5 quick tricks to get more from an open house

You know you can’t just schedule an open house and expect people to show up, but it can be hard to know where to get started and what to do to get more people at your open houses. Check out these 5 quick tricks to make the most of your listings – you’ll be a pro in no time.

Market your open house

The most important thing you’ll need to do is make sure that people actually know you’re hosting an open house. This is where marketing is going to come in — social media marketing, specifically, is great because of the scale at which you can reach people and the low overhead. (We’ll also touch on a few other marketing options as we go along!)

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Visual platforms, like Instagram and Snapchat, are especially well-suited to marketing real estate. Instagram is great for gorgeous photos that really show off a space, and Snapchat is more suited towards candid photos or videos (or a walking tour of the space).
• Don’t forget the “Live” options of all the standard social media outlets. Instagram and Facebook both offer these now, and they notify all of your followers when you start broadcasting, which can make it more likely that curious people will tune in.
• Facebook is still the giant in the social media space, and you can capitalize on it for open houses by not only going live and posting on your Facebook page, but also creating a Facebook event and inviting people to it. (Make sure to only invite potentially interested people — nobody likes an invite spammer!) Facebook also notifies users of events near them or events that their friends are interested in, which can help the organic reach of your event.

Get the neighbors on board

Nobody wants their open house railroaded by cranky neighbors, and neighbors can be just as much of a marketing asset as you can. To get the neighbors on your side, you’ll want to let them know about the open house as early as possible. Keep them informed about the time and date (including when you’ll be ending) and where you’ll be telling people to park.

If you really want to get on their good side, you can bring a small gift when you meet them and introduce yourself (a few pastries from a local bakery or a scented candle, for example). This is also a great opportunity to drop off any business cards or flyers about the event, so they can pass them out to people who might be interested!

Get buyers the details

Ideally, potential buyers will be able to spend most of their time at the open house checking out the space and neighborhood, without having to ask basic questions that can be answered ahead of time. To help out with that, you should make sure viewers have all the information in hand ahead of time.

Make sure you’re including the basic information like the floorplan and square footage on flyers (and on any online event postings), along with your business card and contact information so that people can easily follow up with you when they’re interested.

Create day-of collateral

On the day of your open house, you’ll want to have marketing collateral available that tells visitors all the things that can be hard to remember. Your collateral should include (but not be limited to):

• The floorplan and square footage
• Information on local amenities, like schools, parks, and so on (you could also add in information on local bike-friendliness, the walk score, and/or information on public transit, depending on your customer and property)
• Proximity to local attractions (if you’re marketing to business professionals, for example, proximity to both the local airport and downtown offices would be a good thing to list)
• You’ll want to put all of this information on something that visitors can easily stick in their purse or pocket (Postcards anyone?). That way, people can do more research on their own time. Don’t forget to include your contact information, along with a prompt to sign up for email and/or follow for social media updates.

Follow Up

Follow up is a crucial part of the sales process in every industry, and real estate is no different. Make sure to have something in place where potentially interested buyers can log their information (like a guest book or sign-in sheet), and collect the information of people who express interest in the event beforehand via platforms like Facebook or Eventbrite. If you want to get more organized in your follow-up process, you can use a tool like Streak or Contactually to reach out to warm leads, or something like MailChimp to manage your overall email marketing process.

Ready for your next open house? Make the most of your listings with Postcards