5 easy ways to draw more traffic to your open house

Many agents are finding that they have a lack of genuine buyers or a consistently low amount of traffic coming through their opens and wonder if they’re wasting their time and energy.

The fact of the matter is open for inspections are one of the most effective and simple ways to meet prospective buyers, get a feel for the amount of interest in a property or area and find a qualified buyer for the listing.

There is a lot of information available online about a particular property and neighbourhood, but at the end of the day extensive online research cannot rival seeing and experiencing a home in person.

Here are five simple tactics to try out to drive more traffic towards your next open for inspection:

1. Set up a temporary ‘open house office’.

Why not try something different by holding your open houses outside of conventional weekend inspection times. Not every buyer (think people that work in hospitality or retail) can make the traditional Saturday morning and afternoon openings. Also, some neighbours may feel more comfortable coming for a stickybeak during off peak inspection times. Giving them more time to stop and chat about their selling needs or if they know anyone looking to buy in the area they could introduce you to.

You could try holding a morning open house from 8-10am serving coffee in takeaway cups, a 12-2pm weekday open house for people to stop by on their lunch breaks or a ‘happy hour’ inspection time from 4-6pm for people to drop in after work. Also, check with your vendors if it would be okay for you to set up a temporary office at their kitchen table one day a week with an open for inspection sign out the front inviting passers-by to come in for a look.

2. Place ads early in the week.

These days a majority of potential buyers will be searching online for property and planning which opens they want to attend, usually up to a week in advance. Therefore, it is essential that your open house is advertised at a minimum at least a week in advance on your Homely listing, your company website and social pages, and in local newspapers (both print and digital) to ensure you get maximum reach and exposure to homebuyers.

3. Engage the neighbours.

Put together a flyer or postcard invitation to drop off in the neighbours’ letterboxes or while door knocking two to three days before your open for inspection. On your flyers you should include your contact details so people can call you with questions, as well as the time and address of the open house. This is a great way to drum up interest in the open house as neighbours will often be curious to look inside other local homes, to see how their home compares and get an idea of what their home might be worth. Also, they could be thinking of selling themselves, so it’s a good chance for you to demonstrate your expertise and the lengths you go to promote your vendor’s listings. A good number of invitations to aim for is 20 homes either side and opposite the listed property.

4. Get social.

Leverage your businesses social media channels to promote the open house early on and also on the day of the open house. A great thing about Facebook advertising is that you can directly target a specific audience and location. Don’t overdo your Facebook ads and status updates though. Posting about a single open house more than three times a week can come across as annoying and pushy to your followers. We recommend posting early in the week that you have an upcoming open house with just enough property features to get people interested and entice them to find out more. Then perhaps post on the Thursday or Friday a brief reminder where and when the open is running on the weekend.

5. Up your signage.

Make your open house easy to find and visible to passers by with the strategic placement of directional open for inspection signage. On the morning of your open or even the night before, put out five or six A-frames starting from the busiest intersections closest to the property and on each street corner working your way back to the home. Spending that little bit of extra time planning out your sign positioning and setting up signs and balloons will help drive more traffic towards your open house.

Note: Be sure to check with your local council if you need to apply for a real estate agent signage permit, as they may have a limit on the amount of signs you can use and where they can be positioned. 

We hope these five ideas help to attract more homebuyers to your next open house. Do you have any tricks or tips that you find effective in drawing in genuine buyers to your opens? Please share them below.