A New Home for a New Year

Posted on: 17 January 2017

As a real estate agent, you have a competitive job and work in a cut-throat industry. In order to sell homes, you need to know how to reach potential buyers. One of the fastest and easiest ways to do this is through an open house. These can be very successful, but you have to know how to plan one. If you're new to the real estate industry and have never planned an open house (or only a few), here are three tips to make sure yours is successful:

1. Work Around the Schedule of the Community.

When you are scheduling your open house, you want to make sure that the open house does not conflict with any holidays or anything that is currently going on within the community. So, make sure to check the local calendar for any community events prior to setting a date in stone for your open house. For example, if the high school basketball finals or the circus is being held on the day that you're interested in hosting your open house, you are better off choosing another day.

Also, you should keep a close eye out for any local activities that you can "borrow" some traffic from for your open house. These include things like soccer games, farmer's markets, etc. You can place your open house signs near these events so that people going to and from them will see your signs and may decide to attend if they're interested in purchasing a home.

2. Put Out Your Advertisements Early.

Don't wait until a few days before the open house is going to be to let everyone know about it. As soon as you have all the details in place, go ahead and put the information up on your real estate website. Don't forget to include information about the home itself. The sooner you do this, the better the chances are of people clearing their schedules to make sure they can attend the open house to see the home that is up for grabs. If you have been keeping running tabs on individuals who are interested in a home to buy from prior open houses, make sure to reach out to them to inform them of this upcoming open house (assuming it is a potential fit for their wants and needs). 

3. Use Social Media and Technology to Your Advantage.

As a rookie real estate agent, you may not have even created a social media page yet – and, even if you have, you may not be very well-established in the realtor world yet with a lot of connected relationships. However, it is still very important that you use social media to your advantage when it comes to spreading the word about your open house. Yes, you should still use magazines, newspapers, and other print materials, but social media is all the rage today and it should not be overlooked. After all, this is how most millennials get their information. In fact, if you can, have an app developed to get your information out there to the people that want it.