Are Open Houses Worth It? with Special Guest John Giffin
Modern marketing strategies incorporate much digitization of processes. But one of the traditional ways to market a house that remains to be in practice is organizing and holding open houses for potential new homeowners. In the real estate industry, an open house is a scheduled period where a property is open for viewing by potential buyers. For this Mail-right’s episode, we talk about the state of open house in the current landscape of modern real estate marketing.
“Do You Have a Minute” by John Giffin
With us, this episode is John Giffin, an award-winning real estate broker, manager, author, agent, and real estate educator. He is the Director of Broker Operations for Benchmark Realty, LLC, one of the fastest-growing real estate companies in North America. In his book “Do You Have A Minute?”, John Giffin reveals the keys to success within the real estate industry. One point discussed in his book was the importance of organizing an open house. Although some agents think that open houses are a waste of time, a serious buyer is not going to walk in the house and want to buy a home, John stands on his opinion that open houses do work if they are well planned, well organized and with a great marketing plan. Social media itself has become an incredible asset for an open house from announcing your event to inviting, advertising, and tracking guests to come.
But of course, you should not look at one or two open houses and then determine your success from its outcome. John shared in writing that realtors must do 10 to 15 because all you need is a good one. And then you take your commission of $21,000 and break it down between all the hours it takes to set up and do these open houses. It may take 50 or 80 or a hundred open house, but still, no matter what the number is, real estate agents always pay to get to pay themselves $300 – $400 an hour to do open houses. Additionally, you can leverage open houses even if you don’t get the foot traffic with social media.
Effective Marketing Strategies
Depending on your marketing strategies and how you position yourself as a realtor, you can use your mileage in your social media platforms. If you have established a couple of hundred subscribers to your YouTube channel, you can create content showcasing your open houses for your subscribers. Facebook also offers a free tool, Facebook Live, where you can share your experience in the open house in real-time to your followers. Utilize the platform to vlog and do an exclusive tour and sharing your thoughts on the fantastic value of the spacious home. Vlogging is an efficient guerrilla marketing strategy that leverages social media tools for free with no added costs. John Giffin created a website where he offers numerous PDFs of all the flow charts, all the business plan templates for realtors in www.doyouhaveaminutebook.com. Real estate agents can download the tools for free and begin their success story today. For other reading materials or informative blogs, you may visit John Giffin’s site at johngiffin.com.
