3 Ways To Double Your Open House Traffic

3 Ways To Double Your Open House Traffic

If you are like most good real estate agents then hosting open houses is something you routinely do to create more business.  The goal is simple when hosting an open house: expose your name to the neighborhood, help showcase your clients listing to attract offers and MOST importantly make contact with new prospects that need a Real Estate Professional.  This article focuses on the last of these and will give you 3 tips on how to double your current open house traffic.

Tip 1-     Display more signs!  Most real estate agents only put up about 7-8 signs for their open house.  They focus on a small area that is within a block or two of the open house.  This is not adequate if you are trying to get a large number of visitors to the open house.  If you are going to spend a Saturday or Sunday working you might as well make it a success!  15-20 signs are recommended if you are to have a successful open house.  Stretch the distance out to about 1 mile in all directions.  Make your signs easy to follow and visible at pausing intersections.  It’s also a good idea to have a phone number listed on all of your directional signs in case someone gets lost.  People looking  to view open houses will come if you let them know how to get there.

Tip 2-     Post craigslist ads during the week to announce your open house!  This is a great way to get some guaranteed traffic to your open house.  A good system to use is to post a different ad on craigslist every weekday leading up to your open house.  If your ad copy is good you will pick up some leads that you can schedule to meet during your open house hours.  Change your ad everyday so that craigslist doesn’t block the ads because they are repetitive.  There is a great tutorial which can be accessed at the website link below which describes “How to Post Image Ads on Craigslist”.  I use image ads because they are more appealing and less likely to get flagged by craigslist.  This method has proven to be a great way to increase open house traffic.

Tip 3-     Use incentive Marketing!  Partnering with an incentive marketing company has its advantages. It allows you to give away items of value to visitors of your open house.  There are many companies out there that offer these services.  Below you will find a link to a widely used company that comes highly recommended.  Publish the items of value you will be giving away in as many advertisements as possible.  As an example you could add a tag line to your craigslist ads that states “A complimentary 2 night stay to a 4-5 star hotel just for stopping by…NO CATCH!”  This will surely attract more visitors from your craigslist ads.  Putting up yellow signs next to your open house signs with the same tag line would also work.  You might even attract people that are not in the market for a house at this time but becomes a client down the road based on the relationship you built at the open house.  Try to find a company that offers unlimited items of value to give away.  It can be costly if you don’t.  The company listed below does offer unlimited items of value.  Especially in the real estate business you want the ability to give away a large number of items to attract new prospects.

In conclusion, if you are going to spend a Saturday or Sunday hosting an open house you owe it to yourself to make it a success.  Follow these 3 tips and you could easily double your open house traffic.  Be sure to collect the names and other contact information from the visitors in order to add them to your newsletter.  They may become a client in the future.  Good luck with your next open house!

By Mike Rausa