Real Estate Open House: Doorway To Trouble?

Extracted from Marilyn Lewis’ blog on July 23, 2013:

You may think you have nothing to lose by employing this traditional marketing tactic. But critics say that's not true -- and your agent has more to gain than you do.

Now that real estate has emerged from its coma and more would-be sellers are listing their homes for sale, it's worth asking whether a seller's open house, that traditional marketing technique of real estate agents, is worth the effort.

Open houses are more effective at marketing real estate agents than they are at selling homes, critics say. They also present an opening for thieves who pretend to be homebuyers but in fact are there to steal the owner's belongings or to case the joint with the idea of returning later.

For buyers, searching for a home has changed with the Internet. That would seem too obvious to bother pointing out except that the numbers are so interesting. A National Association of Realtors 2012 survey of homebuyers and sellers found that:
· In 2003, 16% of homebuyers surveyed found their new home through a yard sign or open house (the survey did not distinguish).
· In 2012, just 10% found their home through a yard sign or open house ("The Internet has edged out all other sources in the process," the report says").
· Most (41%) buyers today go online first to learn about homes for sale.
· Just 3% turn first to an open house to learn about properties for sale.

In defense of open houses:
Despite this shrinking effectiveness of the open house as a marketing tool, 55% of sellers surveyed said they'd used one. And, as NAR spokesman Walt Molony points out in an email, 45% of buyers -- even more than in the late '90s -- do attend them.

"Not well understood is the fact that open houses also are attended by real estate agents, where they learn firsthand about properties that may be of interest to their buyer clients. So while a buyer may not have first learned about the home they purchased through an open house, their real estate agent may have," Molony says.

In the experience of Seattle broker Ray Akers, though, open houses are "a waste of time."

"No one has ever walked in and said, 'I love it. Where do I sign?'" he says. "People walk onto a car lot and buy a car. People don't do that with houses."

Agents typically advise their sellers to lock up or remove valuables and prescriptions, but Akers still worries about thieves who lift unsecured items from the home or who visit to learn the layout and vulnerabilities so they can make a return visit later.

Thieves worked an open house "I don't think it's wise to have an open house in an occupied house," Akers says, talking by phone. He recalls staffing an open house once when a couple distracted him while, he later learned, their associate rifled through drawers in another room. Fortunately, the home was vacant.

"The following day it was reported that several open houses were hit by the threesome. Had my open house been an occupied home, they could have walked out with valuables, prescription medicine, or my client's I.D," Akers says.

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