How to Hold a Proactive and Productive Open House

In real estate, there are several ways to generate leads...some more effective than others.  All approaches will usually fall into two categories.  They are either proactive or passive at their basis.  Proactive is defined as a person, policy, or action creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened. Passive is defined as accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance. So, clearly, we are going to have more influence over the results when we’re proactive in our activities. This would be a good time to take a look at what you’ve been doing to generate leads and determine which category most of your prospecting efforts fall within.  What we often discover is many of the approaches we’re using are passive, thus contributing to slow responses and lower quality leads.

Let’s first look at some of the passive ways leads could be generated. They would be sitting open houses, talking up calls or sometimes referred to as floor time, buying internet leads, or running ads in various types of media. Keep in mind these are easily identified as we are usually waiting for something to happen and do not have any control over what will happen. This is where many agents find themselves focused.  Some of the proactive approaches would be calling into your database for referrals, calling on for sale by owners, expired listings or knocking on doors. We can clearly see the difference here as all of these examples are direct attempts to identify a motivated candidate to buy or sell real estate.  Obviously, it’s easy to see why most agents find themselves drawn into the passive activities; they believe it will avoid a lot of rejection and confrontation, true!  Unfortunately, there is a price to be paid either way...take on the rejection (be more proactive) and make money or go the passive route, yes, avoid rejection and in the process income opportunity is lost too. We want to be very aware of how we’re going about generating business, what category we’re spending most of our efforts in and manage our expectations accordingly.

As much as I am not a huge fan of any kind of passive approach to selling real estate, many agents do open houses on a regular basis. Especially when starting out in the business. When I first started, I would do an open house on Saturday and Sunday until I had enough buyers to show all day Saturday (10a 1p and 4p) then I would do one only on Sunday.  So, if agents are going to them, there are some actions that we can take to increase our odds of having a more successful outcome.

Let’s go over the four stages to holding a proactive & productive open house.

Stage 1 - The Selection Process - This matters, do your homework

The 3 L’s - location, location, location. Simple, let’s make sure the home is a desirable listing. Favorable curb appeal - if the house is ugly, people will pull up and drive off, priced properly, buyers’ are educated… and good school districts are a big draw.

While speaking a location, In a perfect world, multiple access points to draw in traffic. Ideally, you will be able to pull from multiple major traffic streets that feed into the neighborhood.

If you don’t have a listing to hold open, maybe check with your manager/broker to see if there is any reason you couldn’t ask an associate in your office or company wide if you could hold their listing open (prospecting :) If you don’t already know who the top agents listing homes are in your office, get to know them and let them know what you are looking to do open houses. Ask keep me in mind when the opportunity presents itself.

Stage 2 - Pre-Open House Activities

Pull all of your sales data and know the area inside and out.  Also, it would be a good idea to know what is going on in the areas surrounding the subject property that would be considering the competition.  The broader your awareness, the higher level conversations you will be able to have when you’re meeting visitors to the open house. This will separate you from your competition as they will recognize you know your stuff - it will be a deeper conversation vs. the other agents skimming the surface and only able to make small talk. Simple idea and yet many of us go through the motions unprepared.

Make it an event - Yes, we want to do all we can to bring attention to the open house. If we are going to hold the open on Sunday, you could use the four days prior to getting the word out.  Other than posting in your MLS and online, it’s very effective to go out starting on Wednesday/Thursday and begin knocking on the doors on the same street and surround few streets announcing the open house and inviting the neighbors to stop by, take a look and keep up with what is going on in their area. Afterall, in most cases, this is the largest investment they have ever made. Saturday’s are great for door knocking. If this is uncomfortable for you, that’s, even more reason to do it. We have to stop kidding ourselves that we’re going to achieve our goals living in our comfort zone.  Feel the fear and do it anyway! That’s the only way I have found to overcome and breakthrough.

While at the door, you can also use these simple questions to potentially generate leads or get your next listing. (Role Play)

Hi, my name is _____ with ABC Realty.  I stopped by today to let you know I am representing your neighbor, Mr.and Mrs.Seller over on

123 Main St. In an effort to get the seller maximum exposure, one thing we’re doing is holding an open house this Sunday, from 1 to 4p. Here’s some information on the home (hand them a flyer) and I wanted to personally invite you to pop by for a few minutes. (They say whatever)

By any chance, who do you know that may be interested in moving into this area? (no one comes to mind, or my sister is looking to move in the neighborhood)

Just curiously, how long have you lived at this address? (Great, wow, really)

Where did you move from?

How did you happen to pick this area?

If were to move, where would you go next? (answer)

When would that be? (This helps flush out a lead for some future date)

This is a very effective way to keep the conversation flowing.  The more you practice these questions, the more ease you will have carrying on a fluid dialogue with the homeowner.  When we do this enough, you will begin to generate leads, add people to your database and close more business.  If you don’t practice, you will find it hard, be intimidated and probably not take the action necessary to win more often. Take the path less will travel, be prepared - go with confidence.

Stage 3 - The Big Day - It’s Showtime

Arrive early - If the open house is set for 1 pm, think I want to be ready to go at 12:40.  Allow yourself 20 minutes to get inside, adjust the A/C or heating (if necessary and with permission) turn on the lights, open window coverings (when it enhancing the view) turn on the TV or radio, get yourself set up with your flyers, computer, sign in materials or whatever you do.  When you show up late, you do all of this rushed, and this causes your level of stress to increase which will take you off your A game when interacting with the people you meet. Why are you doing this open house? To make a great impression and generate business right?  Be early, be relaxed, prepared and ready to go.

Directional signs - As allowed in your community, put up as many directional signs as possible. Be sure to ask for permission if placing a sign in the yard of a neighbor. Knock on the door, ask for permission. (script) If no answer, leave a note on the front door or consider going to the home across the street to ask.  2 or 3 signs isn’t going to cut it.  If you don’t have more signs, borrow some, buy more or consider waiting until you can do this properly. As mentioned earlier, we want to pull traffic from multiple directions to increase potential visitors. I can recall using as many as 12-15 signs when I would do open houses when I got started in the business. Get creative! Yes, it is a pain in the neck...no one ever said success was easy...however it’s a pain somewhere else when you take a Sunday away from family, hanging out with friends or just some time to yourself to have an open house that was a bust and waste of time.

Materials - Have your sales data ready to go.  Will you be handing anything out? This is up to you, however, it is critical to be prepared and ready.  Will you be using any technology to show visitors information?  How will you have people sign in? (Book, tablet, face to face?)  I also always suggest you bring something to work on.  You can use this time to practice your listing presentation, buyer presentation, objections, scripts - anything you can identify as a skill that when developed, will allow you to increase your efficiency and productivity. We don’t want to ever fall into the trap of just sitting at an open house watching TV, wasting time on FB or a game on your phone. If the open house is slow, turn that time into learning time. Remember the saying...the agents the learn more, typically earn more.

Your Approach - Have this worked out ahead of time. After you have done several opens, you will find what your “go to “ style will be to engage the visitors.  Our goal is to, in the shortest time possible be able to decipher a good candidate from a looky loo. Again, with time comes experience and you will be able to pick up on this right away. Have your 3- 5 go to questions internalized so you can break the ice and see what you have to work with.  How will you position yourself to follow up? How will you get accurate contact information to follow up with?  We don’t have time here to get into every detail; I just want to mention a few of the most important things to be mindful of so you can be in a position to convert more business. A great agent and friend many years ago shared with me a question you can ask that is designed to set them up to have to come back to talk to you before leaving the house…”I want to ask a favor, or I want to ask your opinion...as you are looking around, would you please make a mental note of one thing you like the most about the home and one thing you think could be improved...then before you go, let me know what those things were so I could share the feedback with the seller”.  You will find the majority of the time, when you give them an assignment and ask for help, people will want to fulfill their end and report their findings to you. Of course, this allows you to potentially develop some rapport before they head for the front door and generate some new leads

For the over achievers listening...staying open longer (maybe 30-45 minutes) can allow you to catch more visitors since the amount of signs in the area are reduced.

Stage 4 - Post Open House Activities 

Send a handwritten note to any neighbors that may have stopped by.

Follow up on any leads you generated.  As simple as this sounds, this is an area many agents fall short. Learning a strong lead follow up scripts will help your confidence.  I like to use the example of the TV show Survivor. There may be 5- 6 agents following up in the first few days after the OH and a week later no one is.  Stay the course, if for some reason you don’t reach the lead, they don’t call back...don’t read into this.  Just keep checking in every few days, real buyers will appreciate your effort and believe it or not you will be earning their business by doing so. In the end, don’t forget this is a numbers game...do anything enough, be open to tweaking what you do to make it better each time and you will see positive results. Keep in mind; sometimes you will convert the person you are speaking with, or they may just be someone who turns you on to someone else who is in the market. When we have an unstoppable mindset, we will find a way to make things happen.  Sometimes in life we can’t wait for the ship to come in, we must swim out to it!

It goes without saying and of course, is the #1 priority - safety. Not to be an alarmist, it’s just wise to have a heightened awareness when conducting an open house. Always do what you feel comfortable doing. Make sure to let family, friends/co-workers know where you are going to be. Sometimes, agents will sit an open house with a partner, if that works for you then do it.  If you aren’t familiar with things to do or look out for, it’s wise to do your research...read up on and talk to some trusted resources and practice good open house security best practices.