0:00Open houses are kind of having their moment right now. Buyer leads have got more expensive where organic reach is becoming more and more important. We're kind of seeing a resurgence in openhouse activity and openhouse attendance. And it's awesome. The problem is most agents don't do open houses very well. And what they do is they put some signs out and they go sit around for two hours and they leave and they complain about how they didn't get much out of their two hours. So today, I want to walk you through our openhouse system from start to finish so that every single time you do an openhouse, it's going to help you convert more business. Hey, my name is Chance Brown. I'm the broker owner of CB&A Realtors, and I make video content like this because I'm passionate about helping real estate agents build great businesses. Openhouse marketing starts well in advance of the actual day of the open house, and a lot of agents miss this. So, let's talk a little bit about what to do before the openhouse even starts. Number one, when you announce it, let's announce it with gusto. Let's not just put a link to the MLS openhouse page or something like that. Let's have a video ready to go. Let's have something and let's get it out on all of our social media channels and then let's post about this openhouse at least a couple of more times before the openhouse even begins. If you're great at promoting that using ads or there's services out there to help promote those open houses, go for it. It's totally up to you if you want to spend that money, but let's at least do the advanced work on promoting the event well in advance of it actually happening. In addition to that, a few days, I like Wednesdays before the open house actually happens, we're going circle prospecting. We're going to go knock doors on 50 houses surrounding the open house and we're just gonna introduce ourselves to the neighbors. Tell them we're having an open house this weekend and we would love for them to invite anybody that they'd like to have as their neighbor.
2:03Maybe they have some friends that are thinking about moving to come and visit. Have a flyer, leave it with them, door hanger on the door. You may end up talking to some doorbell cameras. That's okay. No big deal. Be friendly. Be inviting. welcome them in. Let them know when it's going to be happening. And you'll be surprised. Not only will they do that, but they may come look at it themselves just to see how their house compares because they're thinking of selling, too. a couple of days before your open house. Also, send a text to 10 or 15 people in your database who may be in a buyer pool, whatever, letting them know that you're going to be having this open house, that you'd love for them to help spread the word, maybe share a link, whatever that is, to garner more support from the people who are your brand advocates. Help them become great referers. But also, you never know who is sitting there in your database thinking about making a move. They may not attend your open house, but they might respond with, "Hey, we're thinking about making a move. Let's have a conversation." Lastly, we're going to show up to the open house 30 minutes early at least. We're going to have our signs in strategic locations throughout the neighborhood. Remember, your signs are like a billboard for your business.
3:15So, even somebody who might live in the neighborhood is watching what you're doing from a marketing standpoint. I think the number of signs is at least 20, but it's totally up to you how you want to do that, keeping in mind that there are signed ordinances and things like that. And some HOAs only allow certain numbers of signs. That's fine. But the more the marrier in my opinion, get there, get the lights on, get music playing, make it sure it smells good, looks good, windows are open, and it's ready to go for that first person that walks through the door. As people walk through the door, one of the things that I see agents often do is kind of rush them. And when you do that, it automatically raises defenses and makes it harder to kind of break the ice. So, give them a little bit of room to breathe. Welcome them in. Maybe ask a really simple question like, "Have you been in the neighborhood before?" Off of that question, respond with whatever brought them to the neighborhood. It's super simple. They might be a neighbor.
4:13Oh, awesome. Are you thinking about selling? you know somebody who might be thinking about moving into the neighborhood. If they're just out looking around, great. Is this your first time in this neighborhood? What do you know about the area? And all you're trying to do at this point is make them feel comfortable. Lower those defenses and start a little bit of a conversation while they begin to look around before they walk out the door. That 60 seconds before they go is a really, really important moment for us to be able to set ourselves up for future success. We want to give them a reason to let us follow up with them. And this is going to sound crazy because it's such a natural piece of the puzzle, but all you have to do is say, "Hey, what did you think of the house?" And that's your leadin. Was it a good fit or is there something else you're looking for? This is a great way to set yourself up for follow-up. If they like the home, awesome. Would it be helpful if I sent you some comparable sales from the neighborhood so you can see how pricing compares? If maybe it's not the right home for them, let's just ask a follow-up like, "Oh, okay. Well, what would the right home look like?" Again, really, really simple. And it kind of starts to let them talk to you about what they're looking for in a home. And you can then follow up with, "Well, what if I did a little bit of a search?" or hey, I might have a home coming up if I could send you some more information.
5:42That's awesome. Everybody loves the sign-in sheet. We're getting people to sign in. Great. But when we have the opportunity to follow up with something that is specific and specifically for them, it's a much more powerful exchange of information. It's a much more powerful opportunity to be of service to somebody. So I believe that the openhouse lead is won or lost in the first 48 hours after the openhouse. And so I think that there is a framework, a sequence that we need to follow. The first one is a personal note. This can be handwritten. If you got an address, great. If it's not, I think it's an email. But it shouldn't just be a, "Hey, thanks for coming to my open house." It should be something specific. reference something from a conversation piece that y'all talked about so that it doesn't look like it's just robotic followup.
6:38After that, maybe a couple of days, we're going to send something of value about the neighborhood. Just any value added item that you can think of, whether it's comparables, whether it's a neighborhood report, school report, anything that may have come up again that was part of your conversation with them that would matter to them. And then the following day, probably about day five, I would make the phone call. I'm just touching base to make sure you got what I've been sending you. It was really great having a conversation with you, and I want to make sure that there weren't any other questions that you had that I could help with. Give me a call back, you know, that kind of thing. After that, we're going into our regular follow-up campaigns. It's going to be putting them into a monthly touches, whatever that looks like. And here's what I will tell you that long-term follow-up is a key component. We were doing a class in our brokerage last year where we were talking about CRM followup. And two of our agents were working transactions at the time that had been people who'd come into open houses and signed in and gotten into their campaign a year prior. and they had done nothing else to follow up with them other than let that campaign run after th those first couple of contacts.
7:59No other phone calls, no other text messages, just a monthly touch and then out of the blue a year later, these people picked up the phone and said, "We're ready." That long-term follow-up element and not just giving up after the first couple of attempts post openhouse is a real difference maker. So, here's the last piece. If you're going to invest your time and your effort and your money to use open houses as a lead generation strategy, then let's treat it like one. Most agents don't. They just go out and they do their two hours, they pick up their signs, they maybe do a little bit of follow-up, and they call it a day. I think we need to be tracking metrics to measure how successful our open houses were. I think there are four. the four metrics that I would like you to track. And I'd like you to track it over like 10 to 12, maybe more and see how things trend are how many people attended your open house, how many people did you have real conversations with, how many people did you get contact information for, and how many people did you follow this 48 hour follow-up platform with? track those numbers. I think that that will tell you whether or not this is going to be a worthy investment of your time, effort, resources over the long haul, understanding that trends happen, neighborhood dynamics play into all of this. But I think that if you really treat open houses as a lead source and do the same things you would do if you were running a social media campaign, if you were spending money somewhere else, do the same things in your open house strategy and measure your success so you can consistently improve. I think if we shift our mindset away from open houses are oh just a pain in the butt and something I do to make my seller happy to a real opportunity for lead generation. it will affect our entire approach to open houses. And if we follow a framework where we're promoting way ahead of time through circle prospecting, social media, text to our database, we've position the property for the day of in its best light, and we have a real follow-up strategy. This is a great way to convert on real business.
10:20Hey, if this was valuable to you, I would be honored if you would subscribe, follow, like, share with one of your friends. And if I can ever be of service to you, please don't hesitate to reach
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