Open House Ideas - 21 Ways to Pack the House

© 2010, Brandon Cornett. All rights reserved.

Open houses are probably one of the oldest forms of real estate marketing. After all, what better way to choose a potential home than by spending some time "hangin' out" in it?

It's not the purpose of this article to say whether or not the open house is an effective marketing tool for real estate agents. Personally, I feel that it is. The purpose of this article is to offer some open house ideas that may help you "pack the house" with potential buyers.

Obviously, not all of the ideas on this list will be feasible for you. When coming up with ideas for your open house event, you have to weigh the cost of the event against the size of your potential commission. For example, when marketing luxury homes with a larger commission at stake, you can probably afford to spend more on your open house event.

These ideas are just to get your wheels turning...

Ideas for Filling Your Open House With Potential Buyers (And Probably Some Freebie Hunters)

1. Promote the open house to your email marketing list, if you have one.
2. Announce the event with neighborhood flyers and signs.
3. Hire a band for the event (if the potential commission could justify the cost).
4. Hire a clown to entertain the children while the parents are getting to know the home.
5. Hire a Santa Claus if it's the holiday season.
6. If it's going to be a cool event, let your local news know about it.
7. Leave a trail of colorful balloons leading to the open house location.
8. Hire a "sign waiver" and have them stand on a high-traffic entry to the neighborhood.
9. Have an incentive item of some kind, such as real estate data reports of some kind.
10. Place a yard sign with the future date on it. Light it up at night.
11. Use a section of your website's home page for upcoming open houses.
12. Hire out a billboard (again, the potential commission will dictate budget here).
13. Send direct mail postcards to announce the open house with full-color photos.
14. Find a popular blogger in your area and pay them to blog about the event.
15. Create a virtual open house for all of those web-savvy house hunters.
16. Have the home professionally staged and offer design tips to attendees.
17. Set up roadblocks to funnel traffic past the open house ... just kidding.
18. Sent invitations to apartment complexes (where the rent "qualifies" the audience).
19. Hold a private, invitation-only open house with a select group (requires leads).
20. Use all of the community websites you can find, such as Craigslist, local forums, etc.
21. Fill in the blank here. Use your imagination. Where there's a will there's a way!

Do you have open house ideas to add to this list? Email them to me and I will include them in this blog post (with credits).