Are open houses worth it? This is a relatively common question from people selling their home. Opening your home up to strangers to walk randomly walk through can be daunting. At least when regular showings are booked you know that it can be tracked a little better who is coming through and they always have an agent with them.
So are open houses actually worth it? When you speak to people who have been in the industry a long time, anecdotally many of them will say that you’re lucky if 10% of the open houses you host result in an offer. That means you would theoretically need to host 10 of them to realistically expect an offer out of it. Ideally your home will be sold by the time you are able to host 10 open houses.
So whats the point of having an open house? Obviously that one in ten could happen on the first open house. Every little bit of marketing could help and if you want your home sold why not try it. You probably want to maximize the exposure of your home and that is one way to do it.
Is that enough to offset what some see as the potential risk? There is risk of theft, not a large one, but certainly anytime people are coming through your home there is a chance for it. We always recommend when selling your home that you do put all your valuables in a safe or somewhere else you can keep it where people can’t get to it.
There is actually another side of open houses that doesn’t get talked about as much. That is that agents use them for finding more clients. Many people walking through an open house do not have an agent representing them. It’s a great method to grow your business. That doesn’t mean that agents aren’t trying to sell your home, it just means that its not the only reason its there.
Its also important to note that many people visit several open houses. Often agents will ask a questions along the lines of “If this home isn’t right for you, I’d be happy to find you another that is.” Some home owners do not like that potential buyers are seemingly being pushed to another property. However, you can’t force someone to buy a house they don’t like, no matter how smoothly you talk. So the idea here is that if they don’t like this property you can get them to buy another. Then you have other agents doing the same in other properties that may be able to funnel them towards yours. This way any open house in Barrie in your price range could potentially help sell your home. Think about it, if 90% of people coming through an open house aren’t putting an offer on that property, they will still be putting an offer on a property.
Open houses aren’t needed. Can they help sell your home? Of course. Are they worth the perceived risk? That’s entirely up to you. Its rare that anything goes wrong at an open house, very rare. Its possible. They can help sell your home, get more exposure, and for many that alone is worth hosting an open house.
So if you’re selling your home, speak to your agent. Find out if its a buyers or sellers market. In Barrie right now it heavily favours the seller as inventory as very low. You don’t need an open house to get offers right now. That may change at any time though so ask the questions.
