5 Open House Facts Your REALTOR® Won’t Tell You

By: Mark Moz – CC BY 2.0

5 Open House Facts Your REALTOR® Won’t Tell You

You are getting ready to sell your home and you decide to bring in a few REALTORS® to interview for the job of selling your FishHawk Ranch home. During the listing presentation, the agent boasts that they do “open houses” as a marketing tool. Here is what they don’t tell you.

• Open Houses Do Not Sell Homes! – Statistically speaking open houses do not sell homes. Per the National Association of Realtors, around 90% of home buyers start their home search online. Of that 90% about half of those buyers visit open houses and only 4% start looking at homes by visiting open houses. Less than 2% of all homes sold nationally were sold as a direct result of a buyer visiting an open house unaccompanied by a REALTOR®.

• Why REALTOR® Push Open Houses – I hate saying this but a good majority of REALTOR® use open houses to meet and find new clients. That’s not saying they are not trying to sell your home, they are. But per the statistics above there is a small chance that a random open house visitor will buy your FishHawk home. As a REALTOR® having buyers viewing an open house without an agent is a great opportunity to find new clients and build relationships with buyers in the market to buy a home. Typically hiring a REALTOR® as a buyer is free, hence real, qualified buyers are represented by REALTORS®. These REALTORS® will schedule an appointment to see your home.

• The Unqualified Buyer – Most REALTORS® will ensure their buyers are pre-approved for a mortgage and know the price range they can afford before showing them any FishHawk Ranch homes for sale. With an open house that all goes out the window. While it is likely that most of the people attending the open house are interested in buying a home most don’t even know your asking price before walking in. Are they able to qualify for your asking price? Is this in their price range? Does the home meet their needs? At this point, we have no idea.

• Wrong Kind of Traffic – One of the biggest issues with open houses is that real buyers rarely attend them. I’ve done my share of open houses and will tell you that the majority of visitors to the open house will be your neighbors that are just curious about the house and see how much it is listed for to get an idea of how much their home might be worth. The bottom line is you may get traffic but it is generally not going to be a legitimate buyer for your FishHawk home. Again, most qualified buyers will have a REALTOR® and schedule a private appointment to view the home.

• Security – In my opinion one of the major drawbacks of an open house is security. Security is an issue both for the agent holding the open house, the home, and the sellers. An open house is a perfect invitation to invite strangers into your FishHawk Ranch home. Unfortunately, there is no way to filter who is attending your open house and it is virtually impossible for a REALTOR® to properly keep an eye on all the visitors that may be in your house. There have been numerous reports of theft both during and at a later date after the open house. Do you really want to open your house up to just anyone?

There is no question you need a great agent to sell your home. A skilled REALTOR® can help you sell your home for the highest possible price. However, do not be fooled by the illusion that open houses will get your home sold. Yes, some homes are sold through open houses, but the statistics are not encouraging. Far more homes are sold through effective marketing, the Internet, social media, the MLS, and good old hard work and talent of your expert REALTOR®. If I have a seller that requests an open house, I have no issues holding them. They are actually fun and I do get to meet some great people and potential new clients. If you are still interested in having an open house, by all means, have one. Just be realistic, understand the risks, and please do not be fooled by agents claiming that having an open house is a good way to get your home sold and that it is part of their marketing. It may be a part of the puzzle but a very small part. A real, qualified buyer will have a REALTOR®, that REALTOR® will email the buyer listings that meet their criteria. If a buyer really wants to see your home they schedule an appointment to see it.

FishHawk Ranch Real Estate Information

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• FishHawk Ranch HOA
• FishHawk Ranch Property Taxes

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About the Author

The above Real Estate article “5 Open House Facts Your Realtor Won’t Tell You” was written by Jeff Gould.

Jeff is a top-selling, nationally recognized real estate broker, REALTOR®, and local FishHawk Ranch real estate expert.

In addition to the FishHawk area, Jeff sells homes in the entire Tampa Bay area. Including Lithia, Riverview, Valrico, Apollo Beach, Brandon, and the rest of the Tampa Bay area.

If you are looking to sell or buy a home anywhere in the Tampa Bay area, Jeff is your local and trusted professional.

Jeff can also be reached via text or phone at (813) 421-3007.

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© 2018, Jeff Gould. All rights reserved.