My BEST techniques for a successful Open House

What's up you guys! It's Grand here. So, I'm finishing up an open house right now, and I thought, what better time than right now to make a video about how to hold an open house? So, I'm going to be sharing my tips, my tricks, and some of the things that I need to work really well for me to ensure a really successful open house. That includes either picking up buyers from the open house, selling the house that you're sitting, or meeting some really cool people from it. Let's get to it!

You hold an open house for two reasons. The first reason is to give the listing that you're sitting exposure. It's to allow people who are out on a weekend to casually come by and check it out without the pressure of calling someone or setting up an appointment. But the second reason is to use it as an opportunity to meet as many people as you can. That includes meeting future prospects, buyers, neighbors, or sellers. And that’s where the real magic happens. So, I'm going to be focusing on the latter of the two, which is how to pick up business, get clients, and get future sales from holding an open house.

Doing an open house, by the way, is probably one of the best uses of your time as an agent. Whether you're first starting out or whether you're 10 or 20 years in the business, it doesn’t [explicit] matter. Holding an open house is super important, and there shouldn't be any reason whatsoever why you're not holding an open house every single Sunday if you can. Even for me, by the way, the first sale I ever had in real estate was from an open house. I ended up meeting an amazing buyer there. We talked for a while, and then I ended up finding them something else a few months later for 3.6 million dollars. That's the importance of holding an open house consistently and trying to meet as many people as you can.

So, the first step, which is the most crucial of all of it, is putting up as many real estate open house signs as you can. Now, I see so many agents [explicit] lazy about it, and what they do is they just put one open house sign in front of the house and call it a day. That is a really lazy approach. For me, I like to put between 7 and 12 open house signs for every single open house I do. There is no reason why I shouldn't put as many signs as I can in busy street corners, advertised in your name and your open house. Honestly, from my experience, I've been able to triple or quadruple the amount of people that come into my open houses just by putting more signs. This is so important, you guys! What is as many signs again? Yeah, there's no reason why you should be lazy and why you should only put one outside. Put 10! Put 15! Just don't [explicit] balls to the wall, putting signs everywhere!

Having high-quality marketing materials is so important. Don't be like every other agent where you just print them like flimsy pieces of paper. You want to print in really high quality. But you know what? I'm going to show you what I do here at that to give you an idea. We use really high-quality paper. It's not that [explicit] black-and-white regular printer paper that everyone seems to use and then throw it out; this is really thick paper! I'm not sure if you can see, but it's really thick paper. Always print in color, you guys! Every single time! Always print in color. There's no reason not to print in color.

First of all, if you're printing in black and white, you should just quit right now. There's no reason to print anything in black and white. Next, you should always use color! You should always print with really high-quality materials. People are less likely to throw out this paper than they are flimsy little black-and-white pieces of crap that they're going to probably end up getting, keeping in their car for like a day or two, and then crumpling it up. Talking about the color paper, marketing materials, you really want to go all out with this, you guys! I mean, this is the first point of contact for a lot of people. This is the first impression that they're going to get about the marketing that you do. So, crisp, good paper! It’s really simple stuff.

Now, the next thing you should do is just make sure you have all the lights turned on. I feel like I shouldn’t even have to say this. It’s like, “What?” But I do. You know why I have to say this? Because so many people just don’t do it! I swear it's one of my biggest pet peeves when any time I go to an open house, and like half the lights are turned off and they’re sitting on the couch on the phone, and like “groan,” what are you doing? Like half the lights are turned off, and you're on your phone! You didn't even notice me coming in! Don't be that dude! Just make that little bit of extra effort!

Just please, for me, you guys, do this for me! Don't even do it for the client; do it because Graham Steffen would be very approving and will be very proud of you if you turn on all the lights! So, do it for Graham. Do all of this for Graham, please! Thank you!

Another thing that you can do is play some music during an open house. If you have one of those like Beats by Dre pills or whatever they’re called, if you want to play some cool, relaxing music in the background, I recommend it. I think it just adds a cool vibe to the open house. You don’t have to; it’s not required. It’s something I do some of the times, but honestly, I think it might actually help set the ambiance. If you want to light candles or have cool scented items throughout the house, I think it just adds a bit more personality to it. So if you want to do that, go ahead and do it; it's not required! I've done plenty of successful open houses without candles and music and all that jazz.

Now, I also recommend if you can, have water bottles and little snacks or food for people to munch on. Again, it is not required. You don’t have to do this, but generally, if you want to impress people, you have to offer them something. I recommend a tray of cookies, some water bottles, maybe some sodas, or little finger food snacks. Spend like 15 or 20 dollars on an open house, and you will definitely reap the rewards! Chances are, too, if they see some food, they're more likely to hang around maybe a little bit longer. It also gives you a better opportunity to talk with them a little bit more because they're stationary, sitting there eating. And in the worst cases, if nobody eats all the food, here's the best news of all: you get to take it home!

One of the points, by the way, you should know everything else that's also open at the same time as you. So, go on the MLS, go on Realtor.com, or whatever you use, to see the other open houses, and just check everything else in the same price range, similar square footage, similar bedrooms in your area. Chances are that people that are seeing yours are going to be seeing the other listings as well. It’s really important to know about these properties. You know how much they are; you know a little bit about them. I mean, you don’t have to visit them in person, but at least click through the pictures and just see what they're kind of like. That way if somebody asks you, “Hey, I saw this home down the street; what do you think of it?” you don’t just sit there and be like, “Ah, what open house? I wasn’t aware of an open house down the street.”

So, now that we have all of that out of the way, we got the signs taken care of, the marketing materials, food, the snacks, the music, turning on all the lights, we are all that covered. So now, I'm going to be discussing some ways that I use to meet these clients and convert them into leads.

So, there’s a chance you're not already aware of this, but everyone that comes in your open house is interested in real estate. These are the most qualified leads that you can get coming to you. Everyone is at your open house for a reason! They're either interested in checking out cool homes, they live in the area, they saw it online, they saw one of your signs. But in some form or another, they have some sort of interest in real estate and specifically the property that you’re at right now. So, use this to your advantage!

Also, you want to make sure you treat everybody as an equal opportunity to do business. You don’t want to disregard someone who says, “Oh, I’m just a neighbor checking out the property,” or, “Oh, I just saw a sign; I wanted to come in.” Even though that may be true, these are still opportunities for you to put yourself in front of somebody and make a great connection. Whether they’re going to be buying something or not, you’re not using an open house just to try to get sales or money. I mean, this is more about the long-term picture of building relationships, building up your contacts, and meeting some great people.

So, the first thing you can do is make a good impression on them. Smile! Don’t look like an angry ghoul when they walk in! Don't be pissed off to be there. Smile! It makes such a huge difference. You really want to use this as an opportunity to showcase your personality. And as corny as that sounds, that's what's really going to build the connection. It’s not necessarily about, “Hey, I have X amount of sales last year, and I do X amount of business, and I sell all these homes in the area.” It’s about building a personal connection with them outside of real estate.

Most people that come into my open houses, by the way, have a wall up. They do not want to be talked to; they do not want to be sold something, and they do not want to be bothered. They come into my open house, and they're friendly, and they’re pleasant; and I’m friendly and pleasant, but they really don’t want to talk to me. They just want to take a look at the house and do their thing and leave. So, if I walk up to them and I say, “Hey, my name is Graham. What are you looking for? What’s your price range? What do you think of this home?” it’s just going to further heighten that wall of theirs that they've built up.

The only way to break through that wall and to gain their trust is to build a connection outside of real estate. For instance, for me, I'm really big into watches, and I'm really big into cars. So, if I see someone pull up, by the way, like a really cool, pimped-out Porsche Turbo S, I'll mention that. I'll say, “Hey, by the way, I love your car! What year is that? That’s [explicit] awesome! I have a Lotus Exige. Have you ever taken that to the Malibu Canyon before? I have! You have a track day? What made you buy a Porsche? It’s crazy how much the prices have gone up on the older Porsche Turbo! It’s insane!”

By then, usually, they're talking for 20 or 30 minutes straight about their Porsche Turbo, why they bought a Porsche, how into cars they are. And I'm doing the same thing! I mean, it’s just fun! It's an opportunity to meet someone else who shares a similar interest.

It doesn’t always need to be something superficial, by the way, like a watch or a car. You can ask something along the lines of, “Oh, where are you from?” “Oh, that’s so cool! I have family up there too!” or, “I know that area; that is such a cool area! I’ve been there XYZ.” Just use anything you can to build a personal connection.

Do not, I repeat, do not try to sell them something from the very beginning. Do not do that. It’s about building a personal connection and relating to them on a person-to-person level. All of a sudden, everything you say will start to have more weight than when they have a wall built up in front.

So, as soon as someone comes in, before you let them walk around, make sure they sign in! Absolutely everyone that comes in your open house should sign in. There’s no reason for someone not to sign in. I tell someone to write their name and put their email address with a prominent or put some sort of contact information there. If they're a little hesitant about it, I say at least just put your name. Then I try to get your email address a little bit later.

Alright, so now let’s talk about what to say. When someone comes in my open house, I always say, “Hey, what’s up? My name's Ren; it’s great to meet you!” And by then, they’re always like, “Oh, hi! My name is Cindy!” or “My name is John! It’s great to meet you too.” One of the first questions I always ask is, “How did you hear about the open house?” That tells me so much about them. By asking how they heard about it, if they say, “Oh, I saw it on Zillow,” or “I saw it on Trulia,” really anywhere online, if they see it anywhere online it means they specifically were looking for homes that met the criteria of the one that I'm in right now. These are very serious buyers; these are very serious prospects, so treat them as such.

If you ask that same question, “How did you hear about the open house?” and they say, “Oh, I just saw one of your signs down the street,” I find out more. Always ask open-ended questions! You're going to find out their exact motivation for coming to your open house, whether it’s literally that they have 30 minutes to kill and just want to check out an open house, or if they’re looking for a friend, or if they are looking to sell their home and just want to get an idea of what their homes were. Find out the reason!

Now, most of the time, I let people walk around on their own. I hate to be that dude who’s always like following right behind them trying to point out all the details when obviously they just want to be left alone. So even though I let a lot of these people look around on their own and take their time, you kind of have to gauge it person-by-person. Some people really don’t want to be talked to and want to be left alone, and there’s nothing wrong with that! Totally cool, and I let them do their thing. Other people really want to be informed about the home, so just feel it out.

You don’t always have to be giving everybody a tour, but at the same time, I always recommend speaking a little bit about the house before letting them walk on their own. So, if you’re going to let them walk on their own, I would say something like, “Thank you so much for coming by! Feel free to take a look around the house. It’s about 5,700 square feet. You have four bedrooms upstairs, and you have one bedroom downstairs. The pool is down below, and you have the most insane views, by the way, from the master bedroom, so check that out. Let me know if you have any questions! I'm here.” Something simple like that, that way they at least know a little bit about the home.

You can also throw in like, “Oh yeah, it was built in 1991; the lot size is 15,000 square feet,” maybe some of the other facts, you want to throw that in there as well. But otherwise, let them look around! Let them use this time to absorb the house. And then before they leave, hit them off again and ask some more questions and talk to them.

So now, before they leave, they’ve already toured the house. Either you’ve given them a tour or they've looked on their own. Ask them what they think of the house! Ask them their thoughts! Ask what they like and what they don’t like! Before they leave, also ask, “Are you looking for anything specifically? Are you looking for a house in this area? Are you looking for a house in this price range?” Try to find out what they're looking for if you can!

Ask open-ended questions like, “What’s the thing you liked the most about the house? What don’t you like about the house? What draws you to this area? Why is it that you’re moving? How quickly do you need to move?” I need you to ask these questions!

Now, hopefully, by now, you’ve been able to build some sort of rapport with them, whether it's talking about their interest, talking about where they grew up, talking about where I mean something; you can talk about something non-real estate really. Even if you haven't built rapport, you could still ask these questions; it can't hurt! They're literally on their way out the door. Long bars on what questions? I mean, you have nothing to lose.

Ask them what they're looking for. Ask them what their price range is. Ask if they have a timeline to find something. Ask which area is that made you to ask! As many questions as you can to get specific about what they're looking for and remember, because I went through this in my hand, I didn’t want to seem like some sleazy salesperson trying to like sell you something.

It took me a while to overcome this actually because I kept thinking, "I don't want to bother these people; they're all so secure; they want to be left alone." I don’t want to be hitting them up with these questions and try to sell them something; I feel sleazy, I feel weird! Remember that you're providing a service to them. You're the one that's helping them out. You're the one that's helping them with real estate. If they need anything real estate, you are the one to go through, and you are going to be the one to help them.

Now, when they leave, the open house is done! You need to follow up with these people. So obviously now, you have a list of everyone that's signed in. Hopefully, you have their email addresses, hopefully, their phone numbers. I recommend following up with these people either the next day, the next two days, and continuing the follow-up, that’s what's so important! Even if they're not looking right now, follow-up three months from the hollow open, six months from now. If you have some sort of email newsletter or an email flap—if you like the puppy block—just put them on the list! At least every few months, they're going to get something from you. You're going to be in their mind, and hopefully, they're going to be using you in the future for any real estate things that they need.

And this is what follow-up is so important! By the way, as an example, I’m selling a house right now for 2.6 million dollars. This person I met from an open house one and a half years ago. Get that in your head—one and a half years ago! I met this client at an open house. But guess what? We stayed in touch consistently. Did we lose touch? Sure, about six months of that time, she wasn’t really sure if she wanted to buy or not, but I still kept in touch. I would send her emails every now and then. I followed up.

Just for you to realize the importance of holding open houses and following up, use that as an example of why you should follow up and why it can’t necessarily be some like get-rich-quick, “I’m going to sell a house in a week” sort of mentality. The long-term effort—this is a long-term relationship! It’s not trying to fake it and then sell them something the next one. It's about building a real connection with these people, really trying to help them out and doing it long-term.

So, I think between doing all of this, between having as many times as possible against the professional marketing material, knowing everything else on the market, turning on all the lights, having some food or snacks available, playing some music, and having a smile on your face, you're going to be able to make a great first impression and get to do many people through your open houses as possible.

Then, once you're there, build a personal connection with them! Don't fret to sell them something. Try to relate to them on a personal level from one person to another on a subject that they find interesting that you do as well. Find some sort of commonality, some sort of common ground that you can take with them for them to be able to relate to you. And all of a sudden, that breaks down that wall and that barrier that they have up about being some sort of real estate salesman.

Ask as many questions as possible as to why they're moving, where they're moving to, if they need to move, how they heard about the other does it ask! So many questions! And with all of this, you should be able to have a very successful open house. And again, do it consistently! Do it long-term! It's not something that you're going to be doing the first open house to try to sell a house that week. It's something you do over a year, over two years, three years, five years, whatever. It's a long-term strategy!

This isn’t a get-rich-quick [explicit]. Whatever the [explicit] it is, long-term! As always, you guys, thank you so much for watching my videos! If you haven't already, by the way, feel free to add me on Instagram. I'm actually posting there now! Feel free to add me on Snapchat; I post a lot of cool [explicit] on Snapchat you guys won’t want to miss out on that. And I mean subscribe if you haven't already! I'm not— no pressure, you guys! I don’t want to try to— no pressure to subscribe. But like... [Music]