sam_cooper•9d agoMost Upvoted

Stopped doing open houses after 4 years of wasting weekends

I used to run open houses every Saturday from 10 to 2 without fail. Thought it was how you build a client base in this freelance game. But after tallying up my time last fall, I realized I spent about 60 hours over 3 months and only got two serious leads. One of those leads didn't even buy through me. Now I focus on targeted social media ads for specific neighborhoods and set up private showings instead. Has anyone else ditched open houses for a different approach that actually worked better?

3 comments

3 Comments

adam4149d ago

The 60 hours over 3 months thing hits close to home man. I did the math on my own open houses last year and it came out to like 8 bucks an hour when you factor in prep and gas. I switched to doing private neighborhood pop-ups where I bring coffee and pastries to one block at a time and hand out a flyer with my contact info. Way less time wasted and I actually closed two deals from people who came out to grab a free latte and chat. The open house model feels like a holdover from before everyone found their realtor on Instagram or Zillow.

martinez.paul9d ago

The neighborhood pop up idea is a smart pivot. I tried something similar last year, just set up a little folding table with donuts and coffee at the end of my street on a Saturday morning. Cost me maybe 40 bucks total and I ended up chatting with three couples who were casually thinking about downsizing. One of them called me six weeks later and we listed their house within a month. The math on open houses just doesn't work anymore when you factor in the time spent sitting around waiting for lookie-loos. You're better off putting that energy into direct contact with people who actually live nearby and might trust you because you're the guy with the free coffee.

fionanguyen9d ago

Nah but you're missing the point of open houses entirely. They're not for getting leads right away, they're for building trust with the neighborhood so people remember your name when they actually need to sell six months later. I've had three listings come directly from people I met at open houses who didn't call me until almost a year after.