What is an Open House Day in Estate Agency?

An open house day in estate agency is simply a day when a house is open for anyone who wants to view it during a given period of time – usually, but not always, over a weekend.

At Turpie & Co, we love ‘open house days’ and we know buyers and sellers alike love them too.

The value of being open

Open house days are popular with most buyers and they offer a different viewing experience to a pre-booked, agent-accompanied viewing. Feedback from previous events has shown that buyers who are at the early stages of house hunting, and not quite ready to register with an agent, are more likely to attend an open day than arrange a private viewing.

At one of our previous events, the open house day attracted a near neighbour to a property we were marketing. The buyer lived in the same street and didn’t feel comfortable or ready to arrange a formal viewing – but they went on to submit an offer on the property the following week and bought it. This story illustrates just how an open house day used appropriately can really serve to broaden the exposure of your property and draw in more people who might not otherwise have been reached via other marketing channels.

Everyone is different – so options need to be too

There’s no such thing as a ‘typical buyer’ as the buying process starts long before any viewings take place. Someone just contemplating a move has a different motivation and criteria to those who have sold their property and need to move quickly. A collective open house event provides the opportunity for any buyer to view several similarly priced or located properties one after the other, regardless of their position or what stage they’re at in the process.

Getting it right

A good estate agent should have well-organised open days as part of their sales toolkit, and should be well-versed in running them. Typically, the estate agent hosts the viewings but sellers can also show the
property themselves if the open day is part of a larger coordinated event. If it’s the latter, the agent should coach owners on how best to present the property on the day and also how to potentially handle several viewers in the house at the same time.

However, these events are not simply something that should be deployed always: any promotional activity should be matched to the requirements of individual sellers, the expectations of buyers and the current market conditions. Above all, everything should be part of an agreed marketing plan that can attract the right buyers and create the right conditions for the best sale.