When is it best to have an open house? When you have the highest level of interest, and when you are most likely to be visited. For example, open houses should be planned:
- The first weekend the home is available to be seen.
- The first weekend after the home has had a status or price change.
- Not a holiday weekend.
- In nice weather (although this is sort of luck of the draw, but if the weather is very nasty, I won’t hesitate to cancel an open house unless I have confirmed visitors that day).
- After a week (or several days) of promotion.
- When the home is completely show ready.
- Usually on a Sunday, although Saturday open houses can be very popular; and I have even had weeknight/weekday opens that have drawn traffic. In fact, for this reason I even advertise my “brokers opens” in much the same way I advertise my public open houses – with signs, internet ads, etc.
- On Sundays, most open houses are held in the afternoon (usually 1-4). This is when buyers will be out looking for open houses, so it usually pays to be open at the same time. On Saturdays, I have found that earlier times work better... usually beginning at 10 or 11, and lasting about 3 hours. There are suggested variables based on market studies and experience in various submarkets, and of course, there are simply limitations that we sometimes can't avoid.
