fame and one of the industry's most popular bloggers. You can learn more about Jennifer's "soulful" philosophies at www.SellWithSoul.com. Subscribe Below to Enroll in the Daily Seduction Newsletter Mini-Clinic - Tips and Strategies to Generate Business and Referrals From Your Sphere of Influence! Your Full Name Your Email Address