Another spring Sunday has passed, and with it another round of open houses. We have been hosting them regularly over the past month and have noticed that as soon as people get inside, they begin to have memory problems. Everyone that comes to our open houses is asked to sign-in. Our goal is to have an accurate count of the number of people that visited the property, and a way to follow up if needed.
Unfortunately, many of our guests develop sudden bouts of amnesia when faced with our sign-in sheet. We’ve seen an epidemic of incorrect information recently. The worst instance was when three different groups came through a property at very different times all wrote down the same physical address – a single family house in West Hartford. We were curious about the situation and decided to find out if any of them actually lived there. It looked like no – the first person must have made up the address and then the next two copied it.
We understand that people are hesitant to give out their contact information, and can only assume that they are concerned we will follow up too aggressively.
Our primary goal with open houses is to show buyers the interesting and unique properties that are currently on the market. A secondary goal is to meet new people and be a resource for them as local real estate knowledge experts.
Harassing our guests during, or after, an open house is counterproductive. We want them to have a good experience in the home and feel comfortable contacting us with questions after they leave. We may send a thank you note, but beyond that will only reach out to visitors for legitimate reasons. We won’t make up reasons to call, we won’t stop by your house, and we definitely won’t spam you via email.
Of course, we are just two of thousands of agents in Greater Hartford. It’s possible that others approach open houses differently. Out of curiosity, what sort of experiences have people had at open houses? Anything interesting to share?