Weekly Poll

This week's poll is up (on the left side up at the top), and it involves a topic very near and dear to my heart: open houses. This article says they're on the way out, but I'm not so sure. Open houses have been around for a long time for some pretty substantial reasons: buyers like to go to them, sellers like for agents to hold them, agents like to get prospects from them, and sometimes someone even buys the house because of them. What do you think?

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The Truth About Open Houses

Today (being Easter) is the first Sunday in I don't know how long that I haven't spent doing an open house & I have to admit I never quite know what to do with myself with a whole free Sunday. A Sunday with no open house is like peanut butter with no jelly.

Why do I love working on Sunday so much while my husband enjoys his day off? Is it because I love cookies and lemonade? Or because I love playing Scrabble on my cell phone for two hours straight on the days when nobody comes through the door at all? Is it because I want to be like Carolyn Burnham, everyone's favorite Realtor from American Beauty? Or maybe because I love risking my life by dodging across traffic on Kingston Pike to put out open house signs?

No. I do it for the buyers. Well, and the sellers too.

The Buyers

Open houses have always been great places for Realtors to pick up potential clients, but even more so in this day and age when it's easier to find unicorns wandering Wal-Mart than it is to find qualified buyers. Sure, most people start their home search online, but the next place they go is open houses.

I learned how to work open houses early on. It's how I got my start in the business and also how I wound up closing 4 homes in my first summer. I didn't have my own listigs, so I sat in other agents' listings. I'd say about 3/4 of open houses are not held open by the listing agent. Do you think Big Time Agent X is doing an open house every Sunday? Probably not anymore, or if so, only on his or her very high profile listings. That's what new agents are for. New agents will sit in your open house all day long because they are hungry for business.

Let me give you lookers a quick tip: if you don't want to be pestered by an open house agent, tell them, as soon as you walk through the door, that you are already working with another agent. It's like Realtor repellant. Agents are not allowed, by Tennessee state law, to mess with someone who is already working with an agent. You're welcome.

A lot of listing agents don't do open houses, saying that open houses don't sell homes. Statistically speaking they don't -- I've only done it once, and it was in the first summer.

But I don't expect to sell the house I sit in. What I do hope is to sell you on using me as your buyer agent when you buy your next home.

The Sellers

These days I have my own listings, and a softer market can make selling them very stressful. Sellers don't like longer days on market and fewer showings per week. Sellers like activity an open houses are a great way to generate it.

I've already said that an open house may not sell my listing, but that doesn't mean that open houses are wasted marketing. I have an awesome listing right now in Fountain City that is absolutely adorable with tons of updates and a great, level backyard. But none of this home's awesome features matter a bit if nobody goes inside to see them. Open houses have been a great way to get people in the door of that house, and hopefully spread the word to other potential buyers.

Open houses are also a great way to get some brutally honest feedback. Trust me, if people don't like that green shag carpet or think the price is too high, I'm going to hear about it.

So, today I'm going to try to enjoy the rest of my Sunday off. No cookies to buy, no signs to pick up or put out. Maybe I will eat the chocolate bunny I got or maybe I will attempt to clean the house. Today I will try to relax. But tomorrow I will already be thinking about next Sunday, and where I'll be doing my next open house.

Avoiding the Dreaded Fridge Swap

I do a lot of open houses and aside from eating a lot of cookies and playing a lot of Scrabble on my cell phone, I also occasionally have buyers come through. Now, it may just be because I always hang out in the kitchen during open houses - easy access to aforementioned cookies is important - but it seems like these potential buyers always inevitably ask the same question: does the refrigerator come with the house?

The quick answer can always be found on the listing sheet. It either is or it isn't. But this is real estate folks, and everything's negotiable.

If, for example, you're making a really good offer on a house, I don't think for a minute that most sellers, the same ones at least, would mind parting company with that Kenmoore or Whirlpool in order to get their house sold. Lowballers usually don't get fridges. Sorry. But if you're making that really good offer, whether or not the fridge is listed in the MLS as being included in the sale of the home, then I say ask for it, already. Just make sure you get it in writing. You can do this by:

1. Asking for it in the contract.


2. Asking for it very specifically in the contract. Like make and model number specific. If your agent is worth his or her salt, he or she will not mind making an extra trip to your future dream home to get this information for you. I know I would do it for my clients (wink, wink).

With your make and model number right there in black and white on the contract, you will hopefully be able to avoid the seller taking the nice, new, expensive, stainless steel fridge and replacing it with the old, nasty, yucky, avocado green beer fridge from the garage -- also known as the dreaded Fridge Swap.

Happy House - and Fridge -Hunting!