Summer’s here and that means BBQs, beaches and Open Houses! If done right, an Open House can be a great event to impress sellers while attracting new clients. Here’s four of our favorite Open House tips from industry experts to help you with promotion, presentation and follow up.
1. Produce a Visual-heavy Blog Post that Highlights the Listing
Blogging can be one of the best marketing investments for your time. In as little as 20 minutes you can craft a real estate blog post about your listing and detail what makes the property great. In fact, this is one of the most effortless lead generation activities you can perform. Share your blog post on social media with a specific hashtag to draw even more visitors to your Open House. See some examples here. (Source: Matthew Bushery, Placester)
2. Display Seasonal Photos
It’s the summertime and landscaping during the hot summer months can look very different than during the lush springtime. To overcome this, create a bulletin board of seasonal house photographs so buyers can see what the home would look like at another time of year. This is especially helpful to showcase gardens during the winter. (Source: Elizabeth Weintraub, Home Buying/Selling Expert)
3. Provide Helpful Information
The dining room or kitchen table can be a great spot to capture visitors’ attention with extra information about the listing. Place a variety of items here, including a brochure or flyer with photos of the house, information on comparable home sales and perhaps school or community information. Don’t forget to attach a bold label (in 24- to 48-point font) with your contact information on each type of information you provide.
You might also want to consider partnering with a local lender to provide information on payments with a few loan scenarios.
The goal is to get visitors to pause and look at these resources, encourage them to speak with you, and build your credibility as an important resource—not only about the listing, but about the community too. (Source: Teresa Mears, U.S. News and World Report)
4. Send a Follow Up Email
On Wednesday, send an “I forgot to tell you” email that highlights something that you did not put into the thank you email. It could be, “Oh, I forgot to tell you…since you’re interested in the Covered Bridge neighborhood, I know of a new home that just came on the market that you might like to take a peek at…” (Source: Andrea Sutten, TheReadyAgent.com)
At Housefax, our marketing experts recommend adding something specific about the home, found in the Housefax Report. For example, “I almost forgot to tell you...GOOD NEWS! According to the Housefax Report that beautiful basement you loved, with the new wet bar, has a building permit.” And this is where you would attach the full Housefax Report. Housefax PRO subscribers can take it further by branding the report with their photograph and contact information and adding valuable notes in each section specific to the conversation they had about the house.
Bonus Tip: As you probably know, the delicious scent of fresh baked cookies are a traditional favorite for making visitors feel "at home" at an Open House. But do you know how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie?
For more of our favorite Open House tips, see 12 BEST Summer Open House Tips We’ve Ever Seen on the Housefax Blog.
