Real Estate Investing

I just read about an agent whose mummified body was found 24 years after an open house - with a plate of hard cookies still sitting on the counter next to his open house flyers. 

Captain James Dangle with the Melbourne Police department said, “It appears Mr. Mackerel died of heart failure during an Open House some time in April of 1964. His Open House flyers and a plate of cookies were still on the kitchen table, untouched. It’s absolutely bizarre that no one found him before now.”Captain Dangle is pretty sure twenty four years sets a world Open House record. He plans to contact representatives of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not to find out. “Hey maybe they’ll come to Melbourne and do a show about it. You just never know.”

Then I started laughing at the obvious joke.  Had he disappeared in 1964, it would’ve been 34 years (not 24).  Some people love open houses, some hate them.  My feelings are mixed.

If it’s a new construction home with an Internet connection, I love them.  I’m able to get a lot of work done and sometimes even get to meet people coming to tour the home.  If it’s an existing home, I’m not crazy about them.   People don’t come often enough to justify my intrusion into someone’s schedule, sitting in their private space.  I feel awkward if I sit on the couch and mess up their pillow arrangement.  And God help me if I have to use the restroom.  That’s when sheer paranoia strikes!  What if someone rings the bell at an inopportune time?!  What if (and I shudder) there’s no toilet paper*?

What do others think of open houses?  Mortgage News Daily writes a hilarious yet brutally truthful review,

First, open houses can be monumentally boring. Agents who used to hate crossword puzzles have completed dozens on strangers’ dining room tables while praying that at least one customer would show up. Alternatively there can be chaos and an agent hard pressed to keep track of five or six different groups of customers with unruly children and poor manners. Murphy’s Law of Open Houses decrees that 115 minutes of a two hour open house will lend itself to watching a playoff game but mobs of visitors will arrive within a ten minute period. This usually happens when the agent has turned off the lights and music and has started to lock up.

Actually, most of my open house customers do come strolling through about 5 minutes before closing time.

What do you think? Are open houses worth it? 

*Reason #3 that I keep toilet paper in my car … right after reason #2 - I have chilluns.

Cartoon from Agent Advantage Learning Center.