Open Houses: To Hold or Not to Hold– That is the Question…

For as long as I have been around the real estate block, there have been open houses. Whether the property you were trying to sell was new construction or a regular resale, the expectation was that you would hold an open house (or several) over the life of the listing. Open houses were traditionally seen as a marquis way to give an opportunity to check out the home in person, ask questions about it, and hopefully, experience love at first sight and make an offer for purchase. However, during a great majority of that time, there wasn’t the wealth of rich, robust visual property information online like we have today. With over 90% of homebuyers in recent years reporting they get their home-of-choice information from the internet or directly from their Realtor (who also uses other cloud-hosted technology vs. old school on-person visits to obtain info to pass on to clients), it seems like open houses are quickly going the way of the dodo bird.  

Today's homebuyers do a ton of upfront comparison shopping and research online, way before ever putting their key into the ignition and putting the address of your home-sweet-home for sale into their GPS. The ability for a tech-savvy listing agent to upload galleries of high-quality photos and full color flyers has made it easy (and desirable) for buyers to skip time/gas wasting open houses, and stick to virtual shopping combined with one-on-one personal showings with Realtors. If you have been a part of the housing market lately or have every toyed with the idea of buying or selling, you know that an amazing buffet of available property information is only a click away. Even people who aren’t actively on the market do their fair share of window shopping for houses... And why not? It’s fun and free!

Open houses definitely do still happen these days (I do occasionally hold them!), but the reasons why they are held are no longer a part of conventional wisdom nor expected best practices. I use open houses on a case-by-case basis but no longer insist upon them as a standard part of my marketing plan--it has to make sense for the property to schedule one. Though in theory they sound powerful, open houses tend to most often benefit the agents (potential for walk-in buyer clients), they allow for neighbors to buzz by and compare their apples to yours (allowing open house agents to chat it up and possibly get additional listings), and often serve as entertainment for folks who bounce from open house to open house on the weekends looking for decorating ideas and free coffee (yes, that never fails to happen!). In my opinion, entering an open house in the listing system and using it as a fresh reason to promote the property publicly is where the remaining value stil exists - not in the event itself. And in the reality of a modern market, most often the solution to a stale listing problem is the price of the home, or something else material to the property that is the obstacle to selling the home quickly – not the absence of fresh-baked cookie smell in the air and balloons in the yard on weekend mornings. 

I do still believe there is still some room for open houses in a marketing arsenal given specific circumstances (for example, holding a Broker’s open house when a large price reduction has been made, or when something new and special about the property is announced, like a renovation or improvement), but the application of open houses is much less weighty than it once was. Open houses will continue to trend in that declining direction as virtual technology in home marketing continues to amaze us. So perhaps in the future, we might be putting open houses in the same nostalgic "back in my day" bin as things like records and 8 track tapes. 

What do you think? Have you ever used open houses as an actual targeted buying tool? Have you had success with selling your home using an open house? Or have you ever run the weekend open house looky-loo circuit “just for kicks?” (It’s ok – you can admit it--I won't judge!)

Photos Matter! So Take a (GOOD) Picture - It Will Last Longer

Guess what? Some modern-era statistics say the more pictures your listing has, the quicker it will likely sell. Even two and three times as fast as a home with no pictures. And I believe wholeheartedly that is 100% true.

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. ~Ansel Adams

I am shocked at the number of listings I see that do not have more than a horrible exterior shot uploaded to the listing system. Or worse, a listing that uses the moldy old photo in the database from the LAST time it sold, several years of wear, tear or even updates ago. Buyers (and their agents doing the legwork) want to see pictures--EVERY Buyer is visual, and well-composed pictures do more to sell your home than you know. In fact, many of my clients dismiss properties with no pictures from their "go see" lists. Why, you ask?

• People are visual creatures (yes, even the women). Descriptions can only do so much for a listing, and people start to tune those out amidst the puffy Realtor-speak descriptions we all see every day... "Spacious colonial awaits your finishing touches" often = "Big old empty house that needs major updates," right? :D The pictures are where they get to see the relative condition of the home, getting the buying decision underway.
• When Buyers are surfing the web, they are drawn back to homes they remember over time based on visual cues obtained from the pictures. Essentially, they don't call me saying, "remember that house on #4567 Blah Blah Place?" They say, "remember the house with black shutters and the cute white and stainless steel kitchen?" - Yes. Yes, I do.
• Not having pictures is a perceived warning sign to Buyers that there is a REASON why you don't have pictures, even if that is not the case. It invites the question mark into the room. 
• Not having pictures signals to other agents that the listing was not worth their attention as a professional ... and that may hint that they may be difficult to work with on a possible transaction if they either do not have the time nor the attention to detail to fulfill that critical piece of the listing/marketing process.

Now that I have you thoroughly convinced that most Buyers do not want to even see homes that do not have pictures (good ones, of BOTH outside and inside), here are some things to avoid when you go through that exercise...

• Avoid overdoing it with the fish-eye lens. If you do not know how to properly use a fish-eye, it can look like you are overcompensating for small spaces, having the opposite effect to a viewer. The outer edges of the halo effect a fish-eye produces should not be visible in the shot nor should there be a high degree of distortion.
• Avoid taking too many shots of the same thing/same room. Aim for a single representative shot of each room, taken from a vantage point that is interesting and makes the room look as spacious as possible. One area in which you can break that rule is the kitchen. If you have a nice kitchen and can't fit it all into one shot, grab a couple that highlight different key features.
• Avoid overdoing it with descriptions superimposed on the pictures that cover key images, or gush a bit too much about a feature. I do think this can be a useful technique, just be sure the verbiage isn't overwhelming and that the font is legible in thumbnail form. 
• Avoid trivial pictures, or pictures of things that are not highlight reel material. One agent recently posted a picture of an outdated faucet. Just the faucet. Huh?!? Another took a picture of a flower outside--not the whole of the landscaping, which was nice, but an artsy-fartsy picture of a SINGLE flower. I suggest the agent save those items for their Flickr account or personal art gallery - those will not sell the home.
• Only post clear, complete pictures. Having the flashback shadow (or reflection in the mirror) of the photographer in the shot is amateurish, as is allowing a picture to be uploaded to a listing photo gallery that is much too grainy (resolution problem) or too fuzzy to see. In the age of easy to use point and shoot/SLR digital cameras, enough shots should be taken (and previewed on the spot) at staging/listing prep that you can get decent exposure under control.
• Do not allow your home's condition to deteriorate significantly form the photos during the time it is on the market. Nothing is more disappointing than previewing a gallery of tasteful, promising photos than to arrive at the front doorstep and see it in shambles--and looking totally different (in a bad way!) than it did online that same day. Stage it in such a way that you can maintain it. You are setting the expectations, so live up to them, and watch your home sell before you know it (provided it is priced well, of course).

The bottom line is that any good agent will be proficient in this important discipline, and will either have the right equipment to do the job well, or will outsource it to a professional.  The part you play is simple: They will need for you to do some pre-photo shoot cleaning, decluttering, and basic staging. They will be able to give you cues (or even a list if you would like) as to how to best present the home to get the ball rolling.

Ever seen any funky listing pictures before? Have you ever been surprised to see a home in person based on the expectation the photos created in your preview process?