Why You Should Never Overlook Open Houses (as a Seller and a Buyer)

When my Denver-area home was on the market this summer, I admittedly wasn’t super optimistic that the weekend open houses we held would attract any serious buyers. After all, I had heard many times that open houses mostly draw looky-loos (and nosy neighbors!), and I had a preconceived notion that real estate agents often use open houses to court potential new clients. (There’s a reason there’s a sign-in sheet asking for your contact information!)

But I couldn’t have been more wrong: A couple toured my home during an open house, returned with a real estate agent a couple of days later, then put in an offer that I accepted. What’s more: My fiancé was selling his Colorado home around the same time, and a family that was renting in his neighborhood popped into the open house and ended up buying his place, too! 

Let’s just say I’m now a big believer in the power of a well-marketed open house. My home went under contract in July, but open houses could become even more important now that new rules from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) settlement are in effect. As of August 17, buyers must sign a representation agreement with their agents before even touring a home. But if you’re wading into the housing market, you can still parade through open houses on your own. 

“I think open houses are going to become much more important post-settlement,” says Colleen Covell, real estate broker associate at milehimodern in Denver. “Buyers aren’t going to feel comfortable signing an agency agreement with a buyer’s agent they don’t know, so they will instead tour homes via open houses without an agent. I’m advising all of my sellers going forward to hold open houses.”

The beauty of an open house is they’re a low-pressure environment for unrepresented buyers, says Mike McEwen, founder of McEwen Realtors and broker associate at Selling Utah in Salt Lake City. Seeing the home in person could get a casual browser to start thinking more seriously about living in the home, envisioning where they’d hang their TV and how they’d arrange their furniture, he says.

On the buy side, I had a short list of properties that I marked with a “heart” on Zillow, so I would get a notification sent to my email when open houses were scheduled. We were still a few months out from buying, but would casually stroll open houses and keep tabs on the ones we liked so we could come back with our real estate agent. 

The buyers of both my home and my fiancé’s home showed up without real estate agents to our open houses. Our agent did a great job educating them on lender incentives; in fact, he even had a lender at one of the open houses who could help buyers crunch the numbers.

Open houses, when they go right, can create excitement around a listing — particularly when the property first hits the market or there’s been a price drop intended to attract more buyers, explains New York Broker Andrea Saturno-Sanjana of Coldwell Banker Warburg. It’s especially great if you’ve got some good traffic coming and going from the open house. 

“If other buyers sense a greater level of buyer interest in a particular property, it might encourage them to submit an offer to purchase sooner rather than later for fear of missing out,” Saturno-Sanjana says.

There are some instances, though, when an open house might not make sense. If sellers are still living in the home, and they have valuables, prescriptions, and mementos that could be easily taken, an open house might not be a great idea, says Keri Duffy, broker associate at Kentwood Real Estate in Denver. 

Or if a home is in a high-demand market where multiple offers are expected, and it’s getting lots of private showings, an open house might be unnecessary, says Mike Kenney, the broker/owner at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate – Kenney & Company in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Also, if the home has some drawbacks — things like a less-than-ideal location or a layout that doesn’t appeal to a wide range of buyers — a more tailored marketing approach might be the better way to go, he says.