What is a Brokers' Open House and Should You Have One?

When selling your home, there are many components involved in how it is advertised. Ads may be run in the newspaper, on-line and in the cute little books that you can find at every real estate office.

In order to sell a home you need potential buyers to tour your home. If a broker has not seen your home and doesn't know why it's 'perfect', the odds are that broker will not put your home on his list of homes to show his clients.

Brokers' Caravan:

My husband and I are in the process of selling our home. When we listed it with Bender Realty in Cleveland, Tennessee our broker, Robert Bradney, had what they refer to as a 'Brokers' Caravan'. One morning Robert and about a dozen brokers from Bender toured our home. The purpose was to get them all familiar with the location and the home. They hold these once a week for all their new listings.

Open House:

Another marketing technique is an 'Open House'. We had an open house about a month ago. The broker who conducted it was Ricky Tallent of Bender Realty. An open house normally runs about two hours on Sunday afternoon. Not having much experience with open houses, we agreed but didn't expect much to happen as a result. There were three groups of potential buyers who showed up the day of the open house. It only takes one buyer, and you need to do all you can to get that buyer into your home. We will be having another open house in a few weeks. They are held when the broker or the owner requests it.

Brokers' Open House:

Another component of marketing a home is a 'Brokers' Open House', which we had this week. This is a little different from a regular open house, because brokers from all the real estate agencies in town were invited. There were folks from various agencies and most of the comments were, "I'm glad I saw it in person". Looking at a home on-line and seeing it in person has a totally different impact on how a broker remembers your particular home.

Incentives to Brokers:

As an incentive to get brokers to show up, Robert provided lunch. He brought two Smithfield hams, potato salad, home made pasta salad, tea, soda, water and he even provided plates, utensils, napkins, cups and ice. The other big incentive for brokers to attend was the fact that he offered a $50 door prize. Who can't use an extra $50?

All in all, we had at least 15 brokers here and they all enjoyed seeing the house and they enjoyed good food. It should be interesting in the coming days and weeks to find out if we will reap the reward that we are looking for, a signed contract on this house. As an extra incentive to the brokers, we offered a $500 bonus at closing to the broker who brings an offer to the table within a month of our brokers' open house.

If you are trying to sell your home, take the advice your broker suggests. Do what you have to do, and then do a little bit more to help get a buyer. Now you know what a Brokers' Open House is, should you have one? Why wouldn't you want to? Go for it, do what is necessary to sell your home! You don't have anything to lose, and you have everything to gain.

Source:

Bender Realty, Cleveland, TN

Personal knowledge and experience