Open House Rules

In resale home marketing, there's nothing quite like the touch-and-feel-the-real-deal of an open house to get buyers to beat a path to your home-for-sale door. It's the resale market's spin on the new home market's model home.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Century-21 proclaims April "National Open House Month" and once programmed its YouTube channel with a related Open House home movies contest.

There's at least one Web site dedicated only to open houses, aptly dubbed OnlyOpenHouses.com.

Forbes magazine named San Jose, CA the nation's best city to sell a home, but the local Santa Clara County Association of Realtors didn't rest on its laurels. Its region-wide Open House Extravaganza helps sellers attract more than just looky-loos.

Browsing for housing on the Net is a great way to price homes and hone in on desirable neighborhoods and homes for sale, but there's nothing quite like an invitation to touch and feel the real deal to get buyers to really beat a path to your door.

"Any extra method of exposing the home is vital. An open house can be a great way to get feedback on a house and validate the price. It also exposes the home to buyers who are not currently working with an agent and may not be aware of the home's availability," said David Williams, a real estate agent with Williams Realty in Sandy, UT.

Williams cautions the open house isn't a silver bullet no matter how well-prepared and staged. The event has to be packed with value.

"Many sellers rely upon open houses thinking that more exposure can compensate for value. If the home isn't priced right it can be detrimental to have a flood of buyers walk through if you are squandering the potential an open house provides," Williams added.

Karen Hilgers of RE/MAX Blackhawk Valley in Andalusia, IL says an open house can be a good way to flip hesitant buyers who are already interested in the home.

"It lets those interested buyers know they may suddenly have some competition, and that can be all you need to get an offer on the table," she said.

Open house events can also grab impulse buyers, those who see a house for sale, takes one look falls in love with it, says Jim Merrion, regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois.

Market conditions can also make the open house marketing tool cool.

"I'm not a big advocate of open houses, but in this market I'm doing more of them," said Gwen Broughton of RE/MAX Showcase in Waukegan, IL, during the 2008 market slowdown.

"Sellers want to see you doing everything you can to get their home sold," she said.

Provided the price is right, here's how to make the open house, well, tight, according to RE/MAX Northern Illinois.

• Sunday afternoons are the best times for attracting visitors to an open house. Start early and stay late. (But don't forget, an additional Saturday open house will provide an extra weekend day to avoid alienating those who worship at a house a faith on one day or the other.)

• Mail post cards to invite neighbors and prospects. Also list the event in the local newspaper and on Web sites.

• Be sure the home for sale is as clean and neat as possible for the open house. Empty the garbage cans, clean out the closets, get rid of the clutter and polish the bathroom fixtures. Think model home. Create a neutral scene.

• Real estate agents should attend open houses to be available for questions, to provide property and neighborhood information and to get valuable feedback by watching and listening to potential buyers.

• Selling your own home? Be available, but don't hover. Welcome your guests, hand them an information packet, give them a quick floorplan tour and then let them be on their own. Stay out of sight, but just within reach for any questions.

© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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Selling Strategies That Ease The Squeeze

To help get the housing market rolling again, you might have to get on the bus, hold an auction, lease back a model home or consider equity sharing, among the growing number of existing, new or lesser-known marketing strategies.

by Broderick Perkins
© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Deadline Newsroom - Looking to buy a bargain or make a hard sell?

Take the bus and make it the "F" Line.

The "F" is for the growing number of foreclosure properties that have become bus stops along motor tour routes designed to put home sales on the fast track.

The Keenan Carter Group in Pismo Beach, CA became the darling of the bus tour set when its version was featured on "Good Morning America" on ABC-TV and a segment with Neal Cavuto on Fox News.

At $20 a seat, the tour bus also becomes a school bus between stops, serving up information packages on each property. Riders get spreadsheets on mortgage payment options, potential rental income properties could yield and refreshments.

The special focus on marketing foreclosures is not surprising, especially in California where the number of foreclosures exceeded the number of sales in January, according to foreclosure figures from ForeclosureRadar.com and sales numbers from DataQuick Information Services.

Other bus tours are driving into Florida, Las Vegas and other hard hit housing markets that have been flooded with foreclosures.

Driving a bargain on a bus isn't new, but using the strategy as a vehicle to move foreclosures is part of a current trend in special marketing, designed to help turn the housing market around.

Auctions are hot too.

• The fastest growing segment of the auction industry's real estate sector, residential real estate auctions, on or off line, experienced a gross revenue growth of 5.3 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to the Overland Park, KS-based National Auctioneers Association. In 2007 the association created NAARealEstateAuctions.com, a real estate auction multiple listing service (MLS) to handle the volume. Many, but not all, auctions are listed there.

Coordinated open house events are big.

• In Silicon Valley, April 13 will become "The Biggest Open House Day Of The Year," as sellers queue up to offer incentives and accommodate -- on the spot -- buyers who make an offer that day.

Second home marketing is getting a renewed spin too.

• Elisabeth Miller-Fox, president of PrivateCommunities.com says little is known about "model sale lease backs," a spin on lease options typically found in master planned communities.

The tight market is giving this tactic a higher profile.

"In second home communities the developer builds a model home which is fully furnished and beautifully appointed. The developer sells the model home to a buyer who is not yet ready to have a second home, but will be in a few years. The developer then leases the model back from the buyer for 'X' amount of time and continues using the model to generate more sales for the community. It's a win-win for both parties," says Miller-Fox.

Bozeman, Montana's Black Bull Golf Community; Quechee, Vermont's Quechee Lakes; and Ocala, Florida's SummerGlen adult community are just a few communities offering model home lease back deals.

"This is a very different segment of the market and not well understood by the media or the average buyer. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) & HGTV have done a great job of helping people understand the general real estate market and how it works, but there has not been a good conduit for information for the second home buyer in a private, master-planned community. This is a very different animal and a different type of purchase," she added.

• Home shoppers should also be on the look out for some financing flash to give savings-poor but income-rich buyers an edge.

Quincy Virgilio, president elect of the Santa Clara County association, says expect to see a return to equity sharing.

The creative financing strategy includes two parties -- one who occupies the home, another, an investor, who foots the bill for the down payment.

The symbiotic relationship has flourished during past periods of buyer-seller separation in the housing market.

Las Vegas-based Creative Real Estate Online publisher, J. P. Vaughan, also a trial lawyer and real estate investor says everyone can benefit from the strategy.

One person becomes a homeowner with little if any money down, the investor, with the down payment, can get a joint venture-like return on his or her money and a seller, in a slow market, could become the investor or otherwise use the technique to quickly seal a deal, says Vaughan.

Read more creative buying, selling and financing stories.

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© 2008 DeadlineNews.Com

Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

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