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How To Draw More People To An Open House (I hope) |
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As I discussed a few weeks ago, the value of an open house is often unknown (and perhaps questionable) to home owners, and the Realtors representing them. But at the same time, open houses often get people inside of homes who may not have viewed the home otherwise --- and an important step of a successful sale is to have people view the home. So --- I'm testing out a new strategy to get potential buyers in the door at the open house . . .   I printed (front and back) 500 of these business card sized mini-flyers advertising the open house. Then, almost all of them were distributed on parked cars in an often packed parking lot near the home that is for sale. As you might imagine, I had a lot of internal conversations and questions about doing this:1. Is it o.k. to put things on cars in a parking lot? According to the local police officer who I spoke to, yes, so long as a "no soliciting" sign is posted. 2. Will some car owners be annoyed by the mini-flyer on their windshield? I hope not -- I hope they say "wow, that Realtor really works hard to sell the houses he has listed" -- though I imagine some may be peeved. My apologies!!! 3. Will the owner of the parking lot be upset that some might end up in the parking lot instead of the pockets of the car owners? I hope that all of the car owners take their treasured mini-flyer home --- but I do realize that some may end up in the parking lot. As a result, I imagine that I'll either get a call to come pick them up, or a "no soliciting" notice will be installed (or both!?). 4. Will it actually work? Will I be able to generate more traffic to the open house? Will the house sell as a result? This is to-be-determined. The open house started about 19 minutes ago, so I'll have to provide another update later on. If this new strategy for getting people into open houses does work --- you know that I'll be repeating it to work to sell the other properties I have listed for sale --- if not, I'll be back to the drawing board to think of a new, creative way to market homes! | |
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Scott Rogers
Coldwell Banker
Funkhouser Realtors
540-578-0102
scott@cbfunkhouser.com
Licensed in the
Commonwealth of Virginia
I recently got a sales postcard in the mail for a townhouse for sale down the street... from my townhouse. And not a townhouse of any greater or lesser size/quality/etc. I thought it was strange and that the realtor wasted their money. Why would I want to move a few 100 yards down the street?
I think you might have better luck targeting folks that the house for sale would be a step up for, or that the home would be super convenient for (work, school, etc.). Good luck.
FWIW, I think the answers to your questions are: NO (Legally ok yes, morally ok no), YES, YES (I would think "trespassing litterer"), Let us know!
May 18, 2008 8:02 pm
Josh --- perhaps life is much more exciting 100 yards down the street?? :) Just kidding. Was the pitch really with the intent of seeing whether YOU wanted to buy the townhouse down the street, or was it asking if you know anyone who might want to buy it? Depending on the property, I sometimes send a letter to neighbors asking if they know anyone who might want to live in the neighborhood. Again, depending on the property, neighbors often know people who want to move into the neighborhood.
Good thoughts on other target marketing ideas --- the unnamed nearby parking lot was a second-hand attempt at directing the marketing towards those for whom the home would be super convenient. In that if they were at the store where the "trespassing littering" went on, they probably live near by --- and the property or sale is near by that parking lot, etc., etc.
On #1 --- to the extent that I might do this again, I'm curious about your moral objections to the open house flyers --- is it from the littering perspective?
On #2 & #3 --- I haven't heard from any car owners or the store owner, so I don't know yet whether anyone was annoyed.
And on #4 --- the grand total for visitors to the open house this afternoon was . . . . . . . . ZERO!?! Admittedly, it was raining for much of the time frame, but I was still a bit disappointed. To double check on the possible success of the open house flyer marketing, I'm going to check to see if that property was viewed an abnormally high number of times on my web site over the past few days.
May 18, 2008 8:19 pm
So.... to answer my own question of whether this property, 409 Diana Court, was viewed an abnormally high number of times on my web site over the past few days --- the answer is BARELY.
The property has been on the market since February 26, 2008 --- thus, 82 days. It has been viewed online 218 times during that time period, thus an average of 2.66 times per day. During the course of this past Friday/Saturday/Sunday (when the flyers were distributed) it was viewed 10 times --- thus, an average of 3.33 times per day. So....at a somewhat higher rate, but not astronomically so --- and if only 10 people looked at the property online as a result of the flyers, it may not have been worth it.
May 18, 2008 8:41 pm
#1 Not really a littering thing, I just get annoyed when anyone flyers my car. :) I consider my car private property that shouldn't be touched by anyone uninvited.
So when I was searching for my place, I rarely used realtor's websites. I stuck to hrar and realtor.com. Do most of your homebuyers find your listings through your website?
May 19, 2008 10:33 am
Josh -- even if I slip the flyer under the windshield wiper without touching your car?? :) Just kidding --- message received --- thanks for your perspective!
I also appreciate your thoughts on choosing the web site you use for finding listings. I don't think most home buyers find my listings through my web site, because information about my listings is available on many, many web sites on the web beyond my own.
But the way in which people choose the web site they use to search for homes is fascinating to me --- take a look at my new post about it here --- I'd love your thoughts!
May 19, 2008 10:43 pm
I've often thought this is a unique idea to solidify your presentation at a Listing appointment. Will it work in terms of attracting some more traffic? Maybe, maybe not. But if I'm on the receiving end of one of these cards, I like that it's not a full fledged flier and instead something that I can fit into my pocket/wallet. So if you think about it, it might be interesting enough to warrant a second look and have people come by :D
May 20, 2008 2:03 am
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