What are Open Houses for?
Recently, Open Houses have been getting a bad rap. There’s been a lot of talk about whether sellers should just refuse to let their listing agents hold houses open due to a few robberies. A little bad news can go a long way.
Traditionally, Open Houses are held so that prospective home buyers can see the home without having to make an appointment with their Realtor (or any Realtor.) During the housing boom, Open Houses were the number one way to get homes sold - the Monday after the Open House we typically received anywhere from 3 - 5 offers if the home was priced attractively and showed well.
Today, the number of homes held open on the weekends has dwindled. Not only are there less buyers looking for homes - which makes it not worth the agent’s while to sit there for three hours or so waiting for a prospect who might not qualify - but homes are typically bank-owned and do not show well without furniture.
