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Follow @bokauffmannWith the spring market comes new listings for homes, and Open Houses to bring buyers into the house. This strategy (holding Open Houses) is a favorite of "Private Sellers" who are being told that this method is a great way to showcase the home. But is it? Lets take a look at some stats:
The National Association of Realtors has conducted a study and discovered that 1-in-400 visits to an Open House results in a sale. One-In-400??? Great odds if you’re playing the lottery, but for selling a home? By contrast, in Winnipeg, approx. 1-in 5 showings by a Realtor results in an offer. In other words, for homes that are priced accurately, 20 showings by Realtors should, and in most cases will, produce between 4 and 6 offers on that house.
Putting Boots on the ground in your home: No doubt that Open Houses attract a large number of visitors! But consider this: When home-buyers first start to look at homes, they start out by going to Open Houses (especially Open Houses at Private Sellers), because they feel there will be no pressure on them, no committment! Since they are not ready to buy (we’re ‘just looking’, thanks), they do not want to be contacted by a Realtor, or give out their personal information. This also means that the vast majority of Open House visitors are simply not ready to buy….. they really are ‘just looking’. There is certainly nothing wrong with that, but is this really what the homeOWNER needs?
On the other hand, once buyers are ready and committed to finding a home, most of them will work with a Realtor. In doing so, they become pre-approved by a bank and are truly ready to buy NOW. So the 20-or-so showings a home gets via Realtors are far more valuable than getting 50 visitors to an Open House.
As an anecdotal story, I can point to a recent Open House in Linden Woods. During the week, 12 Realtors showed this home, and during our Open House we had 20 couples come thru the house. None of the Open House visitors wrote an offer, but 2 of the buyers with Realtors did!
So if you are a home-buyer who is just starting to look and want to get a ‘feel for the market’, Open Houses are a great way to start. You may find however that, depending on the homes’ location and price, you end up rubbing elbows with 30 other Open House Visitors, and may decide that this is not an enjoyable way to shop. Consider that, if you are working with a Realtor, ANY home can be an OPEN HOUSE, ALL the time.
But if you are the Home OWNER, throwing your doors open to anyone with no more motivation than a few spare minutes to kill, might not be the most valuable strategy.
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