Open House viewings - good or bad?

ari11

abankerbutnotafatcat wrote: »

Open house viewings are also the norm in Australia and once you get used to the concept they are fine for the viewers, I cannot speak for the house-owners although I should imagine the viewings being all/mainly in one hit was quite attractive.

As a viewer, if I was interested I'd make sure I had enough time, saw and asked everything I wanted to and arranged a follow-up visit if I needed to.
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The one caveat I'd add is that in Aus you could go for a walk on a Saturday, see the open house signs and just wander in for a nose. I knew people who regularly did that. The open houses near us have been by appointment only which should make it more likely that viewers are serious potential buyers. I think the appointment/pre-registering method is better.

I'm from Australia, so am used to the Open House system. The serious people will request a second viewing which will usually be by themselves with the agent.

Benefits for me are of this system are:
1. there is less pressure and less of the EA following you around when its an open house. Usually people zone each other so I dont care about viewing with other people.
2. you can view a lot more houses over a weekend (open houses were usually on a Saturday). You don't have to commit to an exact time for a 15 minute slot that you may lose if you're late due to traffic or whatever. Open house last a couple of hours.
3. You don't have to call up real estate agents and arrange viewings. If you're busy at work during the week, it was fantastic to just look online on Friday night or Saturday morning and pick the open houses you want to view.

Caveat is that I think this would be effective for fast moving markets like London. Not sure how it would go for areas where houses stay on the market a little longer.

Almo

ari11 wrote: »

I'm from Australia, so am used to the Open House system. The serious people will request a second viewing which will usually be by themselves with the agent.

Benefits for me are of this system are:
1. there is less pressure and less of the EA following you around when its an open house. Usually people zone each other so I dont care about viewing with other people.
2. you can view a lot more houses over a weekend (open houses were usually on a Saturday). You don't have to commit to an exact time for a 15 minute slot that you may lose if you're late due to traffic or whatever. Open house last a couple of hours.
3. You don't have to call up real estate agents and arrange viewings. If you're busy at work during the week, it was fantastic to just look online on Friday night or Saturday morning and pick the open houses you want to view.

Caveat is that I think this would be effective for fast moving markets like London. Not sure how it would go for areas where houses stay on the market a little longer.

I sold my house in Aus about a year ago and as per the norm we had open houses over a four week period followed by an auction. Things must vary by region because in Melbourne the opens were only half an hour so still a somewhat limited time frame. That was the case for not just our house but every property we looked at when both buying and selling.

I have no problem with opens, yes you get people just out for a nosy but unless they say that within earshot of other viewers, it all adds to the sense of competition. Plus, as buyers, you can view houses you might not otherwise have viewed without any hassle, so you might find a buyer who would not have viewed had they had to make a private appointment.

Yorkie1

ari11 wrote: »

Caveat is that I think this would be effective for fast moving markets like London. Not sure how it would go for areas where houses stay on the market a little longer.

I think this is key.

In a slow-moving market it risks emphasising how few people are interested in the property if there's a lot of publicity around the open day and it then remains on the market weeks afterwards.

witchy1066

back to back viewings are fine, but everyone in the house at the same time isn't for me , it could also be a negative for the seller , more people could make the house look smaller than it actually is,

I suppose it would be ok for a quick look see, but would still want another viewing so that doesn't really fit with the sellers idea of getting it over in one go

I have been told some people make this a weekend activity , just because 12 couples turn up doesn't mean any of them are interested, and could put off those who are,

another thing to consider, do you really want your "competition" or neighbours having a good nosey at your house just because they can, I know this could still happen but is something the EA can weed out when booking individual viewings

DRP

Rarchy wrote: »

Thanks everyone. One of the agents did say everyone gets 20 min slots so viewers are not all there at once, but still see each other come and go so know they have competition! and I guess being a cluttered house might be better as we could move a lot of stuff into storage temporarily just for the weekend.

The fact it is a hot market and we may get immediate offers is a plus for us as sellers... (Just means it will be harder when we start to look....)

That's exactly what we had when selling our house in June.

We had 9 viewings at consecutively arranged times on a saturday morning - so no doubt each viewer knew how popular the place was. :cool: 2 more that there wasn't time for on saturday came on monday and 2 others that were doing 2nd viewings from saturday!

We accepted best&final bids from 4 people on wednesday or thursday i think.

I think it worked really well here (S. Bristol) and we achieved 10% more than the offer we accepted the previous year (fell through as we couldn't find anywhere to buy).