In Defense of Open Houses in Sacramento

Open houses in Sacramento work for many reasons, and are mutually beneficial to a seller and a Sacramento Realtor, even though I realize there are some agents in the business who do not believe that open houses work. By working, I mean an open house brings potential buyers who may buy the home, and it also brings buyers who might not buy the home. Those “leftover” buyers, the buyers for whom the home does not meet their needs, are often wandering about without representation. For them, the open house provides an excellent opportunity to interview agents and for agents to interview buyers, in a non-threatening, casual atmosphere.

How can open houses in Sacramento be bad? For anybody? Yet, there are agents who just don’t want to do an open house. I suppose these agents have a ton of clients and don’t need any more buyers to work with. Maybe they don’t enjoy talking to buyers, which can make a person wonder why they are in real estate. Or, maybe they feel that they will be dissatisfied if the open house produces just one buyer for them to help?

Buyers find out about open houses through 2 main methods: homes for sale on the web and by following open house signs placed in the street. Some weekends, traffic is slow; other weekends, brisk. The success of an open house can be influenced by the weather, holidays, weekend events, but rain or shine, successful Sacramento real estate agents work.

I hear from a few other agents that open houses are a waste of time, but if an agent finds a great buyer every other open house, that’s an investment of four hours. If four hours isn’t worth investing to find a buyer, I’m wondering how far an agent will go in the real estate business.

Not only that, but holding an open house allows an agent to become more familiar with a neighborhood, its people, traffic patterns, positives / negatives, market values — all of which is beneficial information to a real estate agent developing her career.

On top of this, although not every buyer will buy a home on the spot at the open house, for a large number of buyers, viewing the home at the open house is often their first exposure to the home, and they do eventually buy. They might look at the home on a Sunday, think about it for a few days, get a preapproval letter and eventually call a real estate agent to show the home to them a second time. Many homes that sell today were first viewed by the buyer at an open house.

Due to our busy schedules nowadays, most people look at the weekends as a time to a) do chores and b) to relax. They can squeeze in an open house or two that they might not be able to schedule during the week. People also make impulse purchases, and real estate is not immune. How often have I heard, “Oh, we weren’t in the market, but then we drove by this open house . . ..”

It’s too easy when there’s little traffic for an agent to decide that open houses in Sacramento don’t work. The real estate agents who make it in the real estate business are those who view every open house as an opportunity to engage with people and to sell a home. Open houses in Sacramento is a necessity.