How to Run an Open House That Actually Converts

Is it actually possible to run an open house that converts, or are open houses just not worth it anymore? It’s a fair question, and the best answer is a story. Before he joined forces with our team, our COO was running open houses like crazy, and after 40 of them, he had landed exactly zero clients. A goose egg. He was convinced open houses simply weren’t worth the effort.

One conference changed everything. Then he heard the actual game plan for running an open house that converts, and he realized just how many places he’d been falling short. He’d been letting people sign in only when they felt like it, he never verified their cell phone numbers, and he never used the one golden rule that wins an open house.

Once he started following the key principles instead, the turnaround was dramatic: the very next year, nearly half of his business came from open houses. So what are those keys?

Get everyone to sign in, then verify it. The first principle sounds basic, but it’s where most agents lose the lead before they ever have it. Everyone who walks through the door has to sign in, because without their information, the rest is impossible.

The catch is that people often write down a fake number, so the sign-in alone isn’t enough. You have to engage with every single person and confirm their information in conversation, which is where the next move comes in.

Lead the conversation, then play offense. Every buyer who walks in wants to know the basics: how’s the roof, how’s the hot water heater, what schools does this feed into. Know those cold so you can answer with authority, then take it to the next level. Pull up another listing on your tablet and say, “Have you seen this house on 123 Main Street? I’d love to show it to you.” Now they’re looking alongside you, collaborating, and you’re leading, because all sales is leadership.

When they’re interested, get their number the right way: take their cell number, text them on the spot with your name, and ask them to text their name back so you’ve got them locked in. If they have your number but you don’t have theirs, you’re playing defense, and that’s exactly why a predictable pipeline comes from always playing offense instead.

The golden rule: set the appointment before they leave. Here’s the one that matters most. The point of an open house was never the slim chance that this visitor would buy this house. As Zillow points out, only about 5% of the people who walk through actually buy that home, but every one of them is looking. So the real win is setting an appointment before they walk out the door, an appointment to look at another property. To pull that off, you need to have studied the MLS ahead of time and know everything near that price point, that location, and that school district, even in a tight market.

Then you can say, “There are these three houses nearby, want me to get you in to see them?” The moment they say yes, you’ve started down the road together, and as Zig Ziglar said, that first yes is always the hardest to get. Following up well from there is its own discipline, which is why so many agents struggle when their database stops responding.

So are open houses worth it? Absolutely. A good friend of mine has built most of his business on open houses, doing about $25 million in volume a year, almost entirely from them, and his numbers say that if you follow this system, every four open houses should produce one client.

That’s a real return, and as industry data confirms, the open house is far more powerful as a lead-generation engine for the agent than as a direct sale of the home itself. Run the right way, it’s one of the most reliable ways to actually grow your business.

If you want to go deeper and really game-plan your open houses, we have a Redux open house system, and we’re happy to work through it with you, including how to pick the right open house in the first place. We’d love to help you build a business plan that converts, so you end up like our team members who mastered these systems rather than the version of our COO who ran 40 and got zero. You can book a call with us anytime, email us at ChrisCraddock@ChrisCraddockLeadership.com, or visit chriscraddockleadership.com. Happy to help, happy to serve, let’s go.