Starting now and going into 2024, it's time to bring on the open houses. Today's episode is going to be prescriptive advice about how you should go about leveraging open houses to generate leads in your business. A lot of folks look at open houses as uh, nobody came I didn't get a good, a good buyer, or a good seller out of that particular open house. But are you looking at open houses over the long run? Because we know in real estate, when you want to do something, you have to do it consistently.

The results are always in the repetition. So today's conversation is about the A Toz end to end. How should you be approaching open houses? Whether you're a solo agent, running a team on a team new in the business, super experienced, this has got something for everybody to. Leverage What One of our coaching clients Stephanie Younger calls your storefront Open houses are like your storefront I Respect that.

it's your decision. If you do or don't want to leverage open houses, it's just of my opinion that you should be wanting to crush open houses because they're massive opportunity and I'm going to to try to convince you throughout this video. and I'm so glad you're here. Thank you so much for watching this weekend marketing or listening.

If you're on a podcast app my name is Jason Pantana I'm your host and I'm super stoked today to talk about open houses and how you can apply them to your business to generate more leads, grow, and scale your business in 2024. If you're new to the channel and this is the first video you've watched, it would mean the world to me and to our team. If you would, please subscribe to the channel. and there's a bell icon right next to that big red subscribe button that if you tap it, it turns on notifications.

So you get a heads up whenever we publish new content like this one. Uh, so that you can be the first to take action on all the ideas that are going to be tucked away in this openhouse. Extravaganza of a video. Now today's video is going to walk through five different parts of leveraging open houses.

Beginning with: how do you procure open houses? Maybe you have listings? Maybe you don't have listings? What are steps you can take to procure more open houses? How do you promote your open houses? How do you prep for your open houses? How do you perform at your open houses? And how do you pursue the folks that you meet at your open houses? The five parts of an open house. It's procure, It's promote, It's prep. It's perform. It's pursue.

You know how hard it was to come up with Five Piece, but we did it and we're going to make it applicable to you. First things first, let's talk about how can you procure open houses and you may be watching and saying I Don't my own listings. If you don't have your own listings, you have likely been told what your options are. You can talk to team members on your team, you can talk to other agents at your brokerage, or agents at other offices affiliated with your brokerage, and in some cases you can get outside of your own brokerage walls although it's not necessarily what's going to be the most common tale.

And then another option is you can look for out of area listing agents. It's not uncommon to go into your MLS and do a search for maybe it's an agent who's got a different area code and you can find out of area listing agents with vacant properties who would love for you to host an open house and the seller would love to have their home hosted open and so I Guess my point is, a lot of folks stop before they get started with open houses because they're unwilling to roll up their sleeves so to speak and get resources ful in terms of finding the opportunities they're out there. It could even be leveraging for sale by owner listings, talking to folks who already have their homes on the market and they're not working with an agent and finding Mutual ground where you can help them achieve their goals and it's also of a benefit to you. My point to you is roll up your sleeves and go looking for open houses and do it according to a specified system.

Uh, a lot of Agents will hustle for a week or two and I'm not trying to be negative or talk down to you, but it's not uncommon for an agent to hustle like hey, I Worked really hard to get a listing this week and then next week. What about it? What about the next week? What about the next week? It's always about the consistency. So the challenge to you is what's going to be your process for finding open houses on the regular and by what day. Because sometimes an agent doesn't find the open house until it's later in the week and then the promotion window becomes really, really narrow.

And so my advice to you is starting Sunday or Monday. Start planning for the next week assuming you're going to host an open house on typically or traditionally a Sunday. or maybe you do a a double feature, a Saturday and a Sunday. Just give yourself adequate time to promote it and make it a part of your day time block.

It make it a part of your weekly schedule. finding those openhouse opportunities. Second up is to promote your open houses. Once you get one, you got to work it.

You got to drive attention and awareness to get folks to the open house. Now, promoting an open house has sort of two different objectives. On one hand, you're trying to get traffic to your open house. You truly want buyers and sellers and consumers to be at the open house, but the other side the other side.

of the coin is you're creating awareness so that your own database, your own geoarm sees your activity in the marketplace because activity begets activity. And When they see you hustling and grinding and working, it's going to create a stronger resonance to work with you. should they have needs that arise to make a referral or to hire you potentially to list and sell their home or to help them buy a house. People want to see people who work.

It works. But one more caveat to bear in mind which is your commitment to promoting an open house. It's not uncommon for an agent to work this open house really aggressively. It's a good one.

I'm going to work it really good, but the next one H It's not really that important and so perhaps that agent doesn't promote as effectively and then lo and behold, it's not. It's not a home run and they think, ah, I guess I'm going to do open house is when a good one shows up and then it lacks being a system. May I encourage you not to be a fair weather openhouse Hoster if there is such a phrase and to instead be relentlessly consistent because the results are in the competition. and when you leverage open houses on a regular basis.

yes, you're going to have some wins and some losses, but it's going to stack up altogether instead of just playing the odds like, oh, that looks like a good bet. Oh, that's a bad bet. That's a good bet. That's a bad bet.

That's not how you win. You win by playing the game on a consistent basis. Now, in terms of promotion, it begins with signs ideally branded directional Signs Now I Recognize you may be in a vertical environment or there may be ordinances against signs, but I'm encouraging you to consider putting out lots of signs. Signs I Mean like lots of signs.

You've heard me talk on this show before about one of our coaching clients Dave Archeleta, who he himself every. Saturday He's out there in the hot sun putting in directional signs that are branded and he does it himself for three reasons. One, we know directional signs are effective at driving people to open houses. They didn't realize there was an open house they saw the sign.

They follow the signs they got there, so it increases traffic at your open house. Two, his signs are branded. so all the neighbors think that he must have a Bazil listings because they see his directional signs everywhere every weekend and so it gives the impression that he's the dominant listing agent in the area. And then third is because he gets the opportunity to wave at everybody passing by.

He sees people who are taking a little stroll or driving their car and he waves like he's the Mayor of the Town Big smile and everything and people remember him. And so he goes to listing appointments every week and invariably the homeowner will say something to the tune of hey, Dave We see you out there every weekend busting your tail, working hard and that's the kind of agent we want to hire to list and sell our house. And so the rewards of being seen doing the work pay dividends. In terms of listings, you got to start looking at open houses as more than just did I get a buyer there or did I find a seller there and seeing them as a true blue marketing channel and a lead generation channel that has other residual benefits besides just the people who attend Then Obviously there's the promotion aspects that just kind of come without saying or go without saying like you should put it in the MLS and you should ensure that the MLS syndicate over to Zillow and other major platforms because a lot of times you're there are buyers in the field who have alert set up so they know what the open houses are.

They run a search and just make sure you're listed on all the major places it could even be including an event on Facebook for instance, just leave no stone unturned in terms of ensuring that the places people go looking for open houses that they can find your open houses and that also includes maybe Next Door if Next Door is a popular app in your area, ensure you leverage it to promote your open house. I would also encourage you to make social media content. You could go live stream something. Do stories? Do Posts leverage social media like Instagram Facebook and beyond for promoting your Open House.

Bearing in mind again, it's not just about getting people to the open house, it's about getting on the radar of people who see you busting your tail to get people to the open house. and that bodess well for your brand. And so maybe it's organic social media content posting and promoting it, but also put a little money behind it. Boost the post, run some ads show that you're willing to do whatever it takes to have a successful open house, and maybe you have a successful email newsletter you send out to your entire database.

You should promote the Open House in the newsletter as well, and a lot of our top agents who are part of our ecosystem. They're Circle dialing the neighbors and or door knocking the neighbors, making sure they're not violating any laws like Tcpa and so forth, but simply inviting folks to attend the open house. Now, inviting the neighbors to attend the Open House is absolutely Mission Critical because a lot of people talk about well, what's the goal of an open house and there have been old expressions like one qualified buyer and I'm like, uh, let's not set our sites too high, everybody I mean I'd love to get the buyer, but reality is, there's a lot more to be gained from an open house. It could be that the neighbors attend and the neighbors may be sizing up competition because maybe they're thinking about selling.

So what measures do you have in place to go? Invite the neighbors to attend your open houses. One of the scripts a lot of our coaching clients are using when they're door- knocking the neighbors is something to the tune of knock, knock knock, they answer hi, my name is Jason Pantana I'm hosting an open House for your neighbors listing down the street two through banana Street this Sunday it's going to be from 1: to 4: and I'm inviting all the neighbors to be there because I want it to be packed I Want every prospective buyer who walks on site to the listing to feel an incredible sense of urgency and pressure because there's so many other people looking at the property that it compels them to write stronger offers. Because reality is, for every dollar over asking, we're able to sell this property. It's adding to your home's Equity to your bottom line, so help me help you effectively.

Some version of that script has been useful in terms of showing to neighbors. Hey, you've got their best interest in mind. You're trying to help them improve the values of their homes along their street. Because no doubt this house, this neighbor's listing when it sells is going to be a comp.

So what's your strategy for promoting open houses? Not just every now and again, but consistently? It's about doing it again and again and again because that's when the results truly show up. Step three is to prep and prepare for the open house because you put all this work into to getting an open house and into promoting an open house. And now it's time to level up and perform admirably at your open house. And that means you need a prep and the prep doesn't have to be overly ridiculous or involved, but it would be a smart move to run some comps and make sure you've got CMAs of the property.

I Would recommend running CMAs for the Neighbors because what a lot of our coaching clients do is they door knock Five Doors to the left and five to the right to hand deliver CMAs to the neighbors nearest to the open house. Another way of preparing might be to talk to a lender contact of yours and say, could you put together a flyer on some payment opportunities for for financing the property for different mortgages? My thought here is: what are you going to do to prepare: Do you know what else is for sale in the area? Do you know what other comparable homes there are? Do you know other open houses are coming up in the area or actively going on that weekend? What's going to be your standard procedure for preparing to deliver an exceptional experience at your open house? My dazzled by your state of Readiness Be prepared. On the day of, it's time to perform at your open house, it's time to do what you've gotten yourself ready to go do. And that means arriving early.

Don't be the agent who shows up 5 minutes late or right when it's time to start. Arrive early so you can get the lights right, get the blinds right? Uh, make sure that everything's ready to greet people, that the homeowners may have questions for you, that they're prepared and they know what to expect. You want to be there early to get everything off without a hitch. What a lot of top agents who crush it with open houses do? is they leverage music? Maybe use some Bluetooth speakers that maybe sync up and put some music on? Maybe the house has some kind of a music system put music on? I Remember when I was in college I studied Marketing in college and one of my professors in one of the classes was talking about the psychology of music and Retail experiences and I wonder if you've ever questioned why do they play upbeat, fast music in retail establishments? And the answer is because Studies have revealed upbeat music in a retail setting.

Entices people who are shopping to shop faster and to shop more spendy to spend more money. They buy more stuff. so what's going to be your music selection? That helps not just cast the right Vibe for the house, but it also puts people in that shopping state of mind. It makes them want to have fun in the process.

Now a super important moment that you have to absolutely. Crush It's a critical moment in your open houses is the moment of registration. Whether you use an iPad or if you use a paper signning sheet, that's up to you. But I'm going to recommend that you have a strong system for getting registrations at the beginning of the open house.

A lot of folks make the mistake of waiting to try to get someone's contact info until they're out the door and I'm like, too late you lost your point of Leverage and some of you might be watching and might be thinking, you know what, That's not my style I Connect with one or two or three people and if we spark it off and hit it off, I'm going to focus on them I Don't do the registration thing and teach their own. That's that's your Choice It's not my recommendation, but it's certainly your choice. Signs in at Open House. They're a lead.

They're declaring their intent to tour a property that is on the market for sale. now. they may have a lot of intent or not a lot of intent that's going to be determined in your follow-up game. but I Want to make sure that you're capturing every perspective.

Lead You may be thinking though, like I get a lot of push back for signing in? how should I handle the push back and there are a lot of methods for handling it I'm not going to cover every method. Some of my favorite Greatest Hits methods are we call it the bouncer method where maybe you have a loan officer or a partner with you and so you are the greeter and like, hey, welcome, how'd you hear about us You have some formal fun conversation I'm Jason Thanks so much for attending! Uh I Look forward to answering any questions you might have about this property as you tour it. I Want you to make yourself at home or at least imagine this place as home. wink uh.

but before you do, go see And then you point to your loan officer or your partner over there who's holding an iPad or a clipboard or something like that. Go see. Jerry They'll get you registered literally every step they're taking toward Jerry our fictitious loan officer bouncer at the open house. They're incrementally agreeing to the notion of registering and I'll tell you what.

I Recommend that when you ask someone to register a lot of folks, just say here's the clipboard. Here's the iPad I Like the idea of asking hey did I catch your first name was Eric Okay, great, what's your last name? Did I spell that right? And the reason I like that is because it gives you the opportunity to learn more about what they're looking for and their needs having a conversation versus them just going into their own world filling out an iPad or filling out a clipboard. Now you may get someone who says something like hey, do I have to sign in or do I have to register And it could be possible that the seller said yeah, they do, it's required and if that's the case, it's their house, it's required. Let's say for right now, they didn't say that and that it's not necessarily required for attendance.

You could respond and say something to the effect of no, you don't have to. However, the seller is working really hard to get this property sold and they've tasked me with reaching out to anybody who's in attendance to collect their feedback and to determine if they have any interest in making an offer Because they're working really hard to get this place sold. Saying something like that will likely induce some sense of ah, they cleared the house out for me. this is their house and I'm sort of invading it and the average person is going to be like absolutely yes and then they might say as a followup.

Well, you're going to send me a bunch of marketing stuff to which you should be able to say no I'm going to reach out for the purposes of following up about this property so we can see what helps you and what helps them Something like that. Couple of more ideas and I'll say these super quick. A lot of Agents will use like little iPad kiosks where there's actually a home valuation station set up a custom home search station at the open house as another mechanism for generating inquiries and leads. Now some top agents offer a takeaway kit whereby they could text or email a kit of useful information to a prospective buyer.

It might include the MLS sheet it might include maybe some disclosures possibly it could include a fact sheet, a payment uh, projection sheet, and different useful information that a prospective buyer or even a neighbor who's interested to know more might want. And again, that's another point of getting contact information, getting yourself in dialogue. whether through calls or emails or text with those attendees, you could come up with other ideas. My recommendation is to have a plan.

What's going to be your standard minimum experience of an open house that leaves every buyer and every perspective seller thinking this agent is a rockstar. Now last part on the list of open houses is arguably the most important part or all roads lead to this part. It builds to this part and that is the final P to pursue. to pursue the relationships to stay in contact with the people you met at the open house.

Whether they were neighbors you invited to attend, who could be prospective sellers, or who could connect you with the buyer or make a referral. There's just so many opportunities Within in the neighbor group or it could be the folks who came in as buyers themselves. it's your ability to follow up. I'm going to share with you perhaps some unconventional openhouse wisdom that I work on with my own coaching clients and you don't have to agree with anything I'm saying.

It's simply a point of view for you to consider and decide what's going to be a part of your system, so to speak. I Love it when there's a lot of dialogue between you, the agent and the prospective buyers and the sellers who are neighbors. I Love all the conversation. However, with my own coaching clients, there is one question that I put out of balance.

It's the question you don't ask. The question you don't ask is so what' you think and the reason for not asking that question is because if you ask it at the open house, you give up your grounds for followup. You give up the entire reason for following up because when they registered you already promised them. Hey, I'm going to reach out, the seller's working hard to get this place sold and I want to collect that feedback and determine your level of interest because I'm doing my job here I'm working here and so you've already set the tone for why you're following up and this is now your moment to follow up.

So when the open house is done, or maybe the next day at the latest, you're going to reach out to everybody who registered with the purpose of collecting their feedback the so what did you think type of question. and so imagine this: Imagine you call somebody and it goes to their voicemail and you leave a voicemail. Hey, this is Jason Pantana, the agent you met at 123 Banana Street this afternoon at our open house I So glad you made it out I Hope you had a great experience there. Listen: I'm reaching out like I said I would collecting feedback for the sellers because they're working hard to get this property sold and any information that you might be able to to share with us to maybe position it differently or if you're interested yourself, is going to help us uh, in our goal of getting this property sold.

So give me a shot back when you can. blah blah blah I'm reaching out like I said I would and then if they don't call you back and you want to follow up again, hey, guess what? I'm reaching out again because the sellers are working hard to get their property sold and you continue to show yourself as persistent. The reason I like this follow-up method is because of course there's a point where it's too much and you let them go. but if you follow up and they don't answer, you, leave a voicemail and you do it again and again.

Every respective time. you're showing just how committed you are, just how hardworking you are, and you're positioning yourself as an ideal candidate to be hired in the event they look to move forward and buying a house. Now we also know this: We know that less than 1% approximately of people who attend an open house buy that open house, which means all the money is really in the followup. Open houses are a fantastic way to create traction and Buzz about a listing, but they're not necessarily what's going to bring the actual buyer directly and so what's your plan to pursue those opportunities long term? Because if you don't have a plan then they're just slipping through the cracks.

It's all about the followup. As you can tell I Really am a fan of open houses and it's my goal and hope for you that you're going to double down on open houses and leverage the opportunities of open houses. I Get that there are a lot of work. it's a lot of moving.

Parts It's a lot of steps, but what could be possible if you were consistent and systematic and how you execute those steps. What I think is possible is you could be creating an opening up a new pillar for lead Genen in 2024. So if you're up for it, roll up your sleeves and get to work. And by the way I'd love to hear from you what are your best practices when it comes to open houses? Let's get an awesome thread in the comments going.

let us know what works for you and until next week This is this weekend Marketing A.