This guest post was written by Sam Chapman, a Lake Travis real estate agent,
who has lived in the Austin-Lake Travis area since 1987.

How Do You Try to Standout at an Open House?

Any Real estate agent who has ever held an open house has probably tried to figure out just how the people who come through remember them instead of the other agents they will meet that day. 

Some people hand out promotional items with their names printed on them.  Many try to befriend everyone who comes through.  Some try to impress people with their knowledge.  And unfortunately, some simply try to sell people.

Try Taking a New Approach

I don’t have property flyers in the house or in the brochure box in the yard during an open house.  While people are looking around, I ask if they are already working with an agent.  If they are not, I ask them which real estate websites they use for looking at homes online. 

They usually mention some of the ones that are pretty well known and I ask a question.  “Did you know that these sites aren’t always accurate and up to date?”  That usually gets their attention. Then I hand them my flyer.

The flyer is a printed version of the Austin home search page on my website with my contact information and web address at the very top.  I explain that the information is as current as the actual MLS and that they can find all listings within the Austin MLS from this page.  I also tell them that if they go to the site and enter the MLS number for the home they are in, which I write in the search box on the flyer, they will see a lot more information and a lot more photos than I could have put on a flyer. 

Get a Devotee for Your Website as Well as a Prospect for Your Listing 

I go on to explain why this is one of the best search features available.  My property search allows people to build searches to come back to any time they want.  In addition to entering specific search criteria, it allows them to search by school district or subdivision.  It allows users to save listings in a favorites folder.  In other words, I promote my website, not myself.

If I go in to my search feature’s back office and see that someone I met at the open house has registered to use my property search feature, I follow up and actually have something to talk with them about.  The person has just changed from being a prospect to a lead.  Of course, this will not work for you if you don’t have a really good search feature, but if you do, try it!