Video has enormous potential in the sale and marketing of homes, businesses, and anything that fits in a classified ad. But to stand out from the crowd takes creativity and experimentation. Tell an interesting story, use music, voice overs, interject still photos, involve the neighborhood (and the neighbors). But can video save the Open House?
John of InvestmentPropertiesInfo.com posted this comment on our OpenHouse video post:
“….Real Estate companies could do one tour and then post it on their site, with archives of past tours.”
Hmm… we wondered…can video create some value from the Open House, a task many agents feel is a waste of time and which Realtor.com reinforces with its 3% rule*? Can an Open House Video help in the marketing of a home? Would it serve any purpose to put them on your website or blog and allow comments and feedback? Could reviewing them be of some educational value? Like looking at game films to discover why your opponent kicked your butt.
Online versus Offline Feedback: Truth or Consequences?
Is online commentary more useful (reliable?) than face-to-face feedback? Open house visitors are not usually forthcoming with their opinions and observations. You are more likely to hear “that’s interesting” when they really mean “How hideous? Where can I throw up?” Are online commenters more likely to give you the straight poop? Perhaps the visitors to your open house will enjoy seeing themselves on video and offer commentary. (At least you’ll get some traffic from it).
What advantages or disadvantages do you see with posting Open House videos on your blog or website? Has anyone posted one?
Outsourcing Open Houses?
Would the prospect of handing over the Open House chore tour to a third party have any appeal to agents or sellers? —-the idea being that visitors would be more candid with a third party than with the listing agent or the seller. Just wondering.
LEGAL TIP: Be sure to get the owner’s, and the the visitors’, written consent (Release) before posting the video.
*According to Realtor.com, only 3% of homes sell via an Open House (does anyone have the citation?)
Technorati Tags: Open House, video marketing, real estate marketing
What does “3% of homes sell via an Open House” really mean?
My interpretation is (and I have not verified that Realtor.com statement) that the 3% are direct sales, meaning that the buyer (represented or not) directly walked into the open house and never made contact with the listing agent (open house sitter) prior to the visit and had no knowledge that the open house was listed for sale.
I agree that the odds for such a scenario to happen are really slim. On the flip-side, the number of sales generated indirectly from open houses must be much larger.
For example, unrepresented open house visitors connect with the open-house-listing-agent and continue with that listing agent as their buyer’s agent and purchase a different property.
Another example would be when buyers are working with a buyer’s agent without a signed buyer broker agreement to continue their shopping with another agent they just met at an open house.
As you can see there are many scenarios where an open house can be the catalyst for a transaction, however most of the time the property where the open house was held is not the property part to the transaction.
So this is where I think the 3% is coming from and this number could be very well inflated since the market slowed down.
Are open houses a waste of time? Yes and No. Most likely they can be considered a waste of time by agents who have plenty of leads and clients, on the other hand agents just getting started or needing more business open houses may be a good source to obtain clients.
Video Tours of Properties are probably going to be the way of advertising real estate. Realtor.com is onto that and in a couple of weeks agents will be able to upload their very own videos to their listings on Realtor.com. Also, I have heard that this Friday Realtor.com will improve the functionality of advertising open houses by giving the agents the ability to schedule 5 open house dates in advance on each listing.
Posting Video Tours on blogs/websites and inviting open house visitors to leave feed back on the web could be a great way to get more relevant feed-back since the commentator is not face to face with the open house sitter and less likely to be “too polite”.
Most likely there are some big liability issues with “outsourcing” open houses and in the event somebody is holding my listing open it will be most certainly be a licensed agent from the same office I work for.
Open Houses are probably here to stay, since nothing can substitute being able to walk through the real thing without the help of a buyer’s agent with a lock-box key.
Video Tours (here is a little example: http://tinyurl.com/2bkxw9 ) are also here to stay just because it will help the consumer narrow down the properties while researching or shopping online.
At least that is what I think…
We have always regarded open houses as an opportunity to meet other clients and not surprised by the failure to obtain an offer from one (though we have). I have not read the NAR survey concerning the 3% in awhile but I know it is what we all cite as why open houses don’t sell the home.
Outsourcing would require consent of the seller. I am unaware of any requirement that a licensed agent do an open house. It might not be effective and the inability to answer questions may be detrimental.
Whether video tour, virtual tour, photos or text, the object of all marketing is to get someone to visit the home.
An open house video may do more to sell the agent’s qualifications and cause others to want to hire them.
I strongly agree that open houses do not sell homes. We track where all of our buyers come from (our personal buyers as well as those that bought our listings) and it’s less than 1% and dwindling for us in our market (just outside of Washington, DC in Loudoun County, Virginia).
Based on the open houses we used to hold, the majority of those stopping by were nosy neighbors and people that were 6 to 12 months out from actually buying a house. Basically, they were leads (though not great ones, because many give false information).
Video is going to be the new open house. You can see the entire property from the comfort of your couch, office or wherever you are rather than getting dressed, getting into your car, wasting time, energy and gas money driving from property to property and getting harrassed by the listing agent(s).
With video, you avoid all of this and you can view the videos at any time of the day or night while allowing you to have your afternoon to have fun doing something you really like. And, if at home, you can even be in your robe while drinking coffee or drinking a beer during commercials!
America is built on convenience and videos are much more convenient than a traditional open house. Open houses are becoming obsolete, especially in metropolitan areas with high concentrations of high speed internet usage. They will soon be a thing of the past much like agent/broker’s listing note cards were replaced by the MLS.
Maybe the title should be “Will video kill the open house?”
Don’t steal that! I was already writing a post with a similar title when I came across yours.
You know … Open Houses have always been (for the most part) a FLOP, here in the ‘Springs. 2-4 hours of painstaking boredom and lonliness. (Maybe I could entertain myself by video-ing myself sitting an open house. No. THAT would NOT be good.)
I, personally, do not care if it dies. And? Face-to-Face comments are never accurate. “OH! I LOVE the house. It’s PERFECT ….” POOF! They disappear off the face of the earth. Who knew 555-5555 (left on the sign in sheet) was not their real phone number …
BUT … No matter WHAT painful death it goes through with the mega-importance of online video, we will STILL have to hold them to appease our clients who “knew someone who sold their home by Open House in one day for well over asking price.” Does EVERYONE have this same “friend”? … I bet it is a rumor propagated by the company that makes those red and white cardboard Open House Signs.