If you are advertising your house properly you shouldn't have to have long Open Houses, 2 hours is usually plenty, if they are really interested in your house they will be there in that time frame. Saturday mornings are not really good, I would suggest later in the afternoon. Sundays I would hold it between the hours of 12-4. Put a small ad in your local paper, ballons on the beginning of your street, and at your house. Also stop into your local real estate office, they would be more than welcome to give you information and tips for For Sale
By Owners. Good Luck and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Jacque,

As you can see from the responses below there are many answers and many different strategies, most of them with valid points. Just keep in mind that the marketing you give to the property and the open house itself is what at the end is most important. Under this market of extreme competition you need to be flexible with the showings and the open house hours, but most importantly market your property properly. I have had many clients asked me to just skip a property if it is not available for showing at a time that is convenient to them.

Good luck and please let me know if I can be of help!

Jacque,

Along with the good answers from experienced agents, I would like to throw my blog (link below) into the mix.
Good luck and Happy Holidays.

http://www.trulia.com/blog/rockinblu/2008/08/thinking_about_…

Hi Jacque,
How is the time frames working for you so far? Have you had many people coming through? What has been better for you thus far -- Saturday or Sunday?
Are you familiar with a FSBO helpkit? Or do you already have one?
If not and you would like to have one - feel free to shoot me an email or give me a call.
Just pop on my website and my contact information is there for you.

-Sheryl

Run your open houses when others run the open house the time is not the issue it is the promotion of the property that it is open that will attract the buyers. We spend 6 weeks prior to the open house promoting it on line to generate activity.

you need to set your times around when people are either most actibve or least active, saturday morning is a poor time. 1 to 3pm on a saturday is plenty. On sunday open houses are tough as you have church in the morning and football in the afternoon. again if you must then 1-3 or 2-4pm on a saturday. Open houses are not a great way to sell your home. Unless you are in a high traffic area, open houses dont need to be done each and every weekend. Anyone truely interested will call to see your house.

Most people use the weekends as an opportunity to get out of bed a little later. I would do the open houses between 1pm and 4pm. However, you need to ensure that you advertise the open house dilligently and not too far ahead of the scheduled date. Sometimes, advertising too aggressively can also give an indication of despair so you should try to fashion it accordingly.
Hope this helped

Hi Jacque,

First, my suggestion would be not to host such a long open house. It may show you are desperate to sell! As for the day and time I know here in New England we have to cater to the Sunday football schedule as Saturday open houses don't seem to work as well. So if you have die-hard sports fans there in Mesa I would suggest working around that. And try to host no more than an 2 hour open house because if someone really wants to see the property they will call to see it! I hope this helps!

Jonathan Power
Licensed Massachusetts REALTOR

I usually hold mine open from 11-4, BUT, if it's a high traffic area I might do it from 9-5, depending on the owner. Make sure your advertising the open house.

Good Luck!

-Stew-