KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Are Open Houses A Viable Way To Get Business?

Episode Date: April 22, 2024

Welcome to the Real Estate Fight Club, a podcast for agents, where you'll witness a battle of opinions about topics affecting your real estate business. There are many ways for agents to achieve success. The secret is to find which approach will work for you. Now, always in your corner. Here are your hosts, Jen Mertland and Monica Weekly. Welcome to another episode of Real Estate. Fight Club. What up, Jetmerk? What's up? How have you been behaving yourself since we last spoke? Not well, normal. So normal. It's my birthday month. Birthday month. Hey, happy birthday. Are your birthday month too? This is why we get along so well. Two sagas, man. I mean, if you're a Sagittarius and you're listening to this, happy birthday to you too. You are amazing. You are amazing.

We're the best zodiac sign and all the zodiacs. Best zodiac sign. Hey, if it is your birthday month as well, and you are a Sagittarius, I should say, because not all of December is sadge, I don't think. I don't.

If you're Sagittarius, go to one of our social media's pages and let us know. Yeah. Yeah. Your birthday shout out. Yes. All right.

Okay. Thank you for joining us for another episode of Real Estate Fight Club. You know, we love that you're here. We especially love when you share our podcast, when you subscribe to. the podcast. It really makes all things. Comment and give us hell. Yeah, visit us on our social Insta Twitters. No, not on Twitter. Insta TikToks. Exactly. All right, guys, today Jen and I are

going to duke it out over this. Our open houses still a viable way to get business. Our open house is still a viable way to get. What do you think, Monica? Well, yeah. No. Yes. Yes, they are. We are not even going to fight about this because no is a dumb answer. It's not a dumb answer. Okay. Why yes? Oh, okay. Why yes? Because this is where buyers come out of the woodwork. They don't have agents all the time. Sometimes they do. They don't have agents. They come in. Maybe they're not interested in that house. you get an opportunity, get in relationship with somebody that obviously cares enough about taking time out of their day to go see a house. So they are very likely to be buying a house sometime in the near future. Maybe it's a year from now, whatever, but you would have never, ever met that buyer.

And you're like so cute about how you think that that's how it actually works. It is how it works. That's not how it works. And the only reason I'm saying no is because most agents do open houses wrong. If you did open houses right, they would be a. great resource. This was not part of the question. You said, are open houses viable? Then the answer, the way that people are, the way that you're currently doing it, no, unless you're doing it right. Not what the question was. You just said they are viable if they're doing it right. If you're doing it

right. Yeah, fine. Team Monica. Okay. See? Done. Thank you for tuning into this episode. Goodbye. No, but there's like, There is a process for doing it right. Agree? Okay, let's talk about it. Talk about the seven levels. Now, I might not be able to remember every level. But we do have...

There are many levels to a good open house. Yeah, well, we could talk in general. But if you want the form that has like basically the checklist of what to do, you can go to Jennifer Mertland.com slash vault or you can just message me. And I'll send it to you. But go ahead. Obviously, you put it on the MLS, right? But what day?

Well, I think you do Wednesday. Because your open houses, what day? Sunday. What time? 11. 11 to what? 11 to 1. I want to back up here.

I think if you're going to make open houses a viable business model for you to generate leads, I think you have to do four a week. Do you agree three to four a week? Every week. If it's your stress, You know, I know a lot of agents and you know these agents. They came to town. They didn't know a single soul.

They built a massive business based on. Yeah. But it was their one thing. And they spent all week getting people to come. They spent all week. But if it's not going to be a viable business strategy, why would you do it? That's dumb. You're just wasting time.

And you're not going to do all seven levels or eight or how many ever you add or sit, whatever it is. And you could be doing something else that is your strategy. So I would submit to the court of real estate finance. club that if it is not if you're going to do it do it right if you're not going to do it right don't freaking do it okay well you're in contempt of court um so you always all right now listen yes if you're going to make this your strategy then you're going to have to understand the seven levels and you're going to have to freaking get it right yeah if this is not going to be your

strategy you can still get clients out of a standard basically no you can i have it's a fact no now you got to have the right house why do stuff that's not gonna you're not going to do it right that's dumb because i can pick up a couple buyers out of it we just did Sharon just did she did an open house a million dollar property two weekends and a roche price four people she's working with right now to find

something whatever it works all right carry on whatever it's evidence you're just like it's a $1,000 house because our average price point is $4. It was a million dollar house. That's why we're excited about doing it. If you're going to do open houses, do it where you want to do business. That's good. I can get with you on that. $100,000 condo open.

It doesn't make any sense. Agreed. So, yes, putting it on, if you're going to have your open house on Sunday, then if you're going to do it, we generally recommend about an hour and a half, unless you're doing like the online bidding, but that's like, totally different, right? So, yeah, so like an hour and a half. And then, like, we found two to three 30 to be our best attended ones. Is that right? After church. That's probably dependent on where you live. I'm not football season. You wouldn't do that. That's right. No, you could do Saturday

mornings, though. That works too. Or like a Wednesday or Thursday kind of twilight. Twilight open houses. We're working really well before COVID hit. We were doing a lot of that. A lot of that. Yeah. But yeah. So putting it, I think putting it on the internet, like definitely on the MLS, but also all your social channels. And I would put it with a video.

Why the hell are you not doing a video about the house? Right. Come on. Well, you don't want to give them all the goods. You don't want to show them the whole thing. They're going to want to see it. And you could do a live because a lot of these social platforms, when you go live, it means something. It boost things.

It does stuff. You know what I mean? And then we'll put it on Pipeline Pro Tools and have it go goes to Facebook Marketplace. It goes to Craigslist. It goes to all these other places in addition. Yep. Might as well. It's true.

You know what I think the number one mistake is around open houses, though? It's not the open house itself. Yes, there are ways to do it that are good. All of those tips for sure. But I think the reason open houses don't work for people is because they don't follow up. It's the big F you. Well, the big F you.

It's the most important thing. Actually, that should have been on our last episode about mistakes agents make. Yeah, following up. They're not generating leads to follow up on. So it doesn't matter. But I also think to tag on to what you're saying, also when they are, when you're getting the names and numbers,

you're letting them, you're letting the buyer, or potential buyer or seller or whatever, do it themselves. I think that you should stand like outside or greet them. Some open the door. Greet them. Don't make them walk into the house and be like, oh, hi, introduce yourself. Say your name. And then it's like, what's your name?

And then you write it down. Yeah, right. Ask them. Yes. And I always say the seller would like to have you, the seller would like me to write your name and number down. Just want to know, you know, who is. Oh, I just say what's your phone number?

I always blame it on the cell. What's the best way to contact you? Because it's so quick and you're, you're block. You are literally blocking the door. I like that. I don't do that. I just make sure I get their information. You know, if I can make any interaction a little bit more uncomfortable, it's happening.

You're going for it. This interaction is uncomfortable from no. It's not. You're used to it. I am. Okay. So this is even like we're talking about. So.

before you even do it, we miss some things. So we said put it online. We said do a video. Also, canvas, it's in like a neighborhood or something like that or canvas those people by calling, by door knocking. Think about who is the buyer. Where do they live now? Because most of the people only move within a couple mile radius. So let's say it's a million dollar house and that's a move up buyer. right there's a neighborhood around there that's like five or six hundred likely or something like that that's where the buyer lives now so get a listing while you're at it i have one of the best

tips i ever heard and i cannot remember who said this and maybe you were on the call me it might no this if for you for us agents that are a little bit like hesitant to doork and you know go canvas before an open house this person does it And basically does it from the standpoint of I just wanted to let you know on Sunday, I'm going to be holding an open house. So you're going to see a lot of random cars here. And you might not know what was going on. I just want to let you know. I would be doing that.

They also do that for inspections. Hey, we're doing an inspection over here. I just wanted to do you know that's what's going on. Can we just add like who do you know that? Yes, you can. I would like to live in the neighborhood. Have you thought of selling? I just thought of that.

Right. No, for sure. But I think if you're uncomfortable and you want to just give a service, that can be, hey, I just want to let you know, I'm going to be holding this open house. Obviously, we hope there are a lot of cars. But if anything is blocking or anything, you just come, let me know. I'll take care of it. Yeah. But you have to like, you can't leave the flyer. You have to like knock on the door. Yeah, right, right, right. You want to get in conversation, right? You want to get their information if you can. Two pro tips for, oh, sorry, go ahead. What? I said you can invite them to the open house. Yeah. You've been in your neighbor's house? Come. Lord, what are your pro tips? Let's just give the people what they want. Two pro tips to door knocking. One, do not, I repeat, do not leave the flyer or the hanger or whatever you have in the mailbox.

It is a federal violation. The postmaster has called me before. Because people don't like it when you open their mailbox. Look, I'm not trying to take their mail. What if I pay a bill? Then would you like it? Yes. I'm going to pay one bill in the neighborhood.

You could like advertise that. If you leave your bills in the mailbox. If you answer your door, I'll pay a bill. But also bring rubber bands. Because a lot of times it's hard, like there's no place to stick it. The flyer.

You need something to like wrap it around. Yeah, bring it a handful, well, more than a handful of our bands. I like it. by a door knocker. I don't think I've ever door knocked in my entire life. It's lovely. I don't think so. No, no, it's not.

Also, too, if there is another listing, you should, like, I don't know, look at it. Yeah, make an appointment, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah, you shouldn't just go into it. You should make an appointment for sure. Yeah. I feel like that's more of a what would you do question.

Can you enter homes? Is it a code of ethics violation to enter a home that you do? didn't make an appointment for. Pretty sure it is. Fairly certain. Yes, guys, you know you're going to get asked by people that come into this open house and likely they are going to know more about the sales on the street than you did, especially if they've been interested in the area for a while.

And you do not want to be embarrassed by a buyer knowing more than you do about the condition of a house up the street. It's just awful. Well, and having like a binder for potential buyer client. to look and see what else is available. And you can call it something fancy that it's like, hey, we do this special binder for our clients. Would you like to like set up an appointment?

Here's the buyer agreement. Sign here. And I'll show you the binder. I like it. I like it. All right. Well, I think we can put this one down as team Monica for sure because that happened quickly.

But I also think there were tips in here. And if you guys do want to know about the seven level open house, do go to the vault. Yes, it's Jennifermerlund.com slash vault or just message me and I'll just send it to you. Yeah, that's easier. Just message it's easier a little bit. But it has that vault has a lot of cool tools in it. Yeah, you should visit the vault.

The vault. All right. Thanks for listening, guys. We appreciate you. We also love seeing you on our social platforms. We're on Facebook. We're on Instagram. We're on the TikTok.

Don't stop. And, you know, reach out to us. Let us know what you think. Are you an open house king or quaint? We'd love to know. Do you have a tiebreaker on this, Jen? Of course we have a tiebreaker. Definitely stay tuned for that.

Will they also team Monica? I'm not telling you. Okay. All right, Monica, have a good one. You too. See you next time. I am here with Karen Santa Aya. Hi, Karen.

Hi, good morning. Good morning. Thanks for coming on. So we are going to talk about. how to stand out on an open house. So you have been, how long you've been in real estate? 14 years now. Nice. Happy anniversary, maybe. Thank you. Just have one. And you're in Arizona with Home Smart. Now, I guess we're kind of like, we assume that if an agent, if a customer is coming to your open house, they're probably going to a lot of open houses. And oftentimes, they are also

sellers. Yes. So talk to us about your process, about how you stand out as a real estate agent and what and what you do to get them to work with you. You know, I approach every person that comes in my open house as if I'm having a 30 second job interview. Yeah. So the way to get to stand out above the competition is to offer them something of value and to not immediately try to glean their email or their phone or any of their information, but to establish trust by offering them market data. And so I dial it in really specifically for our market. I asked them what they're looking for, where they're living now, a lot asking them. People like to talk about themselves. Right. And it helps them open up too if you're asking, because they're probably like at first

freaked out. They don't want to be sold anything, right? Exactly. Everyone's super touch sensitive with all the emails and, you know, online marketing and everything, people are kind of touched out. But if you can prove to them that you could help them, they're very willing to at least give a listen. Nice. So what are you, what is the data that you're giving them or how are you preparing for this open house? You know, I have a, like you have a sense of like their budget and sort of what they're looking for, right? Like, that's why they're there. Yes. When I started my business, I chose, I chose, a target rich environment. I chose a zip code in which I felt, you know, qualified buyers would likely be driving around. Right. And so I made it my business to know about the listings in that zip

code. Okay. And each morning I would look on the hot sheet and select a condo, a single family home and a luxury property that was new to market. Nice. So that, you know, you know, nine times out of 10, they're going to say one of those things. I want a condo. Right. I'm looking for a three-bedroom, two-bath home or, you know, we're really ready for our next step. Right. Like a move-up property. Exactly. And so or a downsized property. Right. So, so I would have those fresh in my mind and be able to just off the top of my head, say, hey, this just came to market. You might be interested. And that already kind of, you know, establishes you that you're at work, right? Right. Right. That you're a real estate agent. Yeah. Yeah. I have expertise. I think that's a good idea. I mean,

I mean, especially if you're only doing like a specific zip code, then it's pretty narrow and easy to collect the data from there. Now, you've done a lot of business through open houses. Yes. What is your recommendation if somebody is thinking, you know, I want to use this as a lead generation tool. Like how many should they be doing like in a month or a week or whatever in a year? It depends on how hungry you are. You know, when I... It depends on what you're eating for dinner.

Are you eating ramen? Right. When I first started out, I started in August 2008, and I was literally standing in an open house when Lehman Brothers failed. Oh. And the stock market failed and gold went to $1,000 an ounce. And so that's when I entered real estate. And so, but we had a lot of Canadians that were down here buying. And we were, of course, half off because of the downturn.

Right. So I just viewed open houses as my office. And now that's how they are again, right? Like it's coming back around, I feel like, and I think it's like a really viable option to get leads. And like we said, so many of those buyers are actually sellers. Yes, they're looking to see who's really working hard. And I have generated listings.

Yeah. Because sellers noticed, okay, I was holding an open house in a seller's market. Who does that? Right. You know? And so just again, anything you can do to show that you're going above and beyond. But, but yeah, it's, so I would sit my open houses three, four, five days a week. It didn't matter in our area. People were, you know, down here for the wintertime on vacation. They were

driving around. So it was, it was a tremendous way to begin a business on, on a shoestring. Nice. So if you don't have a listing and you're going to be hosting somebody else's open house for them. What is the data and information that you would bring in order to demonstrate your expertise? First, I would just bring information on that property. They're probably not going to buy that property, but I did have a man walk into my open house, my very first open house and wanted to buy that one, and it was listed for 750,000. Great. So that kind of sold me beginner's luck, I guess. But I bring you're right. It's not often that they buy the one that they're looking at. No. So I bring information on that property, but I always bring the comps and I show a market analysis and I show what the price per square foot is in the area, what things are going for, where it's everyone wants a deal, right?

Yeah. Everyone's looking for value. So if you can assess that and communicate that to the people coming in, then you just have to know a little more than the next guy. I know, right? That's the good. news and the bad news about you're just like, yeah, just a little bit more. But I also like your idea about bringing a property that is considered like maybe a downsize or an upsize from that one that you're hosting. So then you have other or even like, well, you're already going to have the relevant properties and maybe grab some actives too. Yes, absolutely. So I put those in my brain, but then I bring the market analysis for the specific property that came in. Right. Right.

But all you want is you want to get on base. Yeah. So you just want to get the, you know, to get to the next level, to get their email. And then you can start really proving yourself. So you're asking the question or you're demonstrating the value by giving them the information. Then you're asking questions to create the report. And then it sounds like at that point, if it's there, then you're asking for the email, asking for the appointment to meet with them to talk further.

Is that? Exactly. Everyone's interested in their deal, right? They're interested in what they want. I just have to find out what it is. Minor detail. Do you have, like, can you give us some examples of some of your go-to questions? You said, you asked them what they're looking for.

What are the types of things you're asking them? I had a brilliant sales trainer when I first got in the business. And she said, make your mouth do this. Who? What? How? Who? What?

Where? When? How much? Exactly. And that's always stood me in really good stuff. And again, you know, when you ask questions about, you know, someone else, they, they often will want to talk about their needs, their desires, their situation. Yeah. And you're asking them like, it sounds like you're asking two questions that are not just like, yes, no. Exactly. Yeah.

Do you have children? How long have you lived in the area? What is, what is your dream home? Yeah. What would that look like? You know, get them to, you know, visualize a little bit. Those are good questions. They're like, what do you like? like about your current home? What do you want differently in your next home? What are your real estate goals is a good question that I ask? I like that. That's good. I always like to ask what else have seen instead of are you working with an agent? Because their answer to what else have you seen really will tell me if they're working with an agent, you know? True. And I always ask them, oh, did you see us driving by or online? Yeah, good. Good. And does anybody,

Is it mostly online? Mostly online, about 90%. But sometimes you do have people just driving by and they decide to pop in. Are you advertising your open houses outside of the MLS? No, I'm not. They're just in the LS and wherever it syndicates. Right, wherever it's syndicates. How many days ahead of time are you advertising them?

You can do as short a lead time as 24 hours. It's like the best exposure that you've found. Yeah, I would say at least three days. at least three days lead time to get the best exposure. But it is so nice to have the syndications showing Open House today from 11 to 2. Exactly. That's our job a lot. Exactly.

Well, I really appreciate you being on. If people do have a referral for you and you serve Phoenix, Arizona, correct? Right. How should they get a hold of you? They can text me my phone number or send an email. and I can give that information now or at your... Yeah, go ahead. And we'll put it in the notes too.

Okay, okay. So my email is K-H and then my last name, which is S-A-T-A-L-L-A-G-Mail.com, or they can reach me at my phone number, 602-363-4-9-33. I just love my job. I just love helping people, you know,

get to their next spot. Awesome. Well, thanks for being on. Thank you, Jennifer. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Real Estate Fight Club podcast. Make sure to hit the subscribe button so you get updates when new episodes are available. And we truly love feedback and would appreciate all likes, reviews, and suggestions for future topics.