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.

Another agent from my company recently told me about a lost listing.  The seller was very protective about the impeccable home.  It was beautifully cleaned from top to bottom (and every vent in between) so it was obvious they took great pride in the condition.

The agent should’ve known better than to try to do her job.  Unfortunately, she held an open house one weekday and provided some barbeque, potato salad, and finger desserts for agents in her community to come and preview the beautiful home.  This is typically a sound marketing idea as a way to make the home memorable in the minds of the people who will bring the buyers.

What the agent didn’t count on was the fact that a visiting agent - one invited to the barbeque - wore heeled shoes.  Sharp heels.  Very very sharp heels that dug into the hardwood floors with every step she took.  Throughout the house - wherever the shoes led - were little indentations on the floors.  It was like a water hole drying up on the Kalahari with little tracks going everywhere.

The damage was in the tens of thousands.  The flooring in the entire house had to be replaced.  The agent lost her listing and I’m waiting to hear if she’s being sued for the cost to repair.  Ouch.  I would’ve never thought of the possibility of that happening in a million years, so I’m relieved it’s been brought to my attention to remember.

In any case, it’s a lesson we can all learn from.   When you tour a home - whether as an agent or a buyer - if the floors aren’t gross, it’s okay to take your shoes off.  Sometimes agents offer little footies with which to cover your shoes so you don’t track mud.

When you tour a home, be respectful of the other person’s property.  Don’t pick up a knick-knack… you’re not there to see their belongings but to see the structure, layout, design of the home.

Don’t unlock or lock a door without letting your Realtor either know you did or or doing it for you because there have been times when sellers have just walked next door during the showing and then can’t get back into their homes.  Or they come home from work in the evening to find their house has been open all day.

Be considerate of the homeowner when you tour or show a home.  It’s really just common sense and accidents DO happen, but an ounce of prevention does go a long way.

Photo by tealfroglette through Flickr Commons.

Regardless of what HGTV’s Designed To Sell would have you believe, open houses aren’t exactly known for producing offers. According to MSN Real Estate:

“They’ve always been better for agents than sellers,” says Liz Johnson, a Los Angeles real estate who noted that most open house visitors ask her for information on other property listings she is working.

Especially in this digital age, where virtual tours abound, open houses are really becoming a thing of the past. They’re still there, but in far fewer numbers. The latest data available, from 2005, shows that only 45% of home sellers considered open houses “somewhat useful.” Meanwhile, home searches via the Internet have soared over the past 12 years, standing at 77% in 2007 versus only 2% in 1995. And MSN cites Johnson as saying that only 2% to 4% of her sales come from open houses.

There are also ample security concerns in this day and age with open houses, both to person and property. So why hold one? Well, it’s good marketing when handled correctly. It’s also a great excuse to clean and fix up your house, like when you invite company over. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine.