Open houses have become a subject of much debate as of late. You can ask two real estate agents and get two different answers about whether you should hold an open house for your Connecticut home for sale.
The truth is that less than 5% of homes sell due to an open house, and the main benefit of the open house is for the agent holding the open house to find new clients. Open houses are a home marketing tool of the past.
Back in the pre-internet days, open homes were necessary as they were one of the few avenues buyers could get a feel for the home. Buyers today can and do get almost all the information they want about a property online. Your Realtor’s marketing plan should include professional property photography, a virtual tour an plenty of online advertising to fully showcase the property online.
Let’s consider the pros and cons of the average open house today:
OPEN HOUSE PROS
Your Realtor will have the opportunity to get in front of home buyers and sellers who do not have agents, and perhaps retain them as new clients.
There is a minute (less than 5%) possibility a buyer that comes through the open house purchases your home.
OPEN HOUSE CONS
An open house is an invitation for the un-screened public to tour your home. In a private showing, buyers are screened before an agent will show them homes. That means their true intention for seeing homes is to purchase one and they have spoken to a lender and are qualified to do so. In an open house however, there’s no pre-requisite to attend. Everyone is welcome in! Those who attend may or may not be qualified to purchase your home. In even less desirable scenarios, attendants of open houses are just curious neighbors, or worse - criminals looking for opportunities.
Open houses present safety issues. There is simply no way a single agent can totally supervise everyone’s activities in a busy open house, and with more attacks and murders of vulnerable real estate agents, agent safety is also a heightened concern. A Realtor sitting alone in your home, with an invitation for strangers to come in, is a needless safety hazard. How would you feel if something went missing, or your agent was harmed? Could you also be liable? Food for thought.
Yes - there is that minute possibility that a buyer that comes through an open house purchases your home, that would not have ended up viewing it anyway, but those instances are incredibly rare.
The fact is that serious, qualified buyers will have already gotten a lot of information about your home online or through their agent, and then scheduled a private showing of your home.
Open houses are simply no longer necessary to sell your home, and in fact present more risk than they are worth. Every Realtor knows that open houses do not necessarily sell homes, but sure can be great tools for an agent to pick up new buyers, or maybe list your neighbors homes when they stop by to check out yours!
If you want to sell for the most, in the least amount of time, focus on these 4 tips instead.
Last Updated on March 27, 2019 by Minna Reid