Open Houses
One of the best kept secrets in real estate is the truth behind open houses. While it is true that a lot of buyers drive around on Sunday afternoon and go through open houses this does not correlate to the sale of the actual open houses.
There will be rare instances where a buyer walks in an open house and falls in love with the house but they would have found the house in their real estate search anyway.
The reason most agents are anxious to do open houses is for a completely different reason. All those buyers coming through your house will eventually buy something. When they do buy a house they will have an agent that drives them around and shows them all of the houses that are for sale in their price range. The agent that drives them around will probably be an agent they met at one of the open houses they went through. Agents hold open houses to find buyers knowing full well that these buyers will most likely buy something else.
Why not have an open house?
Liability - You are opening up your house to anyone who can read a sign. Maybe they are looking to buy a house and maybe they aren't. Maybe they qualify for a loan and maybe they don't. The only thing for sure is that if they get hurt it is now your problem.
Risk - Remove all medicine out of the medicine cabinet. Medicine that you or I would never even think of being valuable might be just what somebody else is looking for. Plus, in their hurry they are not going to read the labels to find the good stuff, they are just going to take everything they can grab and sort it out later.
Remove all valuables like jewelry, guns, coin collections, stamp collections, artwork or anything else that is easy to conceal or might be worth a trip back later that night.
Check all of the window locks after the open house is done. Some thieves go to open houses and unlock windows so they can get back in later.
Some thieves target open houses and come in groups so that some of them can distract the agent while others make off with whatever appeals to them.
Unqualified buyers wondering around in your house
Myth: The more buyers you get through your house the better the chance of selling. This is only true if the buyers are qualified. There are no rules at open houses. Come one come all.
All of the neighbors and busy bodies will come through to see what your house looks like. Agents like talking to your neighbors, your neighbors might be potential clients in the future. Again, you take a risk so the agent and further their career.
Most of the people that come through an open house do not even know the price. They just followed the open house signs and came in. They might fall in love with your house but they might not be able to afford it. They might not even be able to read, they just followed the arrows pointing to your house
