Congrat Manhattan RE BROKERS, a new RECORD!

When are real estate agents going to hold open houses properly? Do they not understand that a 90-minute "open house" is totally useless for people who are actually looking, who might want to see more than one apartment per weekend? Would it really kill them to keep the "house open" for a good solid 4 hours or so, allowing people time to get from neighborhood to neighborhood (particularly with the fcuking trains being on permanent "construction schedule" now every weekend)??

clearly another failing of the federal reserve, no?

I feel for all you stressed RE brokers.. I really do man. That plus having to time your thong from washer to dryer on a busy sunday... its killer man...

Matt do you know what would happen with a four hour open house? Everyone would show in the last hour. Waste of time. And serious buyers have their neighborhood nailed down. You're talking about casual shopping and why should we indulge that?

Matt - There are a few factors as to why there aren't any 4 hour open houses

1) Most buildings only allow 2 hours max for the open house

2) The agent in question may have 3 or more open houses that they have to squeeze into every Sunday

3) For apts where the owner resides, the owner does not want to be troubled with staying out for 4 hours. Same with an investor unit with a tenant inside.

NYCMatt, sorry, but are you on drugs?

Though for different reasons, I should ask the same of the OP.

They should just cut the open house to thirty minutes, but have fresh-baked chocolate cookies to lure people in and close the sale.

If apartments were strategically priced, instead of stratospherically priced, 3 Sunday open houses, 45 minutes each with warm cookies should be more than sufficient.

Chocolate chip cookies can save the world.

No, no, Tallisman -- you're wasting the borkers' time. Stop wasting the borkers' time. Buyers are liars. It has to be cookie to closing in thirty minutes. Borkers have better things to do than come back for two more open houses. Stop wasting their time.

I don't know what people are finding lately, but historically 70% or your traffic would come in the last 1/2 hour of your open house now matter how long or short it was.

30yr read my comment. Exactly what I said

agreed, there are reasons we dont run 4 hr open houses. I ran em, and another negative for the seller in these long OHs is that prospective buyers come sporadically, instead of in groups. As a buyer, if you walk in and see a place that you like and may bid on, tell me, would you feel a sense of urgency if:

1. its a 4-hr open house, you stumble in 100 minutes into it, and nobody else is there

OR

2. its a 2-hr open house, you stumble in 60 minutes into and 6 other people are there

Personally, whenever I accompany buyers to an OH with no one else there immediately upon leaving they say, 'well, clearly nobody thinks this is a good deal'

And SheaMCB is right, both coops and owners usually either have restrictions on duration or preferences of the OH

you have to see "I love you, man".

I've tried it all, including a "24 Hour" open house (8 hours 3 days in a row). People showed, but it was painfully long. I think a 2 hour open house is sufficient.

Flmao. Alrighty buyers. Beware the 5 minute open houses designed to pressure you into buying!

You can't make this shit up, and as a side benefit it 'saves' broker's precious time. Goddamn I'm in stitches.

Five minutes is hardly enough to have a few chocolate chip cookies, let alone close on the buy. You need a half an hour. No more, no less.

Way to grease th wheels of transaction! It's like a 5 minute trading day! Yeah I wanna work 2 hr trading days! And as a side benefit it pressures the buyer to BUY!

That is the clearest data point to where broker's financial incentives lies. First my time, then owners and then the cattle buyers who should be cattle prodded by any means to buy faster and faster! Move you 'heffers'!!!!!!

i get all itchy when i see a lot of people at an open house. i almost forget i'm just there to browse.

I agree with the 'too short' open house period.
If I'm out for the day to see a few OH's. I need a little flexability.
Just this weekend I showed up for an OH near the end of the period but, under the line and was told that it was too late and I should call for a showing. I responded, "FU very much". Now I want that property to fail. RE folks that try to sell above the FDR in the face of hospital construction should be kinder to prospective buyers.

By the way my experience is that a lot of peeps show up at the opening, especially if it's new to the market.

there was an open house on avenue b yesterday that started at 8:30. had a second one for another hour and a half later in the day.

nothing says desperation like an open house scheduled before breakfast. i'm assuming it was a typo, but if not, wow.

Again, why should we indulge casual shoppers? Most people only show at the end. Its human nature. The longer it is, the slower the traffic.

aboutready, was it just a continental breakfast, or did they have a full spread? I bet an omelette station would really draw in the buyers.

Again, why should we indulge casual shoppers?

It's the name of the game! You have to be in it to win it. Can you really tell the difference between the casual shopper and the serious b4 they arrive? If the property is that fantastic wrt the price they you don't need an OH but, because the Broker sold the seller a false bill of goods and unrealistic expectations this dog and pony show must commence. Then after some false hope you can realign the expectation of your seller unless that one sucker happens by. It only takes one.
It's your game sales boy. Don't hate the game...hate the player.

"Again, why should we indulge casual shoppers?"

Um, because it's your JOB??

w67, you used the word "brokers" spelled properly --- I'm so touched!

ali

Of course we haven't yet touched on the "Open House by appointment" yet. While I understand it has meaning for buildings which don't allow open houses, so you sit in the unit at those hours and take appointments, even "on the fly", on more than one occasion I've called to schedule a viewing during the hours in question and been told "she's not available at that time" by an assistant.

Matt, while I am the first guy to hold broker's feet to the fire when it comes to ethical/proper behavior, I totally disagree with you when you say that it is a Seller's Broker's "job" to indulge the whims of "casual buyers" (which I don't really think is the right term to use, but I'm taking what I think falco to be the listing broker's "job", they should expect to pay for it in a separate agreement than a pure "commission if sold" model.

splaken.. you are not "reading" my OP correctly. I don't care if 60% of all listings have open houses on Halloween... the key question is why? Why the deluge of open houses a month out from the expiry of the lemming juice?

In my educated guess, the "pressure" is on for the listing broker to "produce" a buyer RIGHT NOW AND RIGHT HERE! or at least show me why my unit did not sell in the flurry that occurred in the last quarter., and do something you lazy POS, kinda vibe.

ali... nice pickup... I do on occasion spell correctly.

One final thought, thnks for the broker babble.. it's like listening to my proctologist talking about me the patient to another colleague... its' weird but mildly entertaining....