When selling your property, should you have an ‘Open House’ for buyer inspections, private inspections by appointment, or a combination of the two?

 It’s a common question when it comes to the sale of property. There are arguments for and against.

 What Agents Say:

 Most Real Estate Agents love Open Houses. They save time while also showing the competition that exists for a particular property. The secret reason, however, why many agents insist on Open Houses is so they can meet other homeowners.

 Many of those who take the time to attend an Open House are locals with real estate plans of their own. They want to see how properties compare to theirs while also meeting agents active in the area. Open Houses are where a lot of agents find new business.

 But is this the best thing for you, the seller?

What Sellers Say:

 Sellers commonly object to having an Open House on their property for two main reasons – privacy or security concerns.

 Many sellers want to keep their privacy and limit inspections to that of genuine buyers. This is completely understandable. Many sellers go years without meeting their neighbours and don’t relish the thought of them suddenly walking through their homes.

 The security concern is also valid. Many property owners don’t realise that Open House attendees are classed as ‘invited guests’ under most insurance policies. Any damage or theft as a result of an open house is likely not covered by your insurance.

What Buyers Say:

Smartre Training, the national real estate consultancy company, engaged Vibrant Insights to survey the habits of real estate consumers across Australia, covering the behaviours and experiences of both sellers and buyers.

 The survey showed that when buying property, 33% of people prefer to inspect a property via an Open House, 33% via a one-on-one appointment, and 34% were happy to do either.

 This demonstrates the importance of a dual inspection strategy. By limiting yourself to only a ‘by-appointment’ strategy or only hosting Open Houses, you risk alienating at least one-third of potential buyers for your property. If this one-third contains the best buyer, you may undersell your property.

What’s the Solution?

At Johnson Real Estate, we strongly encourage a holistic inspection strategy that includes what we call Smart Opens. What makes these inspections different from standard industry Open Houses is we do not encourage the attendance of your neighbours. We limit the advertisement of these inspections to a few days a week specifically where buyers are looking at property. 

This allows us to maximise the number of buyers to inspect the property one-on-one while including those buyers who prefer to inspect the property via an Open House. Our strategy facilitates good negotiations by creating good relationships with genuine buyers.

Whether it be our marketing materials, negotiation philosophies, or inspection strategies, every part of our overall strategy is designed to maximise the sale price of your property.

 In answering the question: “To Open or Not?”, open yes, but Open Smartre.

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