Great tips to follow! Thankyou for sharing this information...:)

Mommaof4,

All of the agents have given great advice and I agree on Sunday as well. I would like to offer some safety tips to you as holding an open house comes with some risk. Ocean County is a relatively safe area, but we have our share of crime. When you hold an open house, you have no idea of who (and somtimes why) someone is entering your home.

Please do not have your children present for a variety of reasons.

Please have an adult present with you.

Require that all visitors register. They may give fake names, but should something happen, the visitor before or after may be able to help identify a car, a person, etc.

When you show the home, DO NOT enter the rooms ahead of the visitor. Direct them to the room while you remain between them and the exit. For example, "the first room on the right is the master bedroom".

NEVER enter the basement ahead of the visitor. If you do enter the basement, keep yourself positioned so that you can easily exit.

Always ask a neighbor to keep an eye on you during the open house. Tell them when you have concluded the open house, so that if thsy see someone hanging around, they will investigate.

Remove all your valuables and prescription drugs to a safe place. Don't assume you can watch everyone. It takes a second for someone to go through a drawer or a medicine cabinet.

DO NOT allow someone to enter even 10 minutes after the open house is concluded. You may feel that you are being rude, or passing up a potential buyer, but for your safety--think again. If the visitor is a serious buyer, they will make an appointment and come back.

When the open house is finished, make sure you check that all doors and windows are locked.

I'm sure there are others that will offer valuable tips as well. Good Luck.

THANKYOU AGAIN, I APPRECIATE ALL THE ADVICE AND OPINIONS :)

Hi Mommaof4, Jeannie Feenick back again to say "thank you" to you for returning and acknowledging the responses. It is nice to know that the input is helpful!

Best of luck to you,
Jeannie Feenick
Weichert Realtors
Search and connect at http://www.feenick.com

I totally agree with Theresa, If you have new construction arround you and that draws attention you should do an open house and I would say do it both days. it does get the foot inside the door and you never know who is a buyer, you just need one serious buyer. Although in todays market internet has become the new open house 24/7 and open houses are not as effective, I have noticed that serious buyers see and watch a home online and will most likely visit the home if there is an open house. Very Important, you must advertise your open house online as much as possible and as soon as possible to get the best response.

Oooh, good question. I personally am not too fond of Open Houses! Though I have met buyers at Open Houses I have not seen enough evidence that they are effective in selling the home. There is often not much traffic and the people coming through are not always qualified. Some homeowners complain that it is just neighbors popping in to peek at the decor and then, there is the safety issue! I can see the need for an Open House when a new development is being built and they usually have a model home on site. That said, I do have them on occasion and when requested by the homeowner. Sunday is a more common day and the advertising is better with Sunday newspapers and an abundance of real etate ads.

GREAT FEEDBACK, THANKYOU!

Hi Mommaof4, No question in my mind - Sunday is the most effective day to hold an Open House. Recently I've held a number of advertised Open Houses on Saturdays and had very low to no turnout. I put out the same generous number of directional signs and posted the Open House on the same sites and the difference is night and day.

Generally I find that most visitors are drawn by signs or by internet ads - and the fact is buyers are generally not thinking about or looking for Open Houses on Saturday, while they are on Sunday. I think the awareness factor is just too low on Saturday to make them generally time effective.

If you have one day to choose, go with Sunday without question.

Good luck to you!

Best,
Jeannie Feenick
Weichert Realtors
Search and connect at http://www.feenick.com

I find that rotating the day will draw a different group of buyers. I will do a Sunday first as generally that’s when the papers have the big ads and buyers (and lookers) are out. You may get less activity on the Saturday, but they may be a bit more serious.

Good Luck !

In my over 20 year of experience I will tell you on Sunday.

GREAT ADVICE! THANKYOU AGAIN:)

Either day is great. We find the by rotating the days you hold open houses from one weekday 3-6 and one weekend day we maximize visitors to our listed properties. Remember to hang a sign rider a week before saying "Open Sat 12-4" to get even more traffic.

Open House Events and their success depends on the local market. In Winston-Salem, NC we have hosted open houses on Sunday afternoons from 2-4pm. However, recent discussions among the major marketplace shareholders have been to try them on Saturdays. Open Houses are not as well attended as they once were, likely due to photographs and information available on the internet. We also believe that higher gas prices causes prospective buyers to stay at home on Sunday afternoons, rather than driving around looking for something to do.

Carla and Deborah have well thought out and answers I agree with. Additionally, even though I don't use it, look at your local newspaper as well to see when others are being held. This is probably ONE time, its good to do things at the same time as others.

Hi Jim and Carla,
Tks for taking the post down. Do come back and paticipate on Voices! :-)
Carla, Tks.

Back to you Monmma of 4 in Ocean County.........

I looked at your link. Good luck w/ your open house.

Deborah

I agree with Deborah whole heartedly.. Good call out.
I have found that the success of an open house regardless of the day or time you hold it, is in how well you advertise in advance. 1. Door knock to the neighbors around your open house. 2. Do a post card mailing advertising your listing and the date and time of the open house. 3. Use the on line services that promote your open house ( such as Trulia, your MLS, etc.) You can be successful if you WORK IT, not just sit it.
4. Our office does a biweekly tour of homes where all agents can list their home to hold open, and do a group advertisment in the local paper, and on line. 5. We also send email flyers to everyone in our data base.
Open houses do work.. at generating leads, increased property exposure, exposure of your professionalism and willingness to go the extra mile for your clients, etc. You just have to think outside of the box and work it.
Feel free to contact me via email at : carla@carlacaresrealestate.com for more ideas.

Have an awesome open house and many successes in todays changing market!

Carla Donaghy

Around my neck of the woods (Baltimore Metro Area) Sunday Open houses are still the way to go! I just did one this past Sunday and had 16 sets of people come through. I know for sure that 4 sets were neighbors but that's ok,the more the merrier, and neighbors have friends who could be buyers.

Hi Jim Long,

Your post seems to be a copy/paste of mine, with a few minor edits. While I maybe should be flattered that you liked my answer, it's not a real good idea to copy/paste another's writing without giving them credit for it. It’s called plagiarism, and not looked upon well. I hope your aren't borrowing others' work and placing it on other parts of the web and claiming it as your own. I would be complimented if you agreed w/ me, but am offended by the copy/paste with a representation of it as your words.

If you agree w/ me, just say that…..and then add any additional comments that you might want to share. You probably have lots of great ideas and thoughts of your own, so do share those. If you know of other great comments others have made on blogs or elsewhere on the web, provide links, reference it, add your comments. But, please do give appropriate credit where due.

Regards,
Deborah

Thankyou all for responding so quickly and for all your advice!

In my area, Sundays win hands-down!

Sunday is the best day to hold an open house unless it's a national holiday.

Some of our agents have done evening open houses. They had a lot more traffic than the weekend open houses. They did them on Thursday evenings from 5-7 pm. This is great especially if you are in a high traffic area. People will stop by right after work.

I like Sundays, between 12 and 4 . Folks are getting out of church and oing to Sunday lunch. This seems to be the best for me

think that it really comes down to local tradition, here in the Northern Virginia area, Sunday open houses overwhelm Saturday opens by about 40 to 1. Generally, they are conducted from 1-4PM so that it isn't a direct conflict with worship services for most people. For the most part, buyers & agents in this area have reserved Sunday for opens and Saturdays for showing property together.

I realize that may not be the answer you wanted, but it is the truth as I see it...

Sunday is the best day for open houses unless you are competing with a major sporting event. If you live in a conservative Christian area then you better have your open house on a Saturday.

In New Haven County, Connecticut we prefer to hold our open houses on Sundays, anytime from noon to 4 p.m. We don't get the traffic on other days.

Saturdays and Sundays are both good. What is more important is lots of signage and advertising in the right media for your marketplace. You may have to experiment to figure out which media are effective, including local newspapers and internet sites such as Craigslist.

In Western New York, Sunday is the expected day for an open house. However, if there is a major event on Sunday (like the SuperBowl for instance), I would consider Saturday as an alternative. Also, when really pushing a property, doing both Saturday and Sunday on the same weekend for the same house can be effective. The homeowners are cleaning and preparing anyway, so this approach is double bang for the buck for both their efforts and my advertising money.

Hi,

Even within Ocean County, it will vary by location. There ae specific complexes or developments that have better turnouts on Sat vs. Sun. Overall, if I had to pick one, I would probably say that county wide, Sunday produces more OH visitors.

Over the years, I have held OH's that have yielded no visitors, and I have been overwhelmed with more than 30 visitors. Many visitors are not serious buyers, but some are.

If your community allows directionals, make extensive use of those. Place the directional signs just prior to the OH, and remove them promptly after. Do check with your municipality for rules governing sign placement. In some towns, none are permitted. Other towns require signs be placed only on private property and with the permission of that property owner. Other towns allow signs on street corners, sidewalks, and street medians, but have time limits. Observe the rules, as the fines can be hefty, and your signs may also disappear.

Post your open house on many websites to increase your turnout. The only time we use classified ads in the newspaper is for open houses. Even with this, few of the visitors indicate the paper as their source. We still include that in the promotion of the open house.

If you can, do both Sat and Sunday.

Good Luck
Deborah

I find that I get more people on Saturdays. I know everyone doesn't go to church but a lot of people do on Sunday and you lose that crowd.

Sundays seem to draw more traffic. You could do one on Monday after 5:00 PM but you will still see more traffic on a Sunday afternoon.