When I started real estate in 1994 our local MLS book was printed once a month.  The internet was in its infancy with no real estate listings available to consumers.

When you took a new listing it could be a month before other agents in your MLS even knew about it and even longer then for buyers to find out about. 

So, several things happened.

1. Real Estate offices conducted once a week “caravans” so the office agents could see the new listings.
2. Some Boards conducted “caravans” so agents could see the new listings of other offices.
3. Buyers drove around looking for yard signs.
4. Agents held Open Houses to expose their new listing to buyers.

Open Houses as an effective method for finding your next home was somewhat successful.  It made sense to visit Open Houses in 1994.

Fast forward to 2007.  Things have changed:

1. Buyers have access to the MLS through agent websites and have INSTANT access to new listings. Try BradentonFloridaRealEstate.com
2. Agents set up buyers on email plans that INSTANTLY send them new listings as they are entered into the MLS.  Try our VIP HomeFinder Program
3. Buyers can see multiple photos of the home for sale.
4. Buyers can walk through the home virtually using their computer in the comfort of their own home. See BradentonRealEstate.com
5. Agents no longer have to hold Open Houses for buyers to find the home for sale.
6. 1000’s of web sites are available for buyers to find homes for sale.

The most recent NAR (National Association of Realtors) Survey of Home Buyers reveals how buyers first learn about the house they purchse:

• 36 % their agent found the house for them
• 24% the buyer found the house on the internet
• 15% found the house by the yard sign
• 8% through a friend, or neighbor
• 5% print or newspaper ad
• 3% directly from the seller
• 1% homebook or magazine
• <1%  Buyers are no longer finding the house they purchase by attending an open house.

NAR President, Thomas Stevens, says of the survey, “The real estate industry today bears little resemblance to the way we did business 10 years ago. It is hard to find another industry that has adopted technology so readily to its customers.”

If you are still visiting Open Houses, you are using old methods that just don’t work today. 

The BEST way to find a home is to work with a great REALTOR (like me) and to use my web sites. 

Please contact me, Dan Forbes, or call if you have questions about our Bradenton, Florida real estate market at 941-746-0505; toll free 877-646-8326.  Visit my web site BradentonFloridaRealEstate.com 

A local real estate company in our Bradenton, Florida real estate market recently ran a special Open House promotion. They enlisted 100 listing clients to agree to lower their asking price by 10 percent for a BIG one day Open House event. 

They ran huge newspaper ads promoting the Red Tag Open House event. Every listing was featured in the paper as offering a special, one day only, 10 percent discount. Our market was abuzz with the hype!

The event was held, and the results are in. 

Ta, Da…..

Visitors: 250 visitors attended the 100 Open Houses.
That’s an average of 2.5 visitors per Open House.  Those of you who hold Open Houses know that usually it’s the neighbors who always show up. I don’t think 2.5 visitors is quite what I call a success.

Sales: Zero, zip, nada, not a one.
I can’t think of a better demonstration of the uselessness of Open Houses.  In my opinion, the buyers have spoken loud and clear, “We don’t need no stinkin’ open houses.” Nail driven. Coffin closed. Let’s move on.

(Copyright © 2007 By Dan Forbes, All Rights Reserved.)

Please contact me, Dan Forbes, or call if you have questions about or our Bradenton, Florida real estate market at 941-746-0505; toll free 877-646-8326.  Visit my web site BradentonFloridaRealEstate.com  

Quite often when being interview by a seller, we are asked….“What about open houses??? Do you do them??” Our answer to most people is…While we are willing to do open houses they are not as effective as most people think.

Statistic show that 1 out of every 100 people that come thru an open house actually buy the house that is being held open. Even with internet advertising and newspaper adds, most people find open houses by following the signs in the neighborhood. Sometimes it is nosy neighbors or people just looking for decorating ideas.

Therefore, when walking into an open house, the public knows nothing about the house. They don’t know the price, taxes or amenities therefore creating a lot of unnecessary traffic thru ones home.

This is usually a great opportunity for a REALTOR to find some buyers to work with. Most people that visit open house and are really considering moving are not loyal to a REALTOR, giving the agent that is holding the open house an opportunity to provide their services to that buyer.

On the other hand, because statistics show that 1 out of every 100 people that come thru an open house actually buy the house that is being open, you do have a remote chance of selling your home through a open house.

If you have 6 people come through an open house on a given weekend, you will have to have about 17 open houses to get 100 people thru. That is 17 weekends that you, the seller, have to be gone for 3 to 4 hours so that your agent can host the open house. Since most people work and use their weekends to catch up on household chores, hosting so many open houses becomes very inconvenient to the seller.

Now the questions is…Is the person who is going to buy your house the 1st person thru, the 50th person thru or the 96th person thru?

When looking to hire a real estate agent to market and sell your home, you want someone who knows what it takes to get the results. The results are just not there with open houses. Hire a REALTOR with an aggressive marketing plan that is going to get you ALL the exposure that you can possibly get. The more people that know about your home, the more likely you are to sell quicker and for a good price.

Let’s face it….if the results were that great, there would be no room on the street corners with all the open house signs.

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I’m Dan Forbes and I want to be your Realtor and resource for all your Bradenton Real Estate needs. Visit me at BradentonRealEstate.com

I’m Dan Forbes and I want to be your Realtor and resource for all your Bradenton real estate needs.

The weekend open house is a time-honored tradition in real estate sales, but has it outlived its effectiveness? Quite possibly, according to a new survey conducted by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. The survey results hint at the notion that public open houses may be more beneficial for the agents themselves than for the home sellers.Almost all the agents who responded to the survey (97 percent) had held public open houses, but only 41 percent believe those events help sell the home that’s being showcased. Thirty-two percent believe public open houses attract many potential buyers, but nearly three-fourths also believe those buyers are more likely to buy a home other than the one being held open. And 62 percent say most people attending open houses aren’t serious buyers at all.

Public open houses also present a security issue for home sellers and agents. “Whether or not to hold an open house is a concern among agents,” says Jack Harris, a research economist with the Texas A&M center. “Agents must be on-site for the duration of open houses. Safety is a growing concern because there is no way to know whether a visitor is a serious buyer, just curious or has more sinister motives.”

Despite the potential for meeting prospects, many agents find open houses troublesome, dangerous and generally a waste of time. The first lesson for home sellers is: Unless your home is unusual (i.e., difficult to sell), you might want to spend your weekends enjoying your own backyard, rather than turning your home over to your real estate agent. If your agent is gung-ho on public open houses, find out what supplemental marketing efforts (e.g., advertising the open house in a local newspaper) he or she will use to attract serious buyers for your home to the event.

The falling favor of public open houses may be partially attributable to new marketing techniques, including real estate Web sites, cable television infomercials and yard signs that transmit radio messages about the home.

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Bradenton Real Estate

I’m Dan Forbes and I want to be your Realtor and resource for all your Bradenton real estate needs.

We sometimes have sellers ask our opinion about open houses. There are plenty of pros and cons for discussion. Here’s an interesting perspective…

On five Sundays last fall, Zouheir Farah and Maria Rodriguez rose early, scrubbed and vacuumed, put out fresh flowers and dutifully baked bread so their house would smell homey. Then they left for the afternoon while their real-estate agent held court. “We never questioned it,” says Farah, who knows now that the investment of effort never stood much chance of paying off. Their four-bedroom colonial sold after several months to a buyer who had never attended an open house but was brought in by an agent.

As the housing market has slowed in recent years, a great many sellers have discovered a real-estate industry secret: Open houses rarely move houses. In a 1991 survey by the National Association of Realtors, just 3 percent of people who had bought existing homes found them through an open house. Last year, Rebecca Dodd, the Centreville, Va., agent who represented Farah and Rodriguez, didn’t sell a single home through an open house, although the 30 or so she held did bring her nine new customers. Says Kay Courtney, a real-estate agent in Grand Rapids, Mich.: “Open houses are real good for me. But as a method of selling homes, they’re worthless.”

Browsers, no buyers. When serious house hunters are out in force, that may be less true; an open house could bring in a buyer, and if it doesn’t you might not notice. But in leaner times, open houses are at best likely to frustrate (”Last year, I got a lot of people saying they were looking to see how the homes were decorated,” says Dodd) and, at worst, could hurt your chances of getting the asking price. A house held open frequently can start to look like a loser, making it a prime target for low-ball bidders.

Even under the best of circumstances, open houses should be used judiciously. Unless your house is in a densely populated area, is easily accessible by car or on foot and is visible from the street, you may as well not bother holding open houses at all, says Jacelyn Stretton, a broker with Weichert Realtors in Chester, N.J. Instead, agents for out-of-the-way property owners might try invitation-only showings to homeowners in areas nearby where houses are less or more expensive, and who might thus be potential trade-up or trade-down buyers. Or your broker might direct walk-ins at other open houses your way. At each open house Stretton holds, she keeps a stash of materials on hand about other homes in her inventory at comparable prices.

Source: An Article by Amy Saltzman

I’m Dan Forbes and I want to be your Realtor and resource for all your Bradenton real estate needs.