Opening an Open House

This is my first post to officially open this blog.

Recently, we were given the opportunity to host an open house for one of our clients. This open house is for a double-storey corner house for sale in SS23, Taman Sea, Petaling Jaya.

Now, what is an open house? Not to be confused with the traditional and common term of open house whereby its a kenduri with lots of feasting and food; THIS open house is the total opposite. This open house that I refer to in the title and is the topic of this post is an advertising and promotion channel.

Instead of using the passive approach of hanging a FOR SALE banner on the gate and waiting for a customer to call to enquire; the active approach will be to host an open house. Therefore, the said house is opened to the public. Similar to a developer’s sales gallery and show unit(s), the public is openly welcomed to visit and view the said house.

Now that we know when we’ll be hosting the open house, it is crucial that we create awareness about the event. Advertise, advertise, and advertise.

1. Design eflyers or EDMs, and print flyers specifically for the open house.
2. Distribute flyers through newspapers and into the mail boxes of houses in the surrounding tamans (neighbourhoods).
3. Post and feature your listing on (your) property portals: iProperty, PropertyGuru, PropSocial, Propwall, The Edge Property, PropertyCircles, and Mudah.my
4. Create a Facebook event.
5. Invite your family, friends, mutual friends, and friends of friends to like, comment, and share the event on Facebook.
6. Broadcast the EDMs to your broadcast lists on Whatsapp.

If the house needs to be cleaned; clean it, because first impressions matter. Its good that the house is presentable and the customer has a good feeling of and in the house.

Finally, the much awaited open day has arrived and it is an hour to the opening. It is time to create traffic. Take advantage of the traffic to drive traffic to the open house. Hang up directional signages along the roads to direct people to the open house. Some important information on the directional signages are the agent’s name, contact number, opening and closing time of event, and address.

An important key to note here is to never forget the keys (to and inside the house)! It is minutes to the open house. Time to open up the house. Switch on the lights, fans, and airconds (if there are). Open all the doors in the house. This is so that walk-in customers can freely roam and explore the house. It is an open house, nonetheless.

To-date, we’ve hosted 3 open houses in: Lagenda 3 in Bukit Jelutong, Sunway Challis Damansara, and SS23 Taman Sea. Customers can come wherever and whenever, but from our experience; these are the common walk-in customers:

• People who live in the same taman
• People who are driving and saw the directional signages
• People who received the flyers
• Agents who have prospective buyers

Some FAQs:

• What is the land area (LA) and built-up (BU) of the house?
• How long has it been in the market?
• How much is the seller selling?
• Etc

Through the open house we get to physically and actively meet the neighbours and customers LIVE. Some neighbours compare the layout of the house for sale with their own house. They compare the number of rooms, the size of the bedrooms, and how and where both houses were extended. In turn, we as real estate agents benefit because we listen and can therefore input to prospective buyers on the interior design for the house for sale. Furthermore, we also get to learn about the history of the house and the taman. These inreases our expertise and knowledge of the house and the taman.

It is time to pack up and take down the directional signages and banners along the road. Time to do some follow-up work with our walk-in customers and prospective buyers. It is an experience hosting an open house from open to close.