OPEN HOUSE hints...

Currently I only have one listing. Great House, very high end, on the water, 4,160 sq ft.
The home is occupied, and the clients do not care to have an open house.
I guess the number is 1 or 2% of the homes actually get sold at Open houses.
I am glad to hold my listings Open. I am completely mobile. I love to hold open houses, they are a great way to market your listings, and find buyers.
So since August of 07 I have been borrowing REO listings and holding them open.
This is what I do

1. Look up all the listing agents who have active Lender Owned Properties in your area. Only Lender Owned.
2. Start with the homes in the best traffic locations, Then the best condition. You want the best traffic, condition, and utilities on.
3. Tell the listing agents that you will hold their REO`s OPEN, ( as in open house ) at least twice a week. Tell the listing agent all you want is the leads from the open house. Get permission to advertise your open house. Follow up with an email to the LA about activity.
4. Now that you have the home. Buy at least six large signs ( 2 sided, cheap signs ) that say. BANK OWNED OPEN HOUSE YOUR CELL#
If you don`t have a cell phone use mine 480-543-9899
5. Plan to have an Open House, weekdays 2pm to dusk, weekends 10am to dusk.
6. Make a buyers ( doesn`t have listing agents info on it ) Listing copy of every REO property in the area. You should have at least 50 listings, include Short Sales. ( I hate Shorts, but buyers love them until month 3)
7. Go to your open house, the first room you walk into. Line two of the walls with the listings, ( the listings of all the REO`s in the area) at eye level. Two rows. Use the blue painters tape.
Basically you have created your own REO home store.
Keep asking different agent who have reo`s if you can sit them open. In case your store gets sold. If you sit the same house everyday, you don`t have to take all the listings down. However I just had an agent call up yelling about all the listings on the wall, saying it "reflected bad on the neighborhood" Whatever. So now I take them down, but leave up the blue tape. It`s expensive.
When your potential clients ask for a copy of a listing on the wall, tell them you will email them a copy, from your wireless laptop that you brought with.
Put them on a drip campaign. " What, exactly are you looking for?" Blah.. Blah..

I also take about 25 pictures of the home and upload them to flicker, smug mug, picasa. send a link back to the listing agent with all the photos. For some reason most REO listing agents don`t take pictures, so it is a bonus for them.
I swear by this, I meet a ton of people, a few of them turn into buyers. It beats sitting in a office. How many times has a buyer just walked into your office. For me, my production level ( not sales production. Being what I actually get done) has tripled. You have some place to be, by a certain time.
Always check in with the listing agent to make sure the REO is still active.
Good day, Good Luck.

Patrick's Idea sounds like a winner.  Especially for anyone who needs buyer's.  Everyone's looking for a deal.

As far as great open houses, I haven't had one in a long while.  The last open House I did, I called all the agents who had a listing in the neighborhood and asked them to have an open house the same date and time.

Here's what happened.  5 Realestate Brokerages and 6 homes. 6 houses in one of the best school districts all within a few blocks of one another. Flyers sent out to every agent in the 5 offices. Flyers and e-mail notification to all other offices in a 5 mile radius.  6 Signs posted 2 days prior with date and time at the entrance of the neighborhood.  Every house with Open house sign with date and time posted 6 days before the open house.  3 of us advertised in Classifieds.  All agents  posted Open house notification in Realtor.com and MLS.  I did a TV spot on the Real Estate Channel.

The first house, 2 blocks from the entrance got 1 visitor.  Not one person stopped in at the other listings.  These were nice homes .  See photo.

I guess my question is:  Has anyone had a really successful open house in the past year.

NO

We had a couple successful open houses just a few weeks ago. Both were REOs. We held them on weekdays from 3PM-6PM. One did okay, we picked up a few solid leads.... The other was amazing. We had nearly 20 groups of people show up. I advertised it online and sent the info out to our database. We wrote an offer on the spot, but it sold well over list to someone else. Aggressive pricing is key.

Renee

Is this the first time you did an Open House on REO's?  Maybe you and Patrick are on to something. 

We had office meeting Wed.  25 sales in our office.  19 were Mark's (our resident REO listing guru) 2 were mine.  Not sure about the rest.  Mark never does open houses and never has more than 2 photos.

Maybe I should look into this.

I just had an open house yesterday -- great response.  Had 9 sets of people come through in 3 hours, 3 of which may turn into clients.  I think the secret is great signage, more than twice as much as you think you need.  And the other secret is a great attitude, you have to believe they are going to work, and they do.

Cathy,

Yes, my partner and I just started doing them a few weeks ago in our spare time. We have two REO agents who are glad to let us hold opens. They never do open houses either (and really don't need to) -- but it gives us the chance to drum up some potential buyers.

We don't go quite as far as Patrick, but his ideas are very good.

When we get some time, I would like to have a few more. It's starting to get tougher though -- the homes have offers before we get a chance to hold one!

If your guru doesn't mind, try it out. Definitely get something to notate on your signs that the listing is REO.

Let me know how it goes.

I agree with you on the signs Kathy

..the more the merrier!

I have three active realtors in my family, and I do the mortgage side.  I don't always close a lot with my family members, however,we work well together, and I sit opens with them.  I provide coffee and maybe snack, as well as mortgage program information put together in a folder.  If they come through with an agent, but have financing questions, I have picked up clients that way.  I am not into pressure sales.  Information exchange and answering questions as best that I know how.  Our open houses may not always get high traffic, but they do yield good buyers, and repeat clients.

OK Guys I caved and did an open house on one of my listings on Sat from 12PM to 3PM and again on Sun from 1PM to 3:30PM.  Advertised in MLS, Realtor.com, Homes.com, Zillow, Trulia, Craigs List and the local Classifieds.  Signs on every corner and major intersection on Fri, Sat & Sun.  No visitors until Sunday. One lady stopped in at 2:45PM  her husband came back at 3PM.  They lived in the neighborhood said they might want to upgrade. They were vague.  But at least I have their contact info.

Patrick

I'm still thinking about doing the Repo/REO open house.  Just waiting to get the signs.  I am also waiting to find out about FREC sinage rules.

Do you run into any problems with the Real Estate Commission rules.

Our company REO Guru does not have any listings in the neighborhoods I prefer to try this with.  So I have to get written permission from another broker.  The neighborhoods I want to do this in have at least 6 REO properties by 3 different REO Brokers.  My Broker says I have to be carefull and make sure my signs are allowable per FREC.

Rules. The Only rules are, no one in a nice suit refers to me as the defendant.

My signs have my company Logo, Equal Housing, MLS, The big R.

I have changed one thing. The listing agent who`s home I sit open. Generally that listing agent has at least 50 REO`s I will put up all of his or hers listing in or out of the neighborhood. Then of course on a different wall I will have the rest of the neighborhood. The idea is that it is their listing that I am sitting open, as an added bonus to them, I promote all of their listings. I don`t want my REO agents to think I am taking over their listings.

Cathy Just pick a house, in company or out of company, and do it. You`ll never look back.