The success of your opne house depends on several factors, including:

• marketing
• location
• pricing
• timing
• the seller
• the agent
• the weather and other events.

Marketing

Don’t just rely on the neighbors and local gawkers. Get the word out ahead of time. In print and on line. Your agent has two audiences: other agents and the general public. Other agents get the word through inter-office email and the Multiple Listing Service where they can find open houses by date and location. The public gets the word via the internet at real estate portals like Zillow and Trulia, the agent’s and/or broker’s website, and through specially timed ads on craigslist; in print the public is informed through ads in the local papers and the notice at the local market. Putting stickers on the listing flyers ahead of time and adding an “Open House” rider with date to the lawn sign helps but reaches fewer people. Internet marketing has an unbeatable edge: mapping and directions.

Location

How easy will it be to find your home? Often, that depends how easy it will be to give directions. Regional and local Seattle area sign ordinances have become stricter and there’s been some controversy as this blog post in the Seattle Times points out.  It’s easier to direct people to a home in a suburban neighborhood in, let’s say  Redmond or Woodinville than to a condo in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle. The harder it is to help finding a home with signage the more important is the pre-open-house marketing, especially maps and directions. Thankfully, open house seekers guided by GPS devices are becoming more common.

Pricing

The pricing factor is closely tied to location. Very expensive homes don’t lend themselves to open houses and the neighbors in exclusive neighborhoods may not want the attention of strangers. An aggressively priced and well promoted home may attract a large crowd. There are risks involved in holding an open house. You do not want to have two or three parties show up at the same time and traps about your house unsupervised. To handle that kind of traffic your agent will need to have additional personnel.

Days on Market

Timing can be everything. The earlier after first listed the better but not too soon. Your agent should have stirred the pot and know the online traffic stats to gage interest and timing. I try to list on a Wednesday or Thursday and wait until the second weekend to hold an open house. Another timing factor for having an open house (or a second one) is after a change in the listing, such as a price drop or when the owners have moved out, when the clutter is gone and the home can be staged advantageously.

The Seller

You and your agent have to work as a team. Your agent should consult you first as to the date of the open house. You may have dinner guest on the evening of the day. You or a family member may be sick or have a birthday. Then there’s the preparation. Some things only you can do; like cleaning out the litter box or telling your teenage son to tidy up his mess. Also, put all prescription medicine safely away. Leave nothing dangerous in plain sight, such as that set of Victorinox knifes. Anything really small and valuable should not be within easy grasp. Call your agent about 15 minutes after the end of the open house to make sure the coast is clear for your return. Ideally, you want your agent to stay until you come back to discuss what’s happened. A fresh memory supported by good notes will help evaluate the event.

The Agent

You’ve probably experienced this. You go to an open house and the agent showing the home is not the listing agent. You ask questions and the agent can’t answer the one of greatest importance to you. The industry wisdom is that this other agent will be interested in finding the buyer among the open house visitors and represent that buyer in the transaction. At the least, the “house sitting” agent, often a more junior agent, gets the opportunity to meet some potential clients and hand out business cards. However, in my opinion there is nobody better equipped to hold your open house than your listing agent.. Your listing agent knows you and your home the best. Your listing agent represents you and your interests the best. Your open house should not be the seen chiefly as an occasion for client prospecting -.not by your listing agent and certainly not by another agent.

The Weather and Other Events

Sunny or at least dry days are usually better. Rain and snow keeps people away, and if they come anyway their mood can be as cark as the skies and the mud they drag in even darker. (Keep those booties handy.) You can, within reason, take the weather into account but don’t let it dictate your event. Speaking of events, this is were you and your agent should check the calendar ahead of time. Don’t try to compete with the local home coming weekend, the World Series or Superbowl. Also, if your home is in an urban neighborhood and parking is at a premium don’t schedule your open house at the same day as the annual culinary event held by Greek Orthodox church around the corner. On the other hand, a special sign announcing your open house on the following weekend may get more attention than usual.

What Makes an Open House Special?

It is the only opportunity for anybody to see a broker-listed property at their convenience on their own. It gives your listing agent and you a chance for unique feedback. A skilled listing agent will be able to read a visitor’s silent reactions. Finally, the visitor’s questions should be viewed as opportunities to improve the listing, which means improving the presentation of your home in print and, most importantly, on the internet.

Open houses are great learning opportunities.

Until the early 1980s there was only one agent:
the Listing Agent. Buyers thought they were represented by the listing agent when, in reality, they weren’t represented at all. When we bought our first home in 1982 we knew nothing about real estate. The agent was a nice guy and it looked to us as if he was “on our side.” He wasn’t.

Sold by the Selling Agent? — NOT

Now, some 25 years later,
many people, especially first-time buyers, know as much about real estate as I did back then. And, while “buyer agency” started in the early 1980s, the concept of being represented as a buyer by an agent devoted entirely to the buyer’s interest still needs to be explained and promoted.

Expunge the term Selling Agent
from the real estate vocabulary. Use instead the term Purchasing Agent, a term widely understood by anyone who’s ever dealt with business.

Business dictionaries describe the role of a Purchasing Agent as:

1. seeking reliable vendors or suppliers to provide quality goods at reasonable prices
2. negotiating prices and contracts
3. reviewing technical specifications for raw materials, components, equipment or buildings
4. determining quantity and timing of deliveries

Translated into the real estate business, the Purchasing Agent:

1. seeks to find quality real estate at reasonable prices from reliable sources, such as other agents or private sellers
2. negotiates prices and terms of purchase and sale agreements
3. reviews features and examines, with the help of other experts, the soundness of property and
4. ensures that transaction moves forward in a timely manner according to the contract and closes as agreed.

Purchasing Agents
are used in business where either price or quantity or both are significant and where an individual with special product expertise can save a company money or otherwise add value to the transaction. Purchasing real estate is for most people the highest value transaction and to engage a purchasing agent with special expertise makes sense.

When the time comes to hire an agent
to help you find a home or condo ask the agent to give you a job description for what he or she will do for you. What IS the special expertise? Where’s the value for YOU? The last person you want to hire is an agent who want to “sell you on a property.”

Terminology is local
The term Selling Agent is used in Washington State and elsewhere across the USA. A website, calling itself the Real Estate Dictionary gives this definition of Selling Agent: “A real estate broker or salesperson who writes the purchase offer for a buyer in a real estate transaction, but may not actually represent the buyer.” WRONG in this part of the world and evidence for why the term Selling Agent should be eliminated.