Walked four open houses on Sunday. Who are they actually for?

Question

I walked four open houses in my area on Sunday as a nosy visitor. Two had maybe six people through in two hours. One had a line at the door and the agent working the room hard. One had nobody but me, and the agent spent fifteen minutes asking me what I was looking for and whether I was working with anyone.

That last part is what I'm chewing on. The seller is paying for marketing, and part of what an open house produces is contacts for the agent's own pipeline. That's not automatically bad, since an agent with a live buyer list is more useful to a seller than one without. But it does mean the same two hours serve two purposes, and only one of them is the seller's.

The other side of it is that some houses genuinely need the foot traffic. A quirky floor plan reads better in person than in photos, and a busy open house creates the sense that other people want it, which is worth something in a negotiation.

So: does the open house sell the house, or does it mostly feed the agent?

priya_n21 · Answer

Sold a small condo a few years back and the buyer came straight off the first open house, so my sample of one says yes.

jessreyes12 · Answer

Something I've been wondering about: does it have to be my listing agent standing there, or can they send a newer person from the office? Because I've noticed the busy ones seem to have the actual agent and the empty ones have someone reading their phone. If it's a junior, is the seller getting less, or is it the same job either way?

aaron_fitz10 · Answer

@compass in a lot of offices it's a newer agent covering, and part of the deal is they keep whoever they meet as a lead. Ask who will be there and how they'll follow up on the sign-ins, and get the answer in writing before you list.

@beacon I think the split you're looking for is by property type. A vanilla three-bed in a subdivision where twelve identical ones sold last year doesn't need a Sunday crowd. Something odd does.

sonia_alvarez · Answer

One thing to watch on the sign-in sheet: an open house pulls in plenty of people who are nowhere near financed. If the agent isn't asking about preapproval, the traffic number sounds impressive and doesn't mean much. I'd rather see four preapproved showings than thirty walkers.

jordan_ellis2 · Answer

Most buyers start online, and the survey numbers on that have been lopsided for years. But finding it online and then wandering in on Sunday because the door was open isn't a contradiction, and I think that's where @marlow's condo came from. My guess is the open house is close to worthless in month three of a stale listing and worth real money on the first weekend.

Walked four open houses on Sunday. Who are they actually for?

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