How do I get people to come to my FSBO Open House? The Day of the Open House blow-by-blow

Nerves need not attend CC-SA Cathy Malmrose

This morning I was a wreck of nerves, stressing about everything being perfect for the Open House today.

8 am Up and looking professional but not uptight.

8:30 am Reply to 1 realtor who asked if he could bring a family by today. My reply: "Yes, please. Open House 10-4. See you soon." No exclamation points (high pressure). Confirmation + securing spot.

9 am Final sweep, vacuum, scents, all of it just right.

9:55 am Put the Open House signs outside, one by the front steps and one at the corner.

9:58 am Husband shows up with balloons, ties them on sign.

10 am Sit back and chill. Waaaay too nervous.

10:30 am Matt stops by, Dad househunting on his own for wife & 4 kids. Good fit.

Use balloons to welcome guests

11 am Brown-haired couple stops by. Probably not good fit since just the 2 of them & they want to work only with their realtor.

11:15 am I remember that I was going to bake cookies today. I chop off some cookies off a Nestle cookie dough roll and toss them in the oven. When they come out WOW, smells good!

11:30 am Realtor who texted me this morning stops by. She kept control of the viewing which was good. I was able to pop in & out without interfering too much. Note: You want to disappear into the background as much as possible so people can talk freely. Cookies put little girl and mom at ease.

12 noon Realtor who texted last night stops by with his sweet clients: father, mother, little boy who really liked the cookies.

12:30 pm Drive by. Got out & got flyer. I should have gone out on the porch and swept or something. They might have come in if I had. But I'm so shy.

1 pm Older couple thinking about purchasing for their daughter stops by (just like we purchased this place for our son). They have a little dog and since there's no yard it's probably a no-go. Bummer.

1:30 pm Family with two little kids, drive by, no realtor attached yet. Might not be able to afford it, but possibly. Super cute little kids liked the cookies.

Toss in a batch of cookies = air freshener

Hint: Ask their professions in a comfortable, non-threatening way and find a way to work it in to the sales pitch. One example: the 1:30-ish mom of 2 was trained as an accountant. I pointed out that the HOA fee took care of a lot of costs that you normally have to pay out of pocket (covers internet, some of your insurance).

Even at this point in the day I still have way too much caffeine in my body. I need do chill and slow down. Talking too fast.

At this point in your open house you'll probably have 1 of 2 reactions:

"When will this be over??"
or
"Now I'm in the swing of things."

2 pm Chillin enough to notice that we haven't had a single neighbor stop by regardless of the fact that we handed out flyers the night before. Interesting.

I'm assuming no more guests / walk-throughs today. There were enough potentials. I'm very surprised at how many potentials showed up!

Don't be surprised if you get 0 turn out. Don't let it get you down. If it had been raining today or other things had been going on, there's a chance every one of those drive-bys and appts would have cancelled. I'll do another Open House tomorrow and maybe another next Saturday.

2:30 pm Another couple with kids! I thought for sure they were done for the day since it's snowing now...

I'm guessing that being in a high traffic area is making a big difference in the turn-out. About 1/2 of these people seem like they knew the address ahead of time and came here for this house in particular and another 1/2 seem to be only drive-by traffic.

Also, I think I've been super lucky having only 1 family at a time here. I've read it's better to have multiple groups here at once (thus inviting the neighbors) but so far I've been able to handle just one group at a time. Bizarrely evenly spaced.

3:00 pm Another Realtor with couple! Sheesh, even in the snow, they're still coming. I've read that Realtors still going at the end of the day are more serious. And they were, just probably not the right fit for a place this size.

4 pm The first looky-lou. That's probably unusual to have so few. Looky-lou stayed until 5 sharp. Fun way to unwind after a longer-than-I-thought-it-would-be day.