Open House

what is your expectation? wouldn't this have had a conversation with your broker prior to engaging and signing a contract? what do you expect?

Your broker should have an Open House at least once a week especially in the beginning when your house is new to the market and preferably on Sunday when most prospective buyers are out and looking. For the few buyers who are unavailable to look on Sundays and don't want to schedule a private showing, you might consider occasionally having an Open House during the week. Good luck.

Althea Ffrench
Salesperson-Triumph Property Group

I insisted on once a week. Strategy was gauge reaction first 3-4 open houses. Reset price based on reactions at week 5 before listing got stale. Have open houses each week thereafter. My apt went to contract in week 7. with fewer open houses, it takes longer to gauge market reaction. Worst thing you can do is have a listing sit there for 2+ months before you realize its priced wrong. By the time you pass that point, everything just gets tougher IMO.

I think closer to 3 out of every 4 Sundays is a better ratio -- maybe with an occasional weeknight OH thrown in.

There's a value to maintaining visibility, and there's a value to the "practice" of an open house -- KW's point on customer feedback -- but it's probably not where the buyer is going to come from.

It's certainly a conversation you should have with your agent, though -- both at the time the listing is taken and every few weeks afterwards.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Assuming the building imposes no restrictions, I would go with a mid-week broker preview followed by open houses the first two weekends. Then reassess and plan next steps based on the turnout, feedback and offers you get from those showings and any private viewings during those crucial early weeks. By the way, encourage the broker to share ALL feedback, not just the positive stuff.

As a buyer, I am a big fan of open houses. I can go see an apartment on my own without the necessity of my broker making an appointment on my behalf. However, every weekend seems like alot to me. Two or three weekends or maybe a combination of two weekends and two week nights a month might be sufficient.

If your apartment does not sell quickly (for whatever reason), I would continue to have open houses at least twice a month because either new buyers are coming to the market or a buyer may have changed the parameters of his or her search. Interest from buyers is not always in the first few weeks. Also for buyers who work in NYC but live elsewhere, week night showings may work better.

Two further points.

1. If you hold weeknight open houses, you can start them as early at 5:00 or 5:30pm, but do not end the open house until 7:00 or 7:30pm. Many people can not leave work until after 6:00 or 6:30pm.

2. Ali, do you feel that buyers for all price levels often do not come from open house showings or just buyers for more expensive apartments ($2,000,000 and over)? Somehow, I can see buyers of lower and mid-priced apartments coming from open houses, but not very expensive apartments.

3 open houses will flesh out all the tourists and produce the right info based on price, market conditions and expections.

IGNORE THE TOURISTS.
Buyers (real) are not dressed up and usually don't pontificate loudly at OHs.
The more they focus on decor, the least likely most tourist.
Buyers (real) don't eat the cookies.

I've been the tourist...thats how I know.

Lobster, your "cannot leave work" is a telling point. I think the real estate appointment is an important step in the buying process BECAUSE it makes people leave work, which is a declaration of commitment for most busy New Yorkers.

I'm a fairly newbie broker, but my history is that all but one of my buyers has been broker-repped. The direct deal made an appointment with me based on an NY Times ad we ran. Of all the broker-repped clients, I think two hit our OHs first and dragged the broker back later, but if they hadn't hit our OHs on that given Sunday I truly believe they would have been around a week later, because we were selling very specific things.

That said, I'll do an OH on my listing at 3 Hanover next Sunday, 1/9.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty