"Hi" to the readers I met at the open house!
I started writing here at Boston.com on June 20, 2007. Since then I have written to, talked to, and met readers. But rarely do I meet them at open houses.
Saturday, some house-hunters spotted my name on the sign-in sheet. They asked the broker doing the open house if she was Rona Fischman. She pointed them in my direction… This is the second time in two years that this has happened.
I introduced myself and shook hands. I thanked them for reading and asked if they comment. No, neither one comments. They read me; they know what I think. Now, they know what I look like. I bumped into them a few times with my clients in the open house and again while we were walking the route to the Red Line. I felt a little self-conscious.
The broker at any open house works for the firm that has the listing for that property. Sometimes he/she is the seller’s agent, sometimes not. In either case, it is bad form for me to pick up new buyers at someone else’s open house.
Open houses are more effective in collecting the names and email addresses of new buyers than it is at selling property. Therefore, I pay attention to the needs of my clients and have very little chit-chat with other buyers at the property. I hope I wasn’t rude to those readers.
Advice to buyers: If you are working with an agent, be sure to write his/her on the sheet. The broker running the open house needs to know that you are not his/her prospect.
Advice to sellers: Open houses are convenient to get a lot of people into your home, but not that effective for selling it. You are inviting anyone and everyone into your home. Protect your property: put jewelry boxes, IPods and other small, valuable things out of site. (I cannot count the number of times that I have walked into an open house and seen gold jewelry sitting on stands or in trays in a bedroom, or IPods or even cash sitting on desks.)
If you see me at an open house, say hello. If you read me, comment if you have something to say. Thanks for reading.
Comment
Permalink
Email
Well, hello to you too! Don't worry -- we thought you were very professional and looking out for the best interests of the clients you were representing.
"In either case, it is bad form for me to pick up new buyers at someone else’s open house." I wish all brokers thought this way. It's really annoying getting calls from them already assuming I'm their client after an open house. Without even asking. One even went as far as assuming I'm going to make my offer through her on the open house she was babysitting (and pretending to be the listing agent for).
Either way, if I were to need an agent, I would not get an agent who is tried to pull a stunt like that or who works for the same firm as the listing agent. That screams conflict of interest regardless of any "duty" to the client.
I have totally opposite experience with Open houses, than one you describing. We were buyers.
1) For us, open house is the only way to see the house. And we saw several houses sold through open house. We finally bought our house through open house.
Let me explain this: we are working professionals with kids. It is difficult for us to see houses during working week- because I and my husband both have to take time off our jobs. On weekends we have to arrange child care to be able to go on house-hunting tour. So, we really need a very short and very well-organized tour on weekend. Creating such a tour by appointments happens to be a pain in a neck- sellers are often very reluctant to show the house on weekends especially if they have open house the same weekend, and usually there are tons of time restrictions from both sides. We found that almost all houses have open house at least once in two weeks. Open houses are almost always on Sundays sometime between 11am and 3pm. So, it’s really easy to create a nice short tour over interesting houses using open houses.
2) We always left our real contact information on the signing sheets, but we almost never have been contacted by agents after the open house. The only two times agents called us were the situations when the agents were selling their own houses.
Sellers should NEVER leave prescription meds in medicine cabinets or out in the open. It's too easy for someone to go into the bathroom and remove them. There was actually someone visiting open houses doing exactly that a few years ago. Laptops also belong out of site.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
Recent Posts
browse this blog
by categoryINside Boston.com