Okay, okay I know that the HGTV shows all show Realtor open houses. I get email from my associates all the time where a mock “Street of Dreams” is constructed and a floating meal between listings is done. ”Realtors come and eat, drink, and possibly get a gift card to Target” is their plea! Do they work though?
One of the gals in our office does about the best Open Houses in town. She gets 20-30 people to show up to these things, both Realtors and “other” people or non-Realtors alike. I hate to call them “buyers” because you never know if these non-Realtors are buyers or nosey neighbors who are after some freed food and drink and sit on your sofa as they gawk at your stuff.
The point I want to make however is that in our marketplace Open Houses don’t lead to “more sales” as compared to “not” doing an Open House. I have set up for my Listings a Virtual/Video/Slideshow (that will knock your socks off by the way) Open House that causes no wear and tear on the carpet, no wine stains, and you can keep your Target gift card and use it on your kids at Christmas! These have staying power that don’t exist with a weekend Open House at a home for sale because thanks to Google and the Net, they are online “FOREVER” forever, forever, forever….(like the echo effect?)
That’s right. Forever. The link starts out on the first Google search results page and stays there. Now instead of getting 20-30 Realtors and neighbors coming by for a drink and a party on one given Sunday afternoon, I had at last count on a Virtual Open House at 185 Horseshoe Circle in Cedar Creek, roughly 197 hits or views! Wow! 
Thinking outside the box! That is what it takes to sell real estate today. In the end, she has an Open House a weekend and I have that thing called the Net. For the year I have one more closed sale than she has this year. She is a good realtor, but I am trying to be the most TECH based Broker and a Resource for Athens GA real estate! Now to throw one more question out there that cannot be answered, how many of her sales are a direct result of Open Houses versus some other source? I asked her. She said that she has only had one sale directly tied to a specific Open House. I attribute all of mine to the Net!
My soap box within my industry is that we need to think ahead and think of where the market is taking us. Old, traditional, tired ways of thinking regarding how to market a home may be traditional, tired, Old, and they cost too much money in areas that most people are not paying attention.
Think progressively and sell your home! Call or email me!
http://www.AthensGaHomesForSale.com
