3 Reasons Why Your Sellers Should Be At Their Open House | #TomFerryShow

• Go to (0:54) to learn what I call a “Mega Open House”
• Go to (2:50) for 3 tips on how to successfully market your “Mega Open House”
• Go to (6:37) on how to get 3-5 listing leads at your next open house!

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Tom Ferry Show episode 13. So, the spring market is here. It’s April. Everybody’s saying the same thing. There’s absolutely no inventory and what have we been talking about on the Tom Ferry Show for 12 consecutive weeks?

We’ve got to go out and create the inventory. So I’m bringing back something special, something we’ve been talking about since 2010 that is one open house strategy you can do to be like a vacuum cleaner in that marketplace and suck up every listing opportunity. We call it the mega open house.

Mega Open Houses vs. Traditional Open Houses 

What are you going to do? You’re going to set up an event, not just an open house. Now you know a traditional open house just for contrast. A traditional open house, what does an agent do? Like on Friday they decide I’m going to hold this property open and they put out two or three signs, and we both know that doesn’t work. Then maybe they do a little advertising but that really doesn’t work.

A mega open house is, again, where we acknowledge that the game is marketing, the game is lead generation, the game is being innovative, standing out, becoming the obvious choice as the listing agent in that area because of this opportunity. So what are we going to do? We’re going to throw an event and we’re going to market it like crazy. So what should the event be?

Now, if you’ve never done a mega open house before, we say the same thing. You want to carve out time between, say, 11:30 and 1:00 before the general open house takes place, and we’re going to invite all of the neighbors to come and do a private preview of the home, and you tease them with a little bit of food.

Now, if you’re in New York City or downtown Chicago or Miami, maybe you don’t do it from 11:30 to 1. Maybe you do it on a Thursday evening from 5 to 7 and it’s a wine and cheese function. But what do we know? If we want to get people to show up you get a little food there. You invite them to show up, have a quick bite, take a look at the house. The key is that you make it a private, exclusive, advanced preview of the home before the general public sees the property, again using the word exclusive, private. That kind of opportunity is going to draw people in.

So that’s the first thing. You’re going to decide are you going to cater it, how do you want to do it? We’ve had clients hire the taco truck guy, In-N-Out Burger. You name it, we’ve seen it all. The question you have to ask yourself is what’s your budget and how much do you want to draw people in, so if you do something special, you’ll generate something special.

How To Promote Your Mega Open House

You’re going to shoot a video to promote this. So, you’re standing in front of the house. “Hey, it’s Tom Ferry with Banana Real Estate. Super excited to introduce you to 1234 Banana Street, this charming 3-bedroom, 2-bath home right here at the corner of Humma Humma and Nunna Nunna. It’s on the market for the first time in 14 years, but not for long, and I wanted to invite you to a special luncheon I’m hosting between 11:30 and 1:00 this Sunday, so come by, join us, yada yada.” You do a nice little video. You kind of announce the fact that this home hasn’t been on the market in x amount of years and you’re giving them an opportunity to see it first.

Then you’re going to post it on your Facebook page. You’re going to send it out via Twitter. And then of course you’re going to email it to your database. You want to make sure that your customers, your buyers, the people that you’re communicating to in your ecosystem see this video, know that you’re doing it, and that they’re invited to come by and check out this hot property before it hits the market.

You’re going to door knock. Now again, I know if you’re in New York City or you’re in downtown Sydney or Munich, maybe you’re not going to door knock, but most of the rest of the world you could go out and create a simple little flier. Knock knock knock. “Hi, my name is Tom Ferry. I’m with Banana Real Estate. I don’t know if you know this but the Joneses just listed their home with me down the street, and here’s the flier.” You hand them the flier, and what are they going to immediately look for on the flier? You know what it is. They want to know the price. They’re going to look down and see the price and they’re going to go, “Oh my goodness.” Now they’re in their head looking at the flier, looking at the price. And what are they doing? They’re evaluating how much is their home worth? That’s a good thing.

How A Mega Open House Will Generate Leads

So when you hand them the flier, give them that second to look down, make sure the price is big and obvious on the flier, and then you simply say, “The Joneses are moving. I’ve got the home listed for sale. We’re going to do our first open house this weekend, but I’ve decided we want to invite all the neighbors to come by, have a little lunch, and enjoy a private preview of the home before it hits the general public. Would you like to join us for lunch?”

Well guess what? All my clients that are watching this, especially my longtime Tom Ferry fans, you know you’ve done this before, and what do people start saying? “He’s really going to sell for this much? How much is my home worth?” It’s an easy, soft way to engage customers, and again, you’re looking for the listing opportunities, the people that are thinking about selling. At that point you have to ask yourself are you going to play it cool like a little Barry White, light a candle and ask a few soft questions, or are you going to be a closer and say, “Would you like to know the value of your home? Let me talk to you.”

You’re going to decide. Most of my great clients will tell you the best thing is just to be soft with them, to build a little rapport, invite them to the open house. Let them experience what it is you do differently. Let them experience you being the agent in the marketplace that really stands out amongst others.

So again, we’re going to knock knock knock. We’re going to hand out the fliers. We’re going to show them the price. We’re going to invite them to lunch. And then of course, we want to put out as many signs as possible. Now, again as I mentioned, the average agent puts out two or three signs before their open house. If you put out two times that, three times that, four times that, dependent upon your market. If you’re in La Joya, California you’re lucky if you can put out one sign. If you’re in Chicago and downtown, there’s no signs.

But again, if you’re in a marketplace where you can, you want to put out as many signs as possible because there’s just nothing wrong with this statement: “Gosh, I see your signs everywhere.” I mean, that’s kind of a good thing. So, here’s the plan. You’re going to decide to do this open house. You’re going to pick some food. Maybe you get your mortgage partner involved. Maybe you’ve got escrow and title and all your key people there because it’s good if there’s going to be a lot of people there to be there working it as a team. You’re going to do all the marketing and maybe a few more.

2 Questions to Ask Every Person

And then the kicker is this. You ready? If you want to generate those three to five leads we discussed you’ve got to ask some questions. So as people are coming into the open house, should you be standing there with the seller? Probably a good idea. They’re going to give you a little third party credibility. They’re going to justify to their neighbors why they chose you. Oh, this is my agent, Tom. He’s
amazing. There’s an In-N-Out food truck in the back. Come by and have some fun. Right? It’s going to be engaging. It’s going to be exciting. They’re giving you a nice third party endorsement.

And ultimately you’re going to ask two questions to every person you meet. Now maybe you start with this: Would you like a customized valuation, a home valuation, a customized home valuation on their property? Why are you going to ask that question? Well, you and I both know every person’s going to walk up to you and say, “Okay, is this really going to sell for 695?” Right? Now they’re going to ask that question and you know what they’re really thinking: “If this thing’s worth 695, then my home’s worth 7 million.”

That’s why you want to say, “Gosh, you know, we’ve got a lot of interest already on this property, and you know, we’re hoping it’s going to sell for 695, maybe a little bit more. I’m just curious, would you like a customized home valuation on your property so you know the real value of your home?” Well, what’s every neighbor going to say to that? They’re going to say yes, and you and I both know it’s 10/10, 40/40. 10% of every person you talk to wants to sell their home. 10% have absolutely no interest and they’re probably not even going to show up to your open house in this case. 40%, they can be a part of your long-term incubation. Had any thoughts of selling? “We’re not moving until the good lord takes us away.” Well, you know, hopefully you never say, “And when would that be?” That would be awkward. But instead you just know, hey, they’re going to be there forever and it’s all good.

But there’s this nurturing other 40% of people that are thinking about selling if something happens. You know, their child goes away to college and it’s time for them to downsize, or maybe there’s a pending divorce. Ouch, right? Hate when that happens. Or maybe there’s a new exciting job opportunity.

So 10%: immediate opportunity. 40%: shorter-term, 3, 4, 6, 9-month nurturing opportunity. But you want to find out every one of them and you want to start with that home, that customized valuation. And then of course if you’re a little more aggressive you can always just ask, “Have you had any thoughts of selling?” And we always know good things happen when you do that.

So, as we wrap up this quick video, the spring market is here. There’s no room in the marketplace for people that are complaining about inventory. We’ve got to go generate the inventory. So, I want you to do this. I want you to take action and decide when your next open house is going to be and will you make it a mega open house and market it like crazy to become the vacuum in the market that gets all the listing opportunities. So, thank you so much for watching.

Remember always, Your Strategy Matters, and Now More Than Ever, Your Passion Rules.