Are open house days effective?

ReadySteadyPop

FlorayG said:

Also open house will mean a lot of people not actually looking to buy, just being nosey

Not sure if the younger generation actually still do that, that sounds very 80`s to me, just nosing round a house in the neighbourhood to see what sort of appliances etc. they had, people have more digital toys to keep them occupied nowadays.

JustinTime19

My EA suggested an open day. I liked the idea but I didn't think it worked well.

My property was a reasonable sized flat. EA had several people lining up outside, arrived late and it was a bit of a free for all with everyone on top of each other when they went in.

It didn't generate a sale, and we had negative comments that people felt on top of each other and wasn't a good viewing experience. Looking back I wouldn't have wanted to be in that queue. 

I can see the positive that it makes EA time more efficient and generate competition but timed open day I think would have been better.

ReadySteadyPop

Combenew said:

We went on the market last week and have had one viewing but the viewers aren't in a proceedable position.

We are really keen to get going and wondered about doing an open house. Is this a good idea? Likely to generate more interest or not?

Have you had any more views?

TheJP

Open house is only useful if the property has a lot of interest and its eassier to have everyone come on one day, it also makes people be more proactive in submitting an offer quickly due to the interest.

newsgroupmonkey_

I'm not sure why Crashy is in this thread, having not sold for over 20 years.

Anyhow, my personal experience a couple of years back was a bit weird.

We had a decent amount of interest in an open day and then the Estate Agent cancelled saying that they didn't have the staff available.

As it turned out, because it had piqued interest, on that particular day we ended up having 12 different viewers and 2 offers in a 6 hour period.I'm not sure how they didn't have the staff, because they ended up having a single person hanging around all day.

I took the dog for a very, very long walk!

DullGreyGuy

It also depends on how it's conducted... in our area have seen "open houses" being advertised but you are still supposed to contact the agent and book a slot. Never tried turning up without an appointment but it's not the sort of thing you see occurring in the US etc. 

ReadySteadyPop

JustinTime19 said:

My EA suggested an open day. I liked the idea but I didn't think it worked well.

My property was a reasonable sized flat. EA had several people lining up outside, arrived late and it was a bit of a free for all with everyone on top of each other when they went in.

It didn't generate a sale, and we had negative comments that people felt on top of each other and wasn't a good viewing experience. Looking back I wouldn't have wanted to be in that queue. 

I can see the positive that it makes EA time more efficient and generate competition but timed open day I think would have been better.

The OP`s property has had one viewing, "open day" isn`t suitable in this case in my opinion, Open Day is just a marketing ploy from the days when there was lots of demand to move home, it was used to encourage people to make silly offers to "win" a property, to be honest that feels like a bygone age now.