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Do Open Houses Work? What's a Broker Open House?

This is the first in a two-part series on open houses.

There are two kinds of open houses, one for brokers and one for the public. The broker's open house is typically held first. Its purpose is to enable your agent to showcase your home to as many brokers as possible, educate them about the property, discuss unique aspects of it and answer questions about the house.

Most established brokers are working with a number of prequalified buyers looking to live in your community. You want these brokers to tour your home, become familiar with it and ask the listing agent questions that they or their client/buyer might have. Professional agents want to see all properties that come on the market even if they don’t have a buyer in the price range. They never know when they might be asked about a particular house or if a new client is in your home's price range.

In peak seasons of spring and fall, agents may tour as many as 40 properties each week. It's advisable to hold two broker open houses so that as many agents as possible can view the home. If the property has been on the market for a while or undergoes a price adjustment, the listing agent should hold another open house so brokers can refresh their memories.

Your home must be in top showing condition for the open house. Your agent should have a full listing sheet available, as well as a color brochure, floor plans and a property feature sheet. I create individual property quick response, or QR, codes for each of my listings. QR codes are square barcodes that contain information that most smart phones can read. Buyers and agents can take a picture of the QR code and the property's website will appear on their phone and they can save it to view it later.

When done properly, broker and public open houses are effective ways to generate traffic of qualified buyers to your home. These are, of course, only one part of the overall marketing plan for selling a home. For information on my marketing plans, please visit my website.

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