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Ready Set Sold with Bryan Vogt #17-02: It is not if your agent does open houses, it is why not?

September 16, 2017


Bryan Vogt: Hey, welcome back to Ready Set Sold. I’m your host Bryan Vogt. Hey, do us a favor. Like us on Facebook. You just go to Ready Set Sold on Facebook and we greatly appreciate that.
What we’re talking about, today, is kind of a hodgepodge of different things, the questions that come up very often during the course of just really talking to people, clients, friends, what have you. They have numerous questions that they have and not sure about. I know I sound like a broken record, but that’s why the book is there. It is to try to fill-in people because most people, that’s what they really want. They need information and your agent should be that person to be able to give you information that can help you decide what you should, what you shouldn’t do, you know what your situation is.
It’s really important to do so. The reason why I say that is we were talking about the last segment. We were talking about when should somebody bring in an agent and I … A good rule of thumb that seems to work out the best, once you start deciding you’re going to spend some money. When you decide you’re going to spend some money in your house, that’s okay, but it’s still going to be your way.
As I mentioned before, most agents get it. If they don’t get it, well, let me tell you something about them as an agent. You may want to search around for somebody else. But they will come in and they will sit down with you, and they will talk with you, and start putting a plan together in what you’re looking is them to be asking questions and figuring out what is the game plan.
Yes, there are some times where you walk in and there’s nothing to be done. There really isn’t and it could be a situation where we have seen people that they call the agent in and it’s all good. They say, “Hey, let’s make the move and let’s go for it.” No. Again, on occasion, it does happen. Again, rather than sitting around … In most cases what we hear from sellers are worrying and concerned, and not knowing what to do, and all these different reasons that we kind of fill into our head sometimes. I’m just as guilty with different thing for myself, but you should definitely, again, call in that realtor, very, very important.
One of the other things that comes is, do open houses really work. I have to tell you yes, and yes, and yes. They really, really work. I would say, I think, now it’s like 10% is getting a buyer to get a contract on your home. It’s now 10% chance of that happening. That may not sound like much to some people, but when you’re talking double digits, that’s a significant number and they work on all different levels. Just so you understand that, that percentage is based on a buyer walking in, talking to the agent, writing an offer, or potentially a client that has an agent, sees the house and goes back and says, “I want to buy this house,” and you have a deal.
What it doesn’t take into consideration, and that’s why I say 10% is still a good number, is situations that we’ve seen. Yes, there can be a traditionally nosy neighbor that comes in and wants to look at the house. But many times, that “nosy neighbor” is coming in because, guess what? A friend said, “Hey, if anything ever pops up in your neighborhood, I love your neighborhood, let me know.” They will literally go out and check it out for them, and call them up and say, “Hey, I think this is a winner.” They may not be able to make it that day, but maybe in situations that we just heard about was, you know, five-six days later, guess what? They’re on the phone with their agent and they’re going in that house, and they’re writing a contract.
Those things are just impossible to track. How do you put those pieces together? It’s those type of things that happen quite often. A situation where someone goes into an open house one week and next week, the same person calls up their agent and says, “Hey, I want to take another look at this house.” Again, creates a deal. Gets a house sold.
Some of the myths about open houses, I’d say there’s probably three of them. Price points, we’ve seen people have success at $80,000 and $800,000. That’s not a barrier. I think the other myth about it though, on the same token, is that every house has to have an open house. I will say from our perspective working in Metro-East, in O’Fallon, down south, all those areas, it’s not so much city. It’s just location. There are a few places where it doesn’t seem to work as well. Why that is, I have no idea, but it just doesn’t seem to work as well.
I think the third myth is that if you have video, or if you have marketing, that people … You’re doing an open house. It’s simply not true. You would have to think that buyers are sitting in their houses on their computer, on their iPads, even on their phone and saying, “I like that one, call up an agent, and let’s write a contract without ever seeing it.” It’s a great opportunity for people to go out and gather information, buyers to gather information. Sometimes it’s usually agents that don’t want to do open houses or that’s not what they do. I disagree with it, but that’s up to them.
We’ll say that, “Well, you don’t really need one because of this and that, and the video we have, and the pictures we have.” But buying a home is an emotional decision for buyers. As good as videos and those things can be, it doesn’t give you the lay of the land, it doesn’t give the feel of walking into a house and just maybe the smell of brownies or just different things. There’s just so many factors that come into play that actually going in and seeing that house can make all the difference in the world. Having open house, to me, is a no-brainer.
Now if you’re the seller and if you choose not to, it’s not that we or other agents that do open houses sit around and talk about, “Well, you have to do it, you have to do it.” If you don’t want to, of course, you don’t have to, but we do want to definitely open up your eyes, if possible, of the possibilities that you could have. Yes, there is sometimes the buyers doesn’t want that and there are people that we work with and maybe get them to a different house. That happens too. I don’t want to say that, that never happens too. But it’s usually more geared for the seller if they’re doing them hopefully the way they should be doing, that we talk about a little bit later in the next segment.
All in all, open houses do work. Understanding, open houses have literally, in the same format, been around for 60 years. Okay, so they’ve gone past the internet, they’ve survived all these things, all the technology, all the apps, everything else, okay? I don’t know. In America, it seems like if something lasts that long and is still going on, it’s doing some good. Not just the agents, it’s doing good for sellers too and they’re having some great success. Otherwise, they would be gone.
Open houses, again, very high up on those. You should definitely be talking with your agent, asking them if they do open houses. If they don’t, ask them why. Again, the information I just talked about, that you can have some great success with it and get some excitement. I just really touched a little bit about what you can do with open houses. In the next segment, I might talk a little bit more about how you can do open houses even better and that’s really with having a plan. That’s really important too. Most top agents have a plan when they do open houses.
With that said, you’ve been listening to Ready Set Sold. I’m your host, Bryan Vogt. Hey. There’s information, tons of information like this [inaudible 00:08:41] what you’re hearing. Go to ReadySetSold.org and not .com. ReadySetSold.org, not .com, and get the book.

See you soon.

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