The Blog

Two of my favorite things about Facebook are the Agent Mastermind group and the Raise the Bar in Real Estate group. I just love how everyone learns from everyone in these two groups. Every agent who I know has a special gift—something that really allows him or her to stand out from the crowd. Some are excellent at objection handling, and others are great with the technology.

For Kam Ng, a loan officer at Prospect Mortgage (and my friend, of course), his specialty is open house. Kam has made open house his wheelhouse. He works with agents throughout San Diego County to help them prepare for their open houses, and he even joins them to help to convert attendees in to homebuyers and home sellers. I just love the way he has carved his niche in working with agents on open house and I recently asked him to share his secret sauce with me. As you can see below, it is a pretty extensive recipe (just like mole poblano, which also has about 20 different ingredients).

Kam’s Recipe for Open House Success

Open house is the bread and butter of lead generation; an agent should not just “wing” it.  A lot of Realtors® give up after one slow open house. Open house is not a one-time cure all or magic potion. You might get nothing one week and 10 leads the next week but, most importantly, the consistent effort will turn into money in the bank.

Basic tips to improve results at open house:

1. Plan ahead (on Tuesday or Wednesday) for the weekend.
2. Pick your neighborhood and select the right
3. Plan accordingly: avoid holidays or major events (Mother’s Day, Super Bowl, etc); however, some holidays might bring more traffic (such as the Friday after Thanksgiving, for example)
4. Preview, preview, preview. Don’t show up at the house not knowing the number of bedrooms or whether there’s a dead rat in the closet.
5. Give a condition report and feedback to the listing agent. (If you do this, after 4 or 5 open houses, you will have listing agent calling you to hold open house.)
6. Place 20+ open house signs out throughout the neighborhood. (Make sure to be aware of any neighborhood rules about sign size and placement.)
7. Door knock during the week to get to know the neighborhood. (The purpose is NOT to invite neighbors yet, but to get to know the neighborhood.)
8. Preview other similar properties for sale within the neighborhood.
9. Door knock the day before or the day of the open house to invite neighbors.
10. Do all your research about the neighborhood ahead of time.
11. Hold an exclusive one-hour neighbors’ preview prior to the open house.
12. Always have a sign-in sheet, open house app, and/or property search app available.
13. Set up a “sales” station—a table with food, drinks, presentation board, print outs of other listings, etc.
14. Post the open house on Facebook, Craigslist, Trulia, and your MLS; don’t forget to invite neighbors!
15. Dress professionally…no jeans unless you are near the beach or in Hawaii.
16. Don’t stand behind the kitchen counter; welcome everyone that comes through the door.
17. Use Home Scouting Report or other technology to impress potential clients.
18. Know your basic scripts and objection handling.  Make simple conversations using FORD (Family, Occupation, Recreation, Dream).
19. Extra: Create a theme (holidays, cultural, toy drive, art show, etc) or something fun for the neighbors or kids to create engagement. (One agent coordinated several open house in the same neighborhood near Easter Sunday and organized an Easter egg hunt at the same time.)
20. Put on some music and have fun; people will tend to stay longer if they feel comfortable and relaxed.
21. Lastly, follow up, follow up, and follow up some more!  Send thank you cards, make follow up calls, enter every attendee into your database so that you can invite to him or her to the next open house.

I know it sounds like a lot of prep work. Now imagine if you were a potential seller and you see a Realtor® who does most or all of these things. You will definitely get the attention of buyers and sellers. It’s worth the effort!