Conducting Open Houses in the COVID Era
(00:01):
Hi there, welcome. Mitch Argon here with CalNeva Realty. I want to share some tips with you about running an open house during COVID-19 now that the governor has released those restrictions for us.
(00:19):
So I had a lot of questions from my agents last week when the governor released the restrictions on the open houses, and so I thought I would share with you guys some of the pros and cons about running an open house. And then secondly, what are some things we should be doing differently when we’re running an open house today, in addition to just the standard CDC guidelines and protective measures? So the first thing I want to cover is, is now a good time to be running an open house? And I thought I’d break it down into the pros and the cons.
(00:44):
So on the pro side, what you have is a buyer population who has been largely starved out of going to open houses, so there could be some pent up demand for people who really want to go out and go to open houses since there hasn’t effectively been one statewide for the last six months. The second pro is that the buyers who are coming are probably going to be better qualified than buyers perhaps pre-COVID, because some people may have some concerns about going into an open house like they might have concerns of going to a store or whatnot, and so they may just skip it. But those buyers who are coming in I would think would be qualifying themselves a little bit further just by the fact they’re showing up.
(01:23):
The third thing is that you’re only going to have one buyer party at a time in the open house, inside the actual home. So what that does is it gives you the ability to focus in on that one buyer and not have the distraction of having to manage multiple parties in an open house at one time, which we’ve all done before. And that will give you I think a better chance of being able to engage with that person and understand their requirements, build some rapport, build some trust, and potentially convert that person into a client to work with going forward.
(01:52):
On the downside, or the cons, you may have some concerns from buyers about coming to open houses, so you could see some decreased traffic. You may also have some concerns from sellers about having additional showings. Although I think if I was a seller, I would rather have an open house and have multiple people come through and do the cleaning around that versus a number of one-off showings. Now, the reality is our market has been roaring in the last six months since the COVID shutdown, so I don’t think we’re going to see a tremendous amount of decreased activity, simply because the markets are so active right now. So in the end, I think the pros definitely outweigh the cons. I think this is actually a great time to be running an open house to get some additional exposure for the seller, and of course to be having the opportunity to prospect and pick up some potential new clients as buyers or sellers who come to your open house.
(02:43):
Okay, so now that we’ve talked about whether it’s a good time or not to run an open house, let’s talk about some things that you probably should be doing differently. Now, I’m going to talk about things that are going to be in addition to the standard guidelines of masking, cleaning services and one party at a time, those are pretty obvious. So let’s go through a short list of these things, and I’m happy to share this with you. Number one, since you can only have one buying party in the home at a time, I think it’s a good idea to do some staging in the front of the house. So by staging, what I’m talking about is having materials outside the front of the house, flyers for the property, for example. So when somebody comes to the open house, they can at least have something to keep them engaged while they’re waiting to get in the house.
(03:23):
Number two, I think it’d be a good idea to have some seating potentially, if your client has some lawn chairs or whatnot that can be placed comfortably outside the front of the house so people can relax and wait. And I think that, just to create a little bit of ambience, I would suggest that you put a speaker or an inexpensive radio outside with some good background music so people can feel like they’re actually at the event while they’re waiting to go into the house.
(03:47):
Lastly, since we can only have one buying party in the house at a time, we can still have people in the back yard while people are in the house. So what I would suggest you do strategically is open a side yard and have some directional signage so if somebody comes to the open house but they can’t go in yet because the home is currently being shown, they could basically walk around the side gate or side yard, look at the backyard, examine that, check it out, and stay fully engaged even though they can’t both be in the house at the same time. I think you’ve got a better chance of retaining your people at the open house by doing that, and I think it’s going to be a better experience for the consumers and a better outcome for the seller as well.
(04:29):
Okay, so I hope this has been useful for you. Look forward to sharing more with you as we go forward. Good luck out there. Have a great day. Signing off
