How to run a five star open home

Use these tips to make sure your open homes stand out from the rest and keep in mind, these ideas could be used to improve your one on one buyer viewings too.

Tip 1. Provide a stool for visitors to sit on while they take off their shoes.  

Have you ever watched someone hop around on one foot while they try to put their shoes back on after visiting a property? There is a simple fix. Carry a small stool in your car and put it outside the front door of your open home. Trust me, your clients will thank you for it.

Tip 2. Greet visitors by name.

How, you might ask? Well, there are some clever tools out there like 'homepass' which is super cool. But a simple option is to carry a list of open home visitors from the last 30 days with you to each open home. Look through the list in the morning and try to remember what they looked like. Then, at your open homes, if you recognise a person walking up the path, you can (hopefully) quickly consult the list to find and remember their name.

Also, most buyers visit multiple open homes over consecutive weekends. If you are the agent that remembers their names, you will be the one they remember.

Tip 3. Have healthy snacks.

Think about it from a parents point of view, if they've been to five open homes that day and every other agent has chocolates or lollies sitting on the table, then their kids are going to be jacked up on sugar all afternoon. You will win their praise if you offer healthy snacks to keep kids (and adults) happy. Stick to options that are nut-free and dairy-free so you don't need to worry about allergies and individually wrapped options limit hygiene risks. Popcorn or small packets of raisins are good options in our experience.

Tip 4. Put a compass on the table.

Everyone wants to know the orientation of the home (for sun aspect). Make it easy by grabbing a compass from your local camping store and placing it where everyone can see it.

Tip 5. Have music playing on a bluetooth speaker.

Don't go for your favourite heavy metal tracks, but have some fun with it. Click here to access a Spotify playlist I've made up for you, in case you need inspiration:

Other tips to improve your open homes:

• Lights on, doors unlocked, heaters on
• Small nespresso machine for high-end open homes
• Follow up text-message after the open home to say thank you for visiting
• Email and text links to buyers with easy access to download info. Use a service like Onedrive / Dropbox or a system like propertyfiles.co.nz
• Give out spot prizes. Go for a useful book or a small gift, like a mini-bluetooth speaker. Give one to every 10th visitor as a surprise 'thank you' just for visiting your open home.

The most important step is to...

Call every visitor after the property has sold to tell them roughly what it sold for (just a general range is fine). This is often overlooked by agents but is an incredibly easy way to add value to your clients buying process and show yourself to be the proactive agent they should work with.