In this episode we talk about some of our favorite topics like mindset and safety in relation to the open house. This real estate marketing practice is used by 60% of realtors and we talk about how they have been successful for us and what our processes are. We definitely do our open houses differently and we want you to find a system that works best for you. Join us to find out great practical tips for safety and success at your open houses!

The following is a rough transcript provided by Otter.ai.

0:01
Hey friends welcome to hustle humbly. It’s Alyssa and Katie and we are two top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market working for two different companies where we should be competitors. But we have chosen community over competition. The goal of our podcast is to encourage you to find your own way in business. So stop comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths. This is hustle humbly, Episode 11. Yes, we’re so excited to have episode 11. We’re just trying to get settled here. And we have a couple of housekeeping type things for episode 11. And then we’re gonna get deep into the open house talk. Okay, you guys, please, please, please take a moment pause us. Go and subscribe. If you have not yet subscribed and write us a little quick review. It really helps. You know, other people know what the podcast is about and what they can expect and that you love it and that you’re waiting for it every Monday. So we love you. And we want you to go ahead and subscribe and hit us with the review. And y’all have already helped us so much because we were notified by Apple this morning that we are in the top podcasts have over 700,000 Apple podcasts. Wow, we are number 1436, which is in the top point 2%. I mean, it really is pretty crazy. One how many podcasts exist? And to that after just what we have five episodes out? I know we haven’t been out there that long. Right? So you guys are really helping us out. We do want your episode ideas as well. Yes. So and you’re toast, we need you to tell us who we should be toasting to at the end of each episode and your success stories. Yep. So you guys send that if you want to send them to our email is hustle humbly podcast@gmail.com. And we love you for it. So thank you. And we are really excited because this is our first episode that was requested from a listener. Yes. And we have a few requests in and you might not know how it works on the back end of things. We are recording episode 11 right now but but only episode five has been released to the public. We like to work ahead a little we work ahead. So we’re not stressed every week because we are a full time realtors. So we don’t have time to do this every week. So we batch record. That’s true. So as we get episode requests, we have a spreadsheet that we add them to and this is our first listener. Yes. So Jessica Harville is a REMAX agent. Oh fun. Bowser city, Shreveport. Okay. And I love her. She’s amazing. She has been following along. And she’s just such a great supporter. And she wanted us to talk about open houses, which is perfect, because we wanted to talk about that anyway. Yes. And it will, I think play into a lot of the episodes that we’ve had up to this one, even the ones that obviously, maybe everyone hasn’t heard yet, but safety, yes. Which is so important. It will play into mindset, we’re going to talk about mindset, it’s going to play into database, you know how to put some new people in your database. So Open House kind of is one of those activities that you’re doing as a realtor that we’re also going to talk about some of the things and the main topics we’ve discussed before. Perfect. Okay. What do you think you’re the Openhouse? Queen? So I feel like you should get us started. On what your how it started in the beginning how it is now. And now. We’ve talked about that in a previous episode where you said you were doing them almost every weekend in the beginning. Now it’s almost every weekend. Yeah. So tell us when I was new and had no listings. I found a realtor in my office that had tons of listings, and I tried to focus on an area. Okay, so I chose area five and six. Okay. And I did open houses that were similar in price points similar in area every Sunday. It was crazy, because I would have that, like repeat people see the same people? Yes. So if I had a sign in sheet, and I would add them to an email list, okay. And I started sending out Open House invitations. And I would say I’ll be at this house on Sunday. You know, I’d love to I’d love to see you again. And anyway, it got me some of my first listings, because people were like, you hustle. Right? Like we and you know, I don’t know about other marketplaces. But in our marketplace when you do an open house. My my company puts it in the newspaper, and it also goes on all the website, right? Things like that. So even if you’re just hosting an open house, your name goes out there so much. This is true. It’s just personal advertising. Yep. And I had someone show up to one of my open houses and said, I look at the Sunday paper every Sunday and you are always holding an open house. And so I don’t know you but I want you to come be my listing agent, because I know that you work hard. Well, yes. And look there. I’ve heard other stories, and I have definitely gotten clients who were not buyers. Really maybe they live in the neighborhood that they were looking and they meet a night He’s a professional agent who’s willing to work on a Sunday. And it does just basically put your best foot forward for other clients. The biggest thing I can say about open houses, it goes back to mindset episode three, if you haven’t listened to it, go back, check it out. You get out of it, what you put into a right you cannot do to open houses and then complain and be all blah, blah, that you didn’t get anything from it. They don’t work. And if you want it to work, it’ll work. It’ll work. I look I have it’s, it’s it is work. That’s work, but a little worse. Yeah, look, I have, I have for sure if fallen victim to the Oh, I hate open houses. Nothing happens. I sit there by myself for two hours. I’m in a potentially dangerous situation, people come in that are just neighbors and looky loos. And if you change your mindset and just say, Well, so what neighbors can one day they’re gonna sell their house, maybe they just wanted to look and see what color these people paint in the bathroom. I don’t care. And I know we’ve talked about in previous episodes, it’s a great way to practice talking to strangers, it’s a great way to practice knowing all the information about a house and how you present that it’s a great way to like you do just be productive. If no one shows up, and you brought something with you and you got your handwritten notes done that day. Wow. Okay, so two hours you work. It’s not like it wasn’t for nothing. So I feel like, in the beginning, I probably was less enthusiastic about them as I am now. And I don’t do them nearly as often as you do. But I get excited when I have a listing that I know is in a good location that I’m like, Oh, yes, this is going to be a good open house, there’s going to be great traffic, you know, it’s on a good corner where I can put my signs out. And I get excited about them now more than I did in the beginning. I went through so in the beginning, I was really excited about them, especially when I started seeing repeats and people would say things like they saw it just the recognition and kind of affirmed that I was doing the right thing. People noticed. And you know, it took a long time to see actual results. But they came they did come Yeah. And it was nice to be able to tie that back. And then as I started getting my own listings, they weren’t just in area five and six, they were all over the place, you know, far away different neighborhoods. And I lost my my invitation bubble that I had, you know, I kind of missed, I couldn’t stay in the same area holding other people’s listings open because now I had listings that I needed to leave. And so I kind of lost my my tribe I had in my I had about I think I had up to 32 emails of regulars Wow, that over two years, I just would add them to my email list and I missed them. And sometimes if I have a listing in that area, you know, I love to hold it open myself. And did any of those people on your invite list end up being clients? Yes. I got two listing. Okay, that’s awesome. Yes. And just, it’s funny that I got listing, right, not by not a buyers, but it just, they just met me there. And we connected and I think I’ve said this in a previous episode, but where else are you going to be where a client walks in the door I meet you face to face, you don’t get that through an internet lead. You don’t get that on phone duty. You don’t get that from a sign call. But if you can capture someone when they walk in the door, and they like you and you like them, and you just click they want to work with you. Yeah, for sure. And I think that kind of goes to I always like to keep it casual. Okay, when I was new, I would try to be fancy. Okay, I would I started real estate when I was 22. Okay, I looked like I was 15. Okay, so I just didn’t have a lot going for me in terms of looking like I had a lot of experience, right. And I would try to dress better and like wear blazers and just be fancy to compensate. And it totally backfired. I felt uncomfortable. I felt like they felt like I was stiff and rigid. And then one day I was running late, I didn’t have time to change clothes from the brunch I was at before going to the open house. I showed up with my coffee. And I didn’t have a sign in sheet and I was like, Well, this is a wash, right? And these people came in and I was just like, hey, welcome. I’m so glad you could come let me tell you about that. I was just myself, right. And I was casual. And I connected with every single person that walked in that day. And that was in my second year. And I was like you know what? I’m going to be who I am. I’m going to show up comfortable. Yep. I’m going to not hide my coffee when they walk in the door. Right? I even found like having coffee in my hand when they walk in just makes me like oh look a real person is here.

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That’s a good point. It sort of takes it out of Feeling so stiff? You’re just like, Hey, y’all come in and talk to me? Yeah, that’s the key to an open house when the people come in. I’m not spouting off facts about the house. I’m like, Hey, do you live nearby? Yes. Do you know the neighborhood? You know what, like, just ask questions. That’s really all you have to do. People will let down their defenses pretty quickly. It’s all about making that connection. Yep. And they have to feel comfortable. And they’re only going to feel comfortable if you feel comfortable. For sure. So you have to the only way is to make that authentic. Okay, I want you to tell us what is your process today? Like, what do you actually do to prepare? What do you do to set up what do you bring with you? What are you doing? Okay. I do think that if you want a truly successful open house, there is some legwork that needs to be done during the week. I live here. So I do have a checklist that we do before every open house, okay. Some of the things on there are we changed the main MLS photo to say open Sunday from two to four. So that way, if the house pops up and anybody search online, they see it. Okay. We make sure it is scheduled on Zillow and realtor.com. Okay, and you know, what’s kind of nice? We updated our MLS system, what, three, four years ago? Yes, if you go, so I don’t know what everyone’s MLS provider is. But ours if you go in and add it to your listing as an open house and the date and time, it does pull it to places like REMAX and Zillow, and that’s all forever. So you can just do it in one place and it goes out and then you’re on everybody’s list. Yeah, that’s perfect. Um, we email, we go into that subdivision and go back six months, and we email the link to all the agents that had a listing or a buyer in that neighborhood. And we say, hey, this house is open Sunday, two to four. If you have any buyer, send them by, I always respect agency relationships. And I would love for your client to see the home. So I invite realtors to send their clients and let them know I’m safe. I’m not gonna steal your people, right? We do directional signs, and we try to put the sign out fairly early in the week. Okay, do your signs ever gets stolen sometimes? And then you just like videos bring extras on Sunday to make sure the directionals are out. Usually I have some in my car. Okay, but sometimes I don’t. And I don’t think the directional is good for directions. Oh, you don’t? I don’t think that that’s what they’re following. I think they’re following their GPS. Okay, well, that’s true if they like, I think it’s good for signage like it’s, you know, exposure and there and maybe someone would be like, Hey, I’m gonna swing. Right. Well, right. Oh, look, I open house. I don’t. I’m not going anywhere right now. So are you good about asking your attendees where they heard about the open house? I am. Okay. So you know, if they’re seeing the directional sign and turning because of that, right, got it. Keep going? I do. I like to ask people I like to ask them, like, people are always like, I always wonder where they ask them. Right. So simple. You don’t have to be scared. Yeah. People did you hear about be like, Oh, I wonder if my seller is that? Ascom? Yeah, I think this is also a good time to say, look, back in the day everyone put on I’m here for a while it was $35 ad in the newspaper. I think now it’s $40 ad in the newspaper. I stopped doing print advertising. If I was doing an open house, probably 10 years ago, hobby, when I started doing just online marketing it. I don’t feel like it has the reach that it did. And you know, there are people who look at the paper every weekend. But how many like the circulation is way down? The good thing about the paper now is they put it online as well. Right? So I think it’s it’s helping with that. But I would take the $40 I would have spent on the newspaper ad and I would run a Facebook ad Yes. And then I would ask people when they came, how did you hear about the open house and if everyone said, Oh, I saw it on Facebook somehow or I saw it on Zillow, then you know your money was well spent right? If you put $35 in the newspaper ad and $35 on a Facebook ad and you consistently ask everyone how they heard about it, then you know next time what to do, right? You don’t need to be spending especially new agents do not be spending money before you have money. No, it’s not worth it. You don’t need to these are just extra things. You know that you could do but you don’t have to spend anything you need an ad at all. As long as you make sure that you’re doing the part that you’re doing during the week which is posted to the website so that it’s on the list and people know when they come across the listing during the week. Okay, this house is going to be open on Saturday. I think it’s funny because me and you do open houses very different. Okay, let’s hear you like to do the first weekend I do if I’m going to do it. And the reason I don’t is because I’m hoping that by week four or five, it has sold and then you don’t have to do one. Yes. So I can totally see that and agree and I used to be really hardcore about the first weekend because I thought especially if my people had kids or pets or something that they showings more difficult, I would list the House on Wednesday, Thursday, I would put in the original MLS listing, hey, this house is going to be open on Sunday. And I would hope that it met some of the people, some of those buyers would all pool in that two hour time frame and my sellers wouldn’t be having to get out, you know, here and there and a bunch of times before. And then probably three years ago, when my listings were selling so fast, I wouldn’t even make it to the week, the first week, the first Sunday. Now, as the market shifts and changes, I don’t always do them the first weekend, it just kind of depends on the situation. If I if it is a family, your pets are difficult showing, I tried as you would then for that reason. But also it’s nice and in the way you’re doing it. If you hold it for later on, it’s giving you an activity do to make your seller feel like you’re working, you’re putting something you know sometimes that is why when I’m listing heavy, and I you really have to educate your sellers on open houses. So if you get listing heavy, it may not be a bad idea. This is my script, I just say, Mr. Mrs. Seller, I like to do an open house around week four or five, because that’s usually when showings have slowed down. I like to wait that long also, because it forces people who are serious to make appointments and I get the login for that. So I know which realtors to follow up with because they actually made appointments. Whereas if people come through an open house, I may not know who they’re How do I follow up with them if they have a realtor? Or who’s serious? Who’s not it’s harder to filter? No, I think that’s great. So I sometimes use that script to just give it some time. But I recently was in our new agent meeting that I still attend occasionally. And one of the agents was like, I don’t know what to do I hold this house open every Sunday, and nobody comes. And I said, because you’re holding it open. Right? There’s a sense of urgency. You know, what if you use it’ll be there next week, right? If it’s always open, you are losing your effectiveness, you need to have the competence to educate your sellers that an open house more than once a month is just gonna hurt you actually, I think I agree. And it does feel a little bit desperate. And then it’s hitting people’s eyes so many times, like, why is this house still open? Right? Why isn’t this house selling? You know, you don’t want to feel like you’re stale. I think once every four to five to six weeks is good is fine. Okay. And if you aren’t selling it’s time to have different discussions with your sellers. It’s not because it’s not open every Sunday. Yeah, that’s true. I mean, houses or houses that are for sale are technically always open. You just have to make an appointment. Right. So having a scheduled open house isn’t going to make it sell. So we have to stop telling our sellers that this is going to do the trick. We are doing it to give it more exposure. Sure. But if you’re overdoing it, I mean, you can’t let the sellers run you ragged Yeah, to be the authority. Okay, and educate but hurry. Can we talk about the real reason most agents do an open house though? It’s not as a service now their seller, it’s a method to find new buyers. Yes. And and tweet sellers don’t think about it like that at all. No, they think that the buyers are coming to their house to see it, and it’s going to sell their house and I have some stats. Okay, so 7% of all homebuyers find the house that they’re gonna buy at an open house or yard selling it that’s a little higher than I would have guessed. And it’s third only to internet 50%. So 50% of buyers, I think the stat was from 2018. Find their house online. 50% 28% find it by way of their agent. And then the very next one is 7%. Open House. Wow. But that might be a good one to share with your seller. I always talk with my sellers about you know how important their photos are because the buyers are online, and that’s typically the first place they’re gonna see their home. If you said to your seller, 7% of buyers, you’re gonna find a house at the open house, they might say, hmm, I don’t really want one every weekend, right? Maybe your system makes sense. Maybe once every four to five weeks is good for me. Maybe I don’t want to clean my house and take my baby and my dog and go every single Sunday, right for two hours or two and a half or whatever. That’s a lot of work. That is a lot of work for a seller and then it’s there’s nothing worse than delivering the message to your seller that no one came. Yeah, that’s always a sad day. It’s a really sad day. Not the saddest day for me because I probably just had the most quiet productive two hours on my laptop. You’re fine. I’m fine, but I know it’s hard to tell them that nobody came right. It’s yeah, it’s very tough. Okay, so you’re going and doing some legwork on the front end. What are you doing? Do we get all of it? What else are you doing the day? Um, tell me like, what’s, what else is in the system?

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I do a Facebook ad Pano and then a little bit of posting on Personal and professional social media. And I think that’s about it. That’s it. Yeah. What do you bring with you? This is also where we’re different because I know that you like to provide refreshments and snacks. And I don’t. I don’t think it’s required. No, but I do think it’s a nice thing. But I think if you’re doing them every Sunday, well, yeah, that’s, it adds up. I want to I want to insert here though, I am the queen of the budget open house. Yes, I go to I go the Dollar General and I buy three mylar balloons. They’re already filled up there. It’s saved saves time and money. I might spend three or $4 Dollar General with my balloons. I go over to the Albertsons, I buy a 299 bag of chocolate chip cookies, I bring my little cute plate from home, and a handful of napkins, you know, out of my napkin been whatever color I had leftover from a party, you know, I’m not buying that. And then I bring the probably the most expensive thing I buy is a little the little bottles of water, like Well, I’m gonna give you a cookie, I better give you a bottle of water. But you know, just as easily bring a picture from home like a nice picture and some paper cups and give water that way. I also don’t want people wandering around the house, a whole lot of stuff. It’s messy stuff. But it’s not expensive. I know. I think it’s great. I I sometimes feel convicted like I should do you don’t want to. It’s not required. But I think maybe it’s the host to send me or just like that feeling like in that’s what everybody does or whatever. Yeah, I just I like it. I feel like it also gives me one more thing and be like, Hey, have a cookie or it just is like a point of and I like a cookie. Right? To be fair, I want to eat the cookie. Well, that’s one reason I don’t bring them in because I will eat them all. Oh, I did this whole Instagram. I think as IG TV not long ago, where I was at an open house, there was no one there. And I’m sitting there talking to my people about what happens in an open house. And how I spend most of the time just trying not to eat all of the cookies, right? Like it’s, it’s a will. And I fail and so I stopped bringing them for myself fair. And I just felt like I’m here to provide an open house and I don’t have to have cookie. I think it is a good thing. I think it looks cute. It’s impressive. I like sending that picture to the seller. We like the cookies for the seller. If they have kids, I’ll leave the balloons, especially if it’s an occupied home being able to leave it there. I mean, I’m not against it. I just don’t do I don’t think it’s a requirement. No, but I think it’s nice. Okay, well, that’s fine. So what are you bringing? You’re not bringing snacks. I’m bringing my laptop and a sign in sheet. Okay. What is on your sign in sheet? Name? Email? Are you working with an agent? And how soon are you looking to buy? Okay? How is your success rate? And that’s it. You just brought the laptop and the sign in sheet with the pin? Yes. Okay. This is pretty easy. My my flyers I have flyers. Okay, girls, okay. Um, I sort of present the sign in sheet as mandatory. I think that’s good. How do you phrase that I very nicely with like coffee in hand and casually say, the seller would like every person that comes inside of their home to be documented. So if you wouldn’t mind signing the sign in sheet that would be great. Yeah. And I think if anyone has listened to the previous couple of episodes, where we had Carl Carter giving us safety tips, he walks through some of the scripts and things to do to get people to sign in. safety wise, it’s a perfectly acceptable request. I think it’s fine to say it’s for safety. Even if you wanted to say that just to say we need to, you know, keep everybody say yeah, documented. And if you wouldn’t mind signing in. Yeah, I think I usually say that the sellers have asked that I record anyone that came in their home. Yes, that’s it. Yes. And look, people don’t say anything else, right. Just like last time. Let them fill it out. Don’t fill the spaces. Don’t feel nervous. Let them fill it out. They will fill it out. And then Okay, so that’s what you’ve taken with you now on my sign in sheet I have to fake people that have already signed Yeah, I usually put one to fake people that have filled out because the first person that signs in usually only puts their name if the forms need it all you need at all. So and then if the next person sees that the first person didn’t put their email, well, I’m not putting my email is that yeah, so I have two fake ones filled out in two different handwriting’s? Is it always the same name? Usually. Have you tell us your fake name? Because I think that’s amazing. I usually have a Johnny Anderson. Oh, sure. Who is my Johnny’s my dad and Anderson is my sister’s new last name. Love it. I don’t know why. It’s great. I know what you know. It’s funny. I think he actually has an uncle named Johnny Anderson. So I might need to change that. But um, that’s fine. I know. And then so so if you have two that filled out everything and I make one say yes, I have a realtor and I make one say No, I don’t have a realtor. Because I want them to know I don’t care either way. Okay. You don’t have to. Oh, I see when you make people answer the question, but when my Yes, I make my fake people answer the question both ways. So that that expires like, does it feel pressure to put yes or no, just pick it just just tell us the truth. Tell me the truth that has told me the truth. I don’t care, just hear the truth. And then say, The first real person that signs in signs in and does not put an email address, okay, when they leave, I put a fake email address and try to match data in writing just to keep it this is intense. Well, I just feel like I think you’ve asked it, it’s a bar because the first person that leaves a gap, every person after will leave a gap. Yes, it does. Yes. Yeah. So you just have to? Yeah, it’s fine. Okay, that’s good. So we’ve talked about what you bring, what do you bring, okay, elicit your list? So I said, Look, maybe that’s why I have the more I have more patience for because I don’t do them every weekend. I might do honestly an open house once a month. Okay, I’m not doing them. I’m pretty protective of my weekend with my kids. And because typically, I’m showing on Saturday. So you know, we’ve talked about this before, I only like to work one of the weekend days. Yes. And I just I don’t know why it’s just worked out this way recently. And I haven’t done a lot of them. But I’ll do at least one a month. I bring my snacks. Yes. But I bring a my flyers, the sign in sheet. And then I print probably for market reports. CMAs, just to have because sometimes when that one particular person is really interested, they start asking those questions. And I can point to it. And sometimes I’m like, Look, you could just take that. It’s fine. Take it with you. So I have that I put out my little stack of cards. I don’t know that anyone ever takes a car, but it looks cute. And so the cards that’s pretty much it. Yeah, that’s it’s not that hard. Now all of my listings have a listing binder in them. So in the listing binder, which was already there for two, I mean, that’s available for anyone who’s doing a showing, but it’s there for the open house. It’s got the property disclosure and all the information about the house and all that jazz. So I have that printed out as well but it’s already in the house but I do refer to it and and people in the open house do come peruse it when they’re looking for the utility information or you know, that kind of stuff. So I have all of that. Yeah, that’s really all it’s not it doesn’t take more than 10 to 15 minutes for me to prepare. Before I go. I used to love a candle at an open house. Oh yeah, I do bring that somewhere else in my car. I had one milk in my car as you were leaving it in there all the time. I had a little box it was in unfortunately it was a wire box like and so when it spilled that didn’t stay in the box. It went in my car. Okay, so that really turns you off. Do it. I don’t Okay. Oh, I do bring something else. I mean, here I have a portable speaker. Oh, nice in tune. I do just some Okay, good like background music. I wonder y’all in that episode was Carl he talks about bringing the camera to like monitor the situation. It’s like a two way camera. I wonder if you could get some hybrid of that where you’re playing the music and in recording either way. That’s a that’s a thought. Okay, that’s good. I do bring the candle. Honestly. I have a box in my house. I don’t leave in the car. If I know I’m doing an open house. I put the tray and the napkins and I’ll throw a candle in there depending on the situation if the house is occupied. I know they have that. I’ll just bring a lighter so I can like some of theirs. I like that. I think I need to get back on that. Okay, I like it too. You were just you got burned literally by the sun. I just and I do think doing them as frequently as I have been. And it’s weird. I have a bunch of like condos right now or houses in a subdivision that doesn’t allow them. So actually the last like six weeks I’ve only done a couple open houses. Are you missing it? No. Are you okay? Yeah, I feel like it ebbs and flows for me. I will say my Monday doesn’t feel as organized because you didn’t because I didn’t have my two hour window to sit to sit in a home yeah, and okay, I do that which brings me so I’m sort of a fan of the midweek open house. Okay, um, where you tell your seller Hey, is it okay if I come to your house? It’s really best for the occupied homes, okay, because you can sit there or in furniture you buy you have Wi Fi? Maybe from you know 1030 To 130 Okay, and you’re basically just using it as your office Okay, and it’s open to the public. The public show up for these depends on the location we did one that was like more in mid city like in the area and yes, we had like four people come Hey, I did one way out and Gonzalez nobody came. Okay. But I my sellers appreciated that. I

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tried I did advertise for it. So it did pop up places. So the address was put out there. But it was just nice to have you know, we have all these beautiful homes or not but right we have all these, this? Well, we have all these homes that you can go just sit in and get some quiet time in the middle of the week, open it up on a lunch break. It’s just an easy way to do an advertising. Okay, so I had one, only one at I was doing an agent tour. So my listing was on agent tour, but the owner of the home was also a realtor in a different market. And she said, Hey, will you please post it public? And I’m like, Okay, on a Tuesday at 11. Sure, yeah, this was probably a year ago. And so I did I put it on Zillow and all the websites as an open house and don’t you know, I, I had a legitimate buyer who ended up coming and making an offer from that weekday open house. So there is no excuse people if you can’t do them on the weekend that you want on the weekday. It’s becoming more popular in our market. I’ve seen some people do them from four to 6pm. Yeah, I’m on your way home, stop by and grab a glass of wine. That’s cute. You know, that’s easy. Yeah. So there’s just it doesn’t have to be on Sunday, which I like that too. I think that’s good. Okay, I had a very interesting statistics. Okay. 60% of realtors say they hold open houses as part of their marketing strategy. And 50% of those that did opens did 10 or more, I guess, in a year, maybe not. Oh, not enough? Not a month? Well, not on one listing. Just totally I’m just say 10 or more. So the average realtor that does open houses does about 10 a year. That’s only really less than one a month. Yeah, but you gotta think open houses are sort of like anything in real estate. You gotta keep trying. You can’t do too and give it up. No, but only 60% of Realtors were even using it as a marketing strategy, which I think is Yeah, I mean, there’s realtors in our marketplace that won’t do them at all. They tell their sellers in the listing interview. I do not do open houses, but that’s a deal breaker for you. I’m not your realtor. Yeah, that’s, I don’t mind doing them. I do think that they’re good. I do think that there gives you exposure. I only one time in you know, eight years, but I had a young couple come into a house. That was my listing that I held open out in the middle of nowhere, and said we really like it. What do we need to do? And I was thinking, yeah, right. That’s what they all say. And I gave them my lender info and got their info. And they actually made an appointment and I dueled it, I sold them the house. Oh, it was amazing. That’s pretty good. That’s the only time that has happened. Um, there was another time where I had an open house. And this couple came in and they were very friendly. And they I gave them my card. And the next day, they emailed me and said, Hey, Alyssa, we really enjoyed meeting you. Would you mind being our realtor? And I was like, Yes, I’ll do it. Do I mind when I was made for? Oh, it’s so nice. I sold them a house, okay. And they had a son. I was his realtor. He bought his first home with me. They had a daughter who moved away and I was her realtor. I listed her home. Wow. And then I sold their house. So I had four transactions with this family that I met at my open house. And they just we just clicked Yeah. And it’s easy to figure out who you just click with when you’re meeting them in person. Yes, it just makes sense, right? Oh, yeah, I’ve had I have one success story where I had a very good open house, there was a lot of traffic coming through. And the person that bought the house came to the open house, but they had an agent, so I didn’t get a new buyer out of it or, or a duel. But I honestly think that me standing there and being able to talk them through their questions. You know, like the staging questions the floorplan in for them being there and seeing all of these other interested parties who were asking questions and seeming like they really liked the house. I really think that that open house sold that house, yeah, then on the market. And while we had had, you know, kind of mixed feedback, it had some challenges. And that buyer being in there and seeing other buyers walk through, they’ve been like that and having me able to sell the house to them. I mean, it’s helpful to have the person who has knowledge of that house to be there giving them information I’m actually looking into right now finding something that will record like a small recorder. Uh huh. That they can play when they get there. Two minutes. Tell you a good story about that. Yes. So I showed a house within the last couple of months. I was showing it like a scheduled showing. I brought my buyer and they have an Alexa. Yes in the queue. That will do it for you. That’s what it’s a neat they said Please push Alexa and she’ll tell you all about our home and don’t you know, Alexa started off. It was the funniest thing I’ve ever had. I’ve never had this happen, we push the button and she’s like, hi, you know, thanks for coming to blah, blah, blah, Main Street. And this is the We’re the new kitchen, blah, blah, blah, this, oh, by the way, the seller has a cat that if you let out, it will run away, and you’ll have to chase it down the street. And it was hilarious. And Alexa told us all the information. I was exploring Alexis, because you can actually get the dots for like, very cheap, but they do require Wi Fi and they require the Wi Fi to be working. Yeah. So um, but I can, there’s got to be recorders out there that are so cheap. So I’m looking at that. Because open houses have shown me that when the listing agent who knows the most about the house and knows the seller and is emotionally invested, is there? I mean, I can’t be at all showings. No, it doesn’t work that way. And I do try to send an email to the showing agent with all the info they would need. But being there and hearing your voice and yeah, in the story. So I’m looking into that because I do think that when you are the listing, I know when I hold my own listings open, I do a much better job than somebody else’s only because I know what to say and what not to say. Yeah. Oh, I think that’s so true. Okay, let’s talk a little bit about safety, though. For the open house. What do you have any safety practices in place when you’re doing an open house? Um, I do carry, okay. And so I have my weapon with me. Um, I follow the rules about never going into a room first and always letting them go into a room first so that you’re always between them and the door, and just keeping good space. You know, I don’t like to do much. But keeping good space between me and the person. And then, you know, requesting the sign in. I do try to keep a conversation going like I don’t where you neighbors. No, we’re just renting. Oh, how long is your lease? Oh, okay. Like, I always ask a follow up question and just keep it very conversational. But yeah, you know, okay, here’s some of mine. I’ve never parked in the driveway. Okay, I always park in the street so that I’m not blocked in in any way. Yeah, I keep my I always wear pants to an open house so that I can have pockets Yes. So that I can keep my car key in my pocket and my phone. Like, I don’t want to wear a dress and feel like, what am I going to do with my car key? Right? I want to be able to like make a run for it. Sure. I don’t Yeah, I don’t follow let go in front of anyone to any room. I try to keep like the back door unlocked. I want to be able to have exits. And also I step outside. If there’s some creepy person in there. I step outside. But I think part of the most important part of this is I feel comfortable stepping outside, because I have told my seller their safety roles. Yes. Which are, please remove from your home, your firearms if they’re not locked away and save your prescription medication, your small electronics, your valuable jewelry, if you have some small items that can walk, I want you to make sure they’ve gone with you before showings and an open house. And that way, I don’t feel bad. If someone walks in and is given me a bad vibe. I can step outside. And it’s not like I need to babysit them. Right. So your sellers need to be aware of their safety concerns as well. I agree. And I think now I think that was one of the things Carl said most sellers or homeowners have some sort of recording device in their home. You need to let these people know hey, you know, the seller does have a surveillance camera. I just want to make you aware, please, you know, feel free to look around. Yeah, yeah, I was listening to a podcast where the agent actually put on the door. Like just a little sticky note, smile, you’re on camera. They weren’t there was no camera probably helpful. But if a criminal is walking up to kidnap you and sees that, yeah, they’re gonna think twice. And, you know, it just lets them know, hey, just be careful. I always felt a little bit safer at open houses, because I felt like it wouldn’t be a good time to be kidnapped because no one knows where you are. Well, everybody knows where I am. Yeah. And it’s open to the public. So anybody else could walk in at any time right now. But you have to stay on your guard. You have to take care Realtors get attacked and open house. They

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do they do. I mean, Carl even told us there have been several stories of people being attacked. And I think I need to not I think I have a false sense of security. And I need to remember to be on my guard sometimes when I explain the safety tips to sellers and that, you know, open houses while I will do them can be a safety concern. Sometimes they’re like, they’re not comfortable with the idea of the general public coming into their home because you can’t stop at an open house. Anyone from coming in? It can be anybody whereas we hope that when a scheduled showing happens that their agent has already vetted that buyer and knows that they’re pre approved and isn’t wasting the sellers time, which I mean, you’re not really wasting the sellers time. If you’re doing an open house, they know that you’re going to be there for two hours. But it could be anyone coming here. Yes, it could be anyone. So it’s just it’s I think you need more situations with, like, I had a young young couple, like clearly in high school, come into my open house, looked sketchy, acted sketchy. started talking about how they’re from New York and have a construction company. I knew it was all BS, right? And they were just enjoying pretending like they were these wealthy people. And I don’t know what their goal was, right? Strange. It was very strange. I looked him up after I found because I got their license plate number. Okay, I felt weird enough that I was like, I just need to write this down. And I also wanted to tell I told my seller, I said, look, it’s probably nothing. Make sure all your doors and windows are locked. Yeah. Because I have a young couple that came through. Yeah, I heard once that sometimes a buyer I met a person will come through an open house and unlock a Windows. Yeah. And you don’t know, you don’t know they did that. And they’re coming back later. You know, it might be a good idea. We might need to make a safety tips and presentation. Yeah, do lists for our sellers. Send to them for open houses, and we can email it to our listeners. I think that’s a great idea. Okay, well, we’re gonna find a way to have resources, I think, yeah, we would like to provide things like that. So if you guys are interested in having some resources, yeah, shoot, so we’re gonna make it if you want the open house checklist that you can email to your sellers before an open house, because it will be good to have one there. Hey, check all your windows afterwards, because I told my sellers, I said, Look, this couple came through, it’s probably nothing. I did look them up and found them after. And sure enough, it was all just a crap story. Right. And I don’t know what their goal was. You know, but it was stupid train. Yeah. Very strange people out there. Okay. You got to be careful. You for sure. Need to Be careful. Okay. I mean, so you have success with open houses? Yeah. Great mindset for it. You we both have good. I think safety procedures. You’re not you know, reinventing the wheel on what to bring. You’re keeping it pretty minimal. Yeah, I could do a little more thing. I should just, I like the idea of just having a basket ready to go. Yeah, yeah, that guy I just grabbed and then you’d have to worry about your candle melting. Right? In my car. You know, just I have what I need. So what else do you think? Okay, here’s a great question that we didn’t cover. What do you do for follow up? So you have these emails that you’ve gotten from the open house? What is the follow up? What is the day after? Like, what do you do? I think them okay, how I shoot them an email. Okay. I, my sign in sheet says, What subdivision Do you live in? Oh, it doesn’t ask for their address. I forgot it says that. Okay. Because I have a subdivision report. Okay, if I have their email, they can just get a one once a month report on their subdivision? Yeah. Has my contact information. Like if I don’t want to send them junk? I don’t want it to be like a recipe or spammy because I tell them when they sign in, hey, I’m not going to spam you. Right. So you don’t want to spam them? Yeah, I tell them that. Right. Because it is the truth. Yeah. And, um, but I do think them via email, and I will set them up on a report. Okay, but I’m not, I don’t stalk. Okay. No. And then the email invitations, I do still send out email invitations to that group I had, the attendance is just not as regular because the areas are into there all over the pair. I mean, in different parishes. Yeah, so right. Okay. Very good. Have we hit on all of your tips? Yeah. And your tricks? And your thoughts? Yeah, I think you know, you just have to I know, it’s hard sometimes to get dressed on a Sunday and go do this. Yeah. But I think you also just have to be like, You know what, I’m going to be excited about it. I’m going to pick up Pick up your favorite coffee drink on the way there. Yeah. So that way, you’re extra chatty. Yeah. And probably that’d be fun. It can be fun. Make a to do list anytime on Saturday when you’re not working. Anytime you think is something you need to do add it to your to do list for Sunday house. Use it as like your time to just use that place as your office to get ready for the week. I love it. I think that’s good. Yeah. And if you’re really sad about losing your Sunday afternoon, block off two hours of Wednesday afternoon and let that be your downtime. Yes, we don’t feel like you have to work every day. Right? You don’t. Okay, I love it. Let’s talk about we’re going to shout out to some people who have been so kind and shared the podcasts and have given love to the podcast. And I guess do we want to do our toasts before the Do we want to? Together I will post after. Okay, so we’re just gonna, we’re gonna run through the list because we’re so excited and happy and we just wanted to give them all shout outs, as well. And it’s just exciting that these people are from all over. Yeah, we’re gonna tell you where they’re from. And these are just some of the regular listeners who share us on a regular basis that we’re excited like, yes, yeah, first I’ll go okay. Chelsea Peterson is in Wisconsin. Eric And Emily Ness are in Birmingham, Alabama. Kendall Hardy is in Louisiana. Elizabeth Norris is in Georgia. Bethany Scallon is in our old neighborhood that we used to live in both of us Maplewood and Louisiana. Christina and Gracia is in New Orleans. Blair route is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Christina malo is in Florida. Yep. Ashley Schultz is in Pennsylvania. Wow. Liz Lally is in New York and Stabler Wisconsin, and Amanda halfling in Arizona. Oh my gosh, it really is so fun. I’m so thankful for all of them. We have talked to all these people. And it’s just cool to hear their feedback and share. It’s getting shared and I love spreading. Yes, please share it. We love it. Okay, so let’s do our tubs and our toast is going to be to Jessica Harville who requested this episode. Yes. So she got her wish she did get her wish. Okay, so cheers to you. Yes, keep doing what you do, girl. Okay. All right. Thanks, y’all. That is it. See you next time. Okay, bye. Thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at hustle humbly podcast. If you have an episode, topic or question please email us at hustle humbly podcast@gmail.com Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. See you next week.

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This is the good lie.