Springfield IL Homes For Sale .com – The Web Show Episode #1: Why I HATE Open Houses!

Hi there, it’s Troy Roark at http://www.SpringfieldILHomesForSale.com .  We are a video blog answering your Real Estate questions here in the Springfield Illinois area.  If you have a questions, leave it below in the comments section and we’ll get to it as soon as we can.

Today we are on location at an Open House… Now if you’ve done business with me before, you’re probably saying, “Wait.  I though you HATE Open Houses???”

Well, I DO hate Open Houses.  This is not my listing.  I’m actually doing a favor for a Realtor friend of mine.  This home is located in my neighborhood.  I like to be visible in my neighborhood.  So it make sense for me to do this Open House.

I’ve actually been here for an hour and a half and not one person has come through the door.  This is one of the reasons I do not like Open Houses.

Open Houses DO NOT SELL HOUSES!  There are so many better ways your Realtor could be spending thier time, energy and money than sitting at or marketing an Open House.

I’ve sold lots of houses in five years, and I can tell you where every single buyer’s transaction began.  Eighty percent of my listings have sold from a buyer or Realtor finding my listing on the MLS (or public site fed by the MLS.)  Five percent of my sales have come from people calling me after seeing my real estate signs in my listing’s yard.

In five years I haven’t sold one house from someone walking into an Open House, falling in love with the home, and wanting to write a contract.  I’ve heard of this happening, but it’s very very seldom.

This particular house has been on the market for eight months.  The listing agent has said that the sellers are insistent that the home be Open very often and that an ad in the newspaper be run every week.

I have said in the past that I think Open Houses are the second-worse marketing tool a Realtor has.  The first-worse are ads in the newspaper.

Report after poll after survey have shown that buyers do not look in the paper for homes anymore.  They are looking for homes on the internet.  That is THE reason I do customized videos of every home I list and put them on Youtube. If you go to Youtube and search “Springfield IL Homes for Sale” I dominate the first few pages of search. My videos SELL HOUSES!

Newpaper ads will costs you $40-60 an ad (and that’s with a long term contract) and higher.  Running ads takes money out of your homes marketing budget and throws it down the drain.   There are so many better things your Realtor could do with that money and time to get your home sold.

Listen to your Realtor.  Any good Realtor will tell you the same.  If you’re Realtor is glad-handing you saying “We’ll do a bunch of Open Houses, we’ll run ads until it sells…”  they haven’t done enough business to know otherwise.  Steer clear!

Getting back to Open Houses… It might make sense to have an Open House early in the Listing Agreement.  The people who REALLY come to Open Houses are neighbors.  Neighbors are great at getting the word out on a listing, especially if the neighborhood is fantastic.  But constant Open House are crazy!  Weekly newspaper ads are foolish!!

If you’ve been on the market for a long time, I’ll bet you the problem is really the price of your home.

(at this point I was interrupted by someone actually coming to the Open House.  They didn’t buy… go figure.)