How Come No One Came To Visit My Open House? (Part 1)

"How Come No One Came to the Open House?" It's a question that haunts the home owner who spent time preparing the house for surprise guests and the real estate agent who invested time and money in advertising and waiting for visitors who never showed up.

Open Houses have always had an element of risk associated with them. When you hold your home Open to the public without pre-qualification, you may just be conducting a house tour...not a true marketing activity.

Yet, Open Houses are widely regarded by most home owners as an important tool in exposing a home to the local market. In the past 24 months, we have observed a marked decline in the number of visitors to open houses in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area.

While, I am not aware of any "scientific studies" about why Open House attendance in Grand Rapids has declined, in some cases precipitously, there are some industry shifts which have made Open House visiting less attractive to prospective home buyers. The most significant shift has been the rise of the Internet as the primary tool used to initiate a home buying search.

When a home is viewed on line, there are often a number of images which show various parts of the home's interior. Many buyers no longer even drive by homes they want to see. They merely click on the images and descriptions and dismiss a home within seconds if the pictures shown do not seem to warrant further investigation.

Unintended Consequences:

Although this does eliminate some of the stresses of searching, it can also have some hidden repercussions which can limit the ability of a home buyer to make the best choice. For instance, a home may actually look wonderful, but if the agent does not know how to use a digital camera correctly or how to edit the picture, buyers may be tempted to discount it.

I've seen $500,000 homes on line with pictures that were so large, it was impossible to load them quickly or to see the entire room without scrolling extensively from side to side on the screen. Have you looked at your listing on line? What kind of marketing is your real estate agent doing to highlight the best Features of your home?

This series will be continued in Part 2...

Click Here to read other blog posts in this series.

Audu Real Estatepresents homes in Grand Rapids, Michigan with a wide variety of applications which include digital photography, engaging story telling, blogging and animating slide shows. You can e-mail us at: info@auduhomes.com for more information about how our pro-active approach to Marketing Homes can help bring qualified buyers for your property.

Copyright 2008 Audu Real Estate All Rights Reserved