How important is open house - How often - What time limit?

Pro

Open houses are a great way to get buyers through your home. You never know when the right person is going to walk through the door and fall in love with your home. Your neighbors will more than likely stop in and they are a great source of word of mouth advertising. It's worth the inconvenience of having to be gone for a couple of hours!

I send out a list of open houses in the MLS to the buyers that I am working with each Friday. I've sold several homes to buyers that have seen them at an open house.

Once every 30 to 45 days works well for me and hold them open from 1 to 3

Con
Open houses are successful only in certain markets. For example, San Francisco buyers know that the open house is their best ticket into homes. In places like St. Louis, Nashville and Charlotte, an open house is a way for an agent to generate buyers for other homes and allow for the neighbors to see the house. Nationally, less than 0.05% of all homes are sold at open houses. If you don't mind holding your home open for people to come through and your agent is willing to conduct them, go for it. It doesn't hurt. However, statistics say, it just doesn't help.

The most important part of selling your home is pricing right and having it in the best condition for the price point. The most important promotion of the home is a strong web presence with impressive visuals, solid copy and transparent information. Homebuyers are using the internet in their home search. In my opinion, forget the open house and strive for strong internet presence.

Personally, I think that open houses are very helpful in exposing the property to potential buyers when they are not with their agents. In the past year, we have had 3 properties sold to individuals that came through the open house, whether sent there by there agent, found on the internet, or following signs. That's enough proof for me.

As with most things in real estate, there are caveats. At the high end, you tend to get more Walk-ins who have always wanted to go inside a house like that, but that comes with the territory. We do our opens from 1-4PM on Sundays, just don't make it too long. It's better to have several groups in the property at once, bumping into each other, which better creates a sense of desirability and urgency. If you have someone linger in the home for 30+ minutes and no one else comes in, it plants the seed of doubt in their mind.

Just our thoughts, hope they help