22 Ways to Promote an Open House

So you’re hosting an open house. You’ve chosen a beautiful day. The house is spotless and you’ve laid out a delicious spread of food and beverages. What could go wrong?

Well, if you failed to properly promote the open house, all of your work will have been for naught, because nobody is going to show up. The success or failure of an open house depends on how many interested buyers you can get in the door, and that is determined long before the day of the event. Here are some suggestions, both commonplace and unusual, on how best to market your open house:

1. Take beautiful photos (including outdoor drone shots). If you don’t have a photographer already, services like CirclePix can help.
2. Use the photos to create gorgeous marketing materials. Download a professionally designed open house marketing kit here.‍
3. Schedule an open house the day the listing hits the market. This can generate more buzz and excitement around the property.‍
4. Post the open house on your regional multiple listing service (MLS).‍
5. ‍Send emails to your buyer leads. You can send one-off emails promoting each open house, or you can send weekly email blasts about upcoming open houses and new properties. Also send an email buyer’s agents.‍
6. Create an article about the property. Use a blogging platform like Medium. Be sure to include lots of pictures and information about the listing and the surrounding area. Promote the article on your Facebook page and include it in your email blasts.‍
7. Create a website for the property. Use free URL that comes with your joinreal.com website or a free Wordpress or Tumblr page. For more expensive listings, buy the address domain and redirect it to the page. A personal website can indicate increased value, and can also be shared via email and on social media.‍
8. Be strategic with open house signage. You’ll want to gather your signs a few days before the event. Get a large yard sign as well as several directional signs to place around the neighborhood. Also consider placing signs in busy areas around town. Tying balloons to the signs will make them more eye-catching.‍
9. Invite neighbors to the open house. Try to knock on 100 doors in the days leading up to the open house. Even if the neighbors aren’t selling, they may be interested in getting together with other people in the community and meeting potential buyers.‍
10. If the neighbors aren’t home, print out a flier and leave it at their door. (See the marketing kit in #2.)‍
11. Offer virtual tours. Not everyone will be able to attend the open house. Offering virtual tours will allow you to reach as many interested buyers as possible. Companies like MatterPort and Virtual Xperience offer virtual staging services to realtors.‍
12. Bundle open houses together. If you are selling multiple properties in the same neighborhood, or if you know fellow agents selling nearby properties, try to schedule the open houses on the same day. Then you can advertise an event, rather than a singular open house.‍
13. Make a Facebook event for the open house. Share the event in as many local Facebook groups as you can.‍
14. Make a Snapchat or Instagram story. A few days out from the open house, start posting Snapchat or Instagram stories hyping the event. Include pictures and video of the property in your story. During the open house, share pictures and video of people visiting the house, the spread you’ve laid out, and anything else that is social media-friendly.‍
15. Have a drone hover over the open house. Speaking of drones, attach a banner to the drone advertising the open house. The company Hoovy does professional drone advertising for realtors.‍
16. Advertise in local newspapers, websites. It’s old school, but it still works.‍
17. Advertise on Craigslist. Ditto.‍
18. Advertise on Facebook Marketplace. Facebook recently announced it is expanding its Marketplace listings section to include housing rentals.‍
19. Create a video montage of past open houses you’ve hosted. Include property tour footage, images of the listings’ exteriors, clips showing you working with clients, the food you give out, and the like. This could be great marketing for future open houses.‍
20. Use Google AdWords. Google AdWords allows you to target potential buyers for your listings via age, gender, location and a myriad of other behaviors. Here’s how to get started.‍
21. Organize a themed open house. If it’s around Thanksgiving, offer pumpkin pie and cider. Themed open houses help make the experience more memorable for buyers.‍
22. Sign up for promoted pins on Pinterest. Home buyers love Pinterest because it is a prominent source of home decor ideas.

Employing just a few of these tactics will help maximize exposure of your open house, putting you in the path of opportunity.

Download a professionally designed open house marketing kit here.