Shannon Ensor's Blog

Do you have an upcoming open house? Feeling overwhelmed about what to bring? Scared you’ll leave something at home and look like a fool in front of your guests?

I get it. I remember my open houses in my beginning years. I’d spend the whole morning frantically making sure I have everything I’d need for the day. Most times I’d over-prepare to counteract feeling underprepared! (Don’t get my husband started on my tendency to do this when I pack for vacations!)

The thing is, without a game plan, you feel overwhelmed or underprepared… two qualities you don’t want to portray in front of open house guests!

I’ve created this list of ten things you should bring to every open house to make life a little easier for you. With confidence that you’re prepared for your open houses, you’ll be in the mindset to meet new clients. Don’t second guess yourself, or stress any longer about what to bring—put your energy toward turning your open house guests into lifelong clients!

Directional signs (and water jug): Although the meat of your open house marketing is done online or door-to-door, you need to make it easy for people to find your open house (whether they’re stumbling upon it or purposefully coming due to your marketing).

Aim to have at least ten directional signs pointing the way to your open house. Leave no turn behind! Your signs are like cookie crumbs leading the way to the open house—don’t frustrate people by leaving off turns or giving dead ends. Prior to the open house, map the routes guests would take to get to the house so you can bring the exact amount of directionals you’ll need.

Your signs are an extension of you, so make sure they look good. Wipe them down before the open house and regularly replace tattered ones. People have walked up to me while placing out signs just to comment on the level of care I took with my business… and those people turned into clients!

If you live in an area that has dry, hard ground, bring a water jug to soften the ground when using stakes.
Balloons: Yes, I know it’s 2017. I still believe in placing balloons on your directionals! They’re eye-catching and they send the signal that your open house is active (and they aren’t being led to an open house that happened a week ago). I bought a helium tank to use straight from my trunk, but many grocery stores can whip up a set up balloons for you as you head out to your open house. Sure, you can use other eye-catching tools like windmills or feather flags, but a waving balloon sends the message that the open house is current (unless you’re in hot or rainy climate, which causes the balloons to deflate fast…in that case, use something else eye-catching, or the reusable balloons that don’t require helium).
Sign-in sheets on clipboards with pens that work: sign-in sheets attached (have extras ready to go in your car, too).

And, make sure your pens work! A dead pen could give an apathetic guest an easy-out for not signing in. (I have a template for the perfect sign-in sheet and break down how to use it in my book, Your Key to Open House Success ).
Pieces of value (POV): Here’s where most real estate agents get overwhelmed. They want to pack the house with all kinds of information about the market, nearby golf courses, school info, dog parks, stats, more stats, and even more stats. The more paperwork they carry into the open house, the more prepared they feel. But, quantity does not equal quality.

Here’s where they go wrong: 1) With their mound of paperwork, they’ve taken over important real estate in the house, making it look messy and cluttered (so the guests who are out shopping for a listing agent pass them by because they don’t want the agent making their house look the same at an open house); and 2) They’ve given away great follow-up opportunities. ”Oh, you have two dogs—let me send you cool sheet I have on area dog parks. Is this the best email address for me to send that to?” (said pointing to the sign-in sheet on the clipboard). Create a packet for your open house guests (preferably in a professional pocket folder with your branding on it). On one side you’ll place information for buyers (POVs such as Buying Steps and a piece outlining the value you bring as a buyers’ agent and how you’re different than other agents) and on the other you’ll have information for sellers (One-Page Marketing Commitment, listing steps). If you have a bio piece or brochure, place that in the packet as well. These packets can be pre-made, ready to go anytime you’re on your way to an open house. You can add one or two market-specific POVs that you’ve updated the day before the open house (overall market stats or stats specific to the neighborhood and one that has general information about recent actives and solds), but you don’t want to overwhelm your guests with so much info that they toss your packet to the bottom of their car only to be bothered with when they have more time (aka, never). Your conversations should reveal your market and neighborhood knowledge and give opportunity to follow-up meetings/conversations so you can give them additional information.
Cheat sheet or computer: Ever go completely blank? The open house guest asks you the square footage of the home and you just give a minute long, “Uhhhhh?” Been there, done that. Bring some notes on the house, the neighborhood and the market for yourself so if you get caught off guard, all you need to do is ask for a quick second to refresh your memory (it’s okay to do this at an open house, it’ll only make you seem more human and less like a sales-y robot… as long as you seem otherwise professional and aren’t referring to this sheet for everything).
Refreshments (don’t forget platters, cups, napkins!): I’m a firm believer in refreshments at open houses. For one, they provide a nice icebreaker. More importantly, they set the stage, showing that you’re a professional who puts care and time into everything you do. As mentioned above, many of your guests will be potential sellers, scouting for a listing agent. Make a good impression—prove you do more than show up and sit in a house… you create an event out of each open house. Think past the grocery store packaged cookies and use popular local bakeries or seasonal goodies that will make your open house stand out against the competition.
Candle/lighter: Because not every house will smell good! Use nicer candles that smell like baked goods and not that “obvious cheap candle smell.” (Just make sure you give it enough time to cool down before you leave… or leave it as a gift for the seller.)
Notepad (or phone): To take notes on your guests as they leave. As soon as a guest leaves (if you’re not speaking with another guest) take notes on your conversation with them, adding in any personal information they gave you. Now you can easily make your thank-you notes more personal, which builds upon the rapport you started when you met.
Thank-you notes: If you have any down time during your open house, pull out your thank-you notes and write past guests or people in your database. This is a major time saver and keeps you in the right mindset when your next guest walks in!
The right attitude: Okay, you knew this one was coming! I wish I didn’t have to point this one out, but as someone who’s visited many open houses, (I like to see what others are doing and stay on top of my market!) I’ve seen firsthand that some people leave their best attitude at home.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve had a slow open house or if the last person turned out to be a looky-lou who didn’t even acknowledge you as a human being, the moment someone walks into your open house it’s time to hit the refresh button and begin building rapport with that person.

How do you build rapport? You listen more than you talk, and when you do talk, you provide solutions to problems they present or talk about how you’ve helped others find solutions, and you find common ground with them (all elements to building relationships). Be the person that you’d want to do business with if you needed to buy or sell your largest asset. Positive always wins over negative.

Bonus item – Your ekey/phone!: Yes, I’ve had agents cancel last-minute on open houses because they left their ekey/phone at home and had no other way of getting into the home.

If you really want to learn how to dominate open houses—through more leads and through learning how to structure your business so that your open house work strengthens your other prospecting activities—then you’ll want to check out my book, Your Key to Open House Success.

What do you make sure to bring to every open house?

You’ve marketed for the open house all week, put out directional signs in the sweltering heat, thoughtfully laid out your spread of treats and market updates and made sure everything is in place throughout the home… twice. Certain your attention to detail and laboring will bring a successful open house, you greet your first guest and point them to your sign-in sheet. They take a glance and pick up the pace of their tour to the next room.

“That’s okay,” you think to yourself, “I’ll get them on their way out.”

They come back through the kitchen, standing just feet from your sign-in sheet, and you graciously let them know you’ll send them updates on the home and the neighborhood if they’ll Just. Fill out. The sign-in sheet.

Blank stares are the only response you receive to your request. They thank you for allowing them to tour the home and abruptly leave. You’re deflated, “Another lost opportunity at an open house. Why do I even keep doing these?”

You may even start to question yourself and your decision to get into this business. Don’t take a lack of open house sign-ins personally—improve your approach with your guests instead.

Four Ways to Increase Your Open House Sign-Ins

Have a better system. The simple sign-in sheet is archaic and doesn’t build trust. Think about it, everywhere we shop now, we’re asked to provide an email address at the register. No, thank you! We’re practically conditioned to say no to the sign-in sheet these days. Some agents use sign-in software on their iPads, etc, and love the ease of how the data is automatically linked to their database, but people are just as weary of the electronic sign-in as they are of the paper sign-in. Anything that screams, “Give me your information so I can hound you!” will turn people off to you and hinder your ability to connect with them.



In my book, Your Key to Open House Success, I discuss a different kind of sign-in. The top two-thirds of the page is a feedback survey about the home. You attach multiple copies of the sheet to a clipboard and instruct guests to make notes and feedback as they tour the home. This empowers them and shows them their opinions are important to you and the seller. Gauge your visitors’ personalities as they walk into the home and, when it’s a couple, give the clipboard to the person who gives you a warmer, more open vibe. The bottom third of the sheet announces the drawing for your open house guests—which should be a substantial (think $50) gift card to a local hotspot and is their entry form… where, you guessed it, is where they fill in their contact information.

This step is important: When you hand the guests the clipboard, let them know you’ll separate their information from the top feedback portion, that way they can be as honest as possible without fear of the owners holding a grudge against them! This eases their minds and helps you build trust.

When you speak with your open house guests, do more listening than talking and, when you do talk, point the conversation back at them with questions about their needs. When people walk into an open house they’re prepared to be accosted by a real estate agent, so they’ve already put up their guards. Slimy sales tactics and elevator pitches won’t work here. Instead, talk about their favorite subject: themselves. When you show genuine interest in the people you’re talking to (instead of trying to win them over by talking about you), you build rapport with them. If the conversation falls flat, pick it back up again by asking them an open-ended question about what they’re looking for in a home/community. Showing genuine interest and building rapport will solidify more details on the “contact information” portion of the feedback sheet.
Make your move. Of course, you can’t just pepper the guest with questions—that can get a little too awkward and is too one-sided to truly build trust. When appropriate in the conversation, tell a previous experience you’ve had helping someone similar to their situation. Highlight challenges other clients have faced and how you helped them through those. Getting on their level and showing how your clients have been there and you’ve helped them to the other side builds credibility and demonstrates that you’re the real estate professional they want on their side. For example, if the guest mentions not finding anything they like in the neighborhood you’re holding the open house in, yet they really want to live there because of the schools, tell them how you helped a buyer recently get into the same school system, but in a neighborhood with inventory similar to their tastes (you’ve learned their tastes through the questions you’ve asked them already at this point). The guest will want your insider expertise and will be eager to give you their contact information at this point. Don’t have a lot of stories in your wheelhouse? Talk to your broker or a mentor and ask them to fill you in on past client stories—you’ll learn a lot, plus will be able to tell guests, “Oh, my broker had a similar situation… he found a lender with great down payment assistance programs and his clients got the home after all. I can get you that number, let’s be sure I have your right contact information.” Which leads me to…
The re-check move. Because you don’t have instant rapport when your guests walk through the door at your open house—rapport is something you build throughout their tour and your conversation after—they may have scribbled down fake information. That’s okay, who can blame them, they didn’t know you yet! But, as you listened to them, asked great questions and gave an example of how you help overcome client challenges, you felt the trust between the two of you growing. That’s when you go for the re-check. Usually after we discuss something they want me to send to them, I will casually (not in a shaming manner), mention for them to make sure I have the email address they prefer to receive emails, “Great! I’ll send you those lender numbers as soon as I’m finished here. Just double-check that you gave me your best email address on the feedback form. Sometimes people automatically put their work email, forgetting most outsider emails go to spam.” You’ll be surprised at how many people blush and give the correct email address or make sure their information is now legible. If you blank on something you can send to them, just use the re-check with the prize drawing you’re doing for the guests that day.

I give more open house strategies and tips in my book, Your Key to Open House Success, as well as resources to download, such as the feedback sheet I use. Be sure to get your copy today!

Are you an undercover agent in your farm? Do you even have a farm?

What is a Real Estate Farm?

Before I move on to farming strategies, I want to make clear the two types of real estate farms you can have: geographical farm and a demographic farm.

Geographical farm. You choose a neighborhood and focus your marketing efforts within it, targeting a set amount of addresses who’ll regularly receive marketing pieces from you. For example, you form a list of 200 homes in one community you’ve identified as your farm because they’ve owned their homes for 3-7 years, are in a price range you want to target and perhaps have another feature you want to target, such as golf course lots or they’re zoned to a specific elementary school. Your own neighborhood is typically the best area to farm since you’re already physically involved in it due to proximity.

Demographic farm. You target a group of people that have similar passions or backgrounds as you. For example, if you were a teacher in your previous career, you target the teacher demographic in your city. Or, if you play in a softball league, you target other people in your league. The possibilities are endless, yet should be something you’re passionate about or identify with.

Consistency is Key in Real Estate

With both groups, the key is consistency. You can’t expect to drop off a flyer at each teacher’s lounge on September 1st, then forget about them the rest of the year. You may as well have thrown those flyers in a bucket of gasoline and dropped a match. Likewise, you can’t send one postcard to your geographic farm and expect to get a response out of it. Your money on stamps and the onetime postcards is an utter waste.

Instead, you must amp up your farming with a committed and well-planned strategy. The good news: with consistency you can get immediate results from your farm that will continue to compound upon itself.

If you want to be unforgettable in your farm, you must:

Build relationships within your farm. This is by far the most important element. Get to know the people in your farm. Network with them; be present in the activities they attend. Let them get to know you. If your farm doesn’t know you, then you can’t build trust with them—which means you’re just another face on a postcard or flyer.
This second point expands upon the first. Be present in your farm. If there are event sponsorship opportunities, sign up. Create a budget for your farm and how much money you’re willing to invest each year with sponsorships and involvement. Spend wisely—if an event doesn’t give you much of a branding opportunity and expects you to be more of a secret sponsor, skip it. Does your farm lack events? Then create some! An agent on my team recently created a community block party in a neighborhood without an HOA/any planned events. Her event was a success and she built relationships with many people in her farm. They were grateful to her for creating a community-building event.
Consistently mail to your farm. You can’t meet everyone at the community events, so make sure they also receive something from you on a consistent basis. A branded monthly postcard with valuable information, just listed/just sold cards and open house invites showing you’re an active agent in the neighborhood are great examples. Just don’t send something once or twice and give up. Your commitment to your farm is long-term.
Presence in other advertising tools that are seen by your farm, such as ads in the monthly newsletter, is a crucial piece of becoming unforgettable. If they aren’t seeing you at the community events or receiving a postcard from you, then the ad won’t have much of an impact. Use this strategy in conjunction with the above. The idea is to saturate your market with your information so you’re top of mind when people need a real estate agent.

Use This Solid System to Build Your Farm

Being in front of your farm makes you memorable and provides opportunities to build relationships and trust. But, it takes more than showing up and throwing money at events and marketing material. You need a solid system to incorporate your farm into your business.

I go into great depth on this subject in my book, Prospecting with Purpose. In it, I show agents how the six main prospecting legs of their business work together to build a stronger business. One of those components is your farm and here is how it integrates with the other five:

Buyers and Sellers – these are the people you’re already working with. Create happy clients and you’ll receive a lifetime of referrals. Don’t sit back and expect them to do all the work for you. Get video testimonies from clients, be a marketing guru for your listings. If people know their neighbors loved their experiences with you, they’ll be excited to work with you, too!
Database – move people from your farm into your database and make sure they hear from you consistently. This means handwritten notes, coffee dates and pop-bys. Rank the people in your farm in your database based on if you’ve actually met them, have an online connection with them or if they’re still strangers. Spend more time on the people you’ve already met and begun to build a relationship with, since it’s harder to build trust with strangers.
Social Media/Internet – Create or be active on the Facebook group pages for that specific farm. Nextdoor is great for geographic farms. Post videos of activities going on in your farm, and of open houses, new listings, and just out-and-about in the community videos (parks, amenities, etc). If someone asks for a referral for another service in your farm, chime in with names and places that can help them. Have an active blog that updates regularly with fresh content about your farm.
Open Houses – I believe in this strongly and go into great depth on this subject in my book, Your Key to Open House Success : only hold open houses in your farm. This will be trickier in non-geographic farms, but not impossible (think, near the sports complex if you’re farming the softball league, or near schools if teachers are your farm). If your farm drives by your branded open house signs every weekend and are receiving your open house invites every week, you will become the go-to neighborhood expert in their minds. This also creates an opportunity to build relationships through the neighbors you meet at the open houses (even If they just seem like nosey neighbors at the time).
FSBOs/Expireds – There shouldn’t be a FSBO or expired listing in your farm that hasn’t heard from you. (With non-geographic farms, you should know if someone in your farm has listed their home either by themselves or has a recent expired, too.) You have a warm “in” with these sellers when you’re actively working your farm because your farming efforts give high probability you’ll have a buyer for them soon. Build from that standpoint and follow up with your marketing material and other useful information.

Let all of your marketing efforts combine and create a super-agent persona amongst the people in your farm. The FSBOs will be more likely to open their door for you because they’ve seen you at events and holding all the other homes on their street open. Your Facebook page for the neighborhood won’t fall flat because you’re consistently posting about events, listings, open houses and general neighborhood news and videos.

Stick to your farm for the long haul and never go missing, even for short periods of time. For this reason, it’s important to choose a farm you are passionate about and physically near on most days. Chose wisely and then start implementing the strategies above today. Once your farm gets to know you and know you’re not a one-and-done kind of agent, you’ll start seeing results pour in from your farm.

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Want more in-depth strategy for your farm and for building a solid real estate career? Check out Prospecting with Purpose.

While stopped at a gas station on a road trip I asked my husband to grab me a bottle of water while I took the kids to the restroom. I didn’t just request any water, but a specific brand.

My oldest, and the most observant six-year-old I know, says, “Mom, why do you always drink that type of water?”

“Well, honey, I trust that brand of water and think it’s a better quality than the others.”

“What if they don’t have that kind?” she asks, not letting this water thing go.

“Well, then I chose this other brand, my second favorite.  If neither of those is available, I have to gauge how thirsty I am and possibly settle for one I don’t really feel good about drinking.”

This is real conversation folks, and yes, I understand I might be a little crazy when it comes to bottled water!

But it got me thinking. I choose my brands, be it water or my vehicle, based on trust—and the same applies when people choose their Realtors.

When we build trust with people, they’ll go out of their way to make sure they work with us every single time.

If we’re not available, they may move on to their next choice of agent.

If we have no branding at all, have zero trust built with the people we want to do business with, we’ll get bypassed, or worse, people may settle on using us and then dump us as soon as someone they trust comes along.

Unlike water bottles where trust is built from quality of ingredients and packaging, we build trust these ways as real estate professionals:

Through relationship. By definition, relationship is “a connection, association, or involvement” (dictionary.com). Be involved in the lives of the people you know. Truly connect with them on personal levels. Learn ways to help others (not just through real estate, but on personal levels). We all crave connection. When relationship is built, a bond of trust forms and you become top-of-mind. Relationship is the most important element because it doesn’t depend solely on your relationship with the people you want to work with, but their outside relationships as well. This is how you receive referrals from people excited to work with you—someone you’ve built a relationship with has a relationship with another person where trust exists and when they refer you, there’s weight in their word.
Through integrity. The people you build relationships with watch how you hold yourself and how you conduct business. They may like you on a personal level, maybe you’ve known each other for many years, but they may not want to do business with you because they question your ethical principles. We have a strict Code of Ethics to follow in this business, stay in line with those and make sure your actions reflect that to everyone around you, and people will trust doing business with you.
Through branding. You may build a trusting relationship with those around you, but if you haven’t branded yourself as the go-to agent, they may forget to send business your way! It’s likely that you aren’t the only Realtor someone has a good relationship with, so your next step is to make sure they remember you as the top-notch expert when it comes to their real estate needs. There’s a delicate balance between building trust and branding. If you make the relationship all about “me, me, me” it becomes one-sided and the relationship crumbles. People need to know what you do and why you’re passionate about it without shoving it down their throats. Instead of always asking for referrals from others, find out how you can refer people to them, or help in other areas of their lives (building that relationship) and they’ll want to return the favor. Talk about your passion for helping people with their real estate needs in non-invasive ways, but make sure it’s not a secret either. For example, invite friends to like your business page, but don’t let your listings’ posts be the only time they hear from you.

The three elements above build trust in the minds of others and bring you more business. But, there’s one more thing I learned that day at the truck stop. When I left the restroom and met my husband at the water case I saw a new brand of water—one that had even more benefits to drinking it (pH balancing, for example). Being the health nut I am, I was intrigued, plus it had all the other elements I like about my favorite brand. So, I returned my usual brand to the case and opted for this new one.

Did I feel different or better after drinking this new water? No, I couldn’t tell the difference really. Will I opt for it over my tried and true brand if they’re in competition again? Yeah, probably, I’m a sucker for health benefits.

This taught me that as real estate professionals we have to always be at the top of our game. We may build strong relationships with people, exude integrity and be well-branded as an agent, but when it comes to buying and selling something as important as a home, people want a real estate professional who has the best means to getting the job done. If your listing photos are all taken with a cell phone and your marketing is sub-par, you’re going to lose business to the agent who has all the trust-building elements AND is hiring a professional photographer.

I know what some of you are thinking. I go above and beyond for my clients and have the best marketing features with all the newest technology. Yet, I still lost my neighbor’s listing to their cousin who’s only a part-time agent! What gives?

Yes, you may be the “better” agent, but don’t forget to skip those trust building steps. If you’ve ever lost a client to another agent, analyze if any of the four elements above were missing. Did the other agent have more trust with that client than you—a deeper relationship, higher sense of integrity, or was branded more heavily in their minds as the go-to agent? Did they have better marketing techniques?

Begin with trust and stay on top of the best business practices and trends, and you’ll see more business from the people you know and receive their referrals.

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Need help with building your client base? Learn how to build a solid career in real estate with Prospecting with Purpose.

One of the top objections I hear from agents about doing open houses is that they think guests are only interested in meeting with the listing agent, so if they don’t have a listing, they think they’re wasting their time doing an open house “just to try to find buyers.” This line of thinking is founded in fear—fear that you lack credibility as an agent if you’re not the listing agent.

It is my belief, which I’ve formed after doing more than one hundred open houses myself, that agents are in a better position if they are NOT the listing agent at the open house. Buyers tend to be guarded if they know the other person is trying to “sell them” on the home. So if the goal is get a buyer to fall in love with your listing at an open house, then why would you put their defenses up? Think of it this way: do you let your sellers be present for showings? No! We know that buyers tour homes faster when a seller is nearby and they don’t feel comfortable enough to see themselves living in the home. When this happens, the likelihood of an offer is slimmer. In that same vein, a non-listing agent should be the one to host the open house so that buyers can let down their defenses and have a fair chance at falling in love with the home, as well as feel like the agent present is more on their side rather than on the sellers’ side.

Yes, there are those people who think they want to forgo a buyer’s agent and go at it alone, but that shouldn’t stop a non-listing agent from holding the open house (nor is it a valid reason why listing agents are better suited for the open). I’ll go into this some more below.

So, what are some strategies and scripts you can use to help you feel more confident as a (hopeful) buyers’ agent at your open houses?

First, when you introduce yourself to the guests, let them know your role right up front.

You: “Hi, I’m Shannon with Sky Realty.” (PAUSE and wait for their answer, still shaking their hands if not too lingeringly awkward).

Them: (filling in the awkward silence): “I’m Sally, and this is my husband, Jeff.”

You: “So nice to meet you, Sally and Jeff! Please, make yourself at home and let me know if you have any questions. I’m not the listing agent, so you can ask me anything about the home and I won’t hold it against you!”

Now, their guards are down and you’re building trust with them. You’re not on the “other side” hoping to sell them, and you’ve presented yourself as someone who genuinely wants to help.

Here are the questions I hear agents are mortified of hearing at the open house and how you can overcome your fear of them:

• “So, if you’re not the listing agent, how can you help us?”

This is the perfect segue into telling them all the benefits of being a buyers’ agent, including being able to write up a contract on the spot since the listing agent only represents the seller and you’re fully able to represent their needs and goals.

• “Oh, this isn’t your listing? Do you have experience working with sellers?”

This may come from a homeowner who’s scouting open houses for a listing agent. They want to see who is working the area diligently and presenting homes in the best manner. Your best response is, “The listing agent put me in charge of the open house because he/she knows I’m one of the best at what I do. I market the open house tirelessly in order to ensure good traffic, just as I would on one of my own listings. We don’t believe in holding our own listings open, because that approach can scare buyers away, and we find that this is a more effective strategy for selling homes. I’d love to sit with you sometime this week to show you my full marketing plan for each of the homes I list. Are you available Tuesday or Friday?”

• “Oh, we were really hoping to talk to a listing agent. We don’t want a buyers’ agent.”

Your response: “The listing agent knows they can only represent their sellers and can’t represent the buyer for this home, too—that’s why they have me host the open house. As a matter of fact, when the listing agent signed the agreement with the sellers, they decided on a set commission, of which the listing agent is happy to share with me if I bring them a buyer. He/she knows the mountain of duties that a buyers’ agent performs, and they’d rather pay me than have a transaction fall apart because I wasn’t there to help. Plus, no buyer should ever buy a home without an in-depth Comparative Market Analysis, something I do as a part of my buyers’ agent services.”

Now that you’ve shown them the value of using you as their agent, you can secure their trust by showing them that you aren’t focused on the sale of this one home. Ask them, “Do you think this could be the home for you, or do you think you’d like to see some other homes before making a decision?” You can offer to email them more properties or take them on a tour of more homes throughout the week. If you sense that these guests are scouting for a listing agent, you can even joke, “Of course, if this were my listing, I wouldn’t want you to go anywhere else!” Now that they realize you have their best interests in mind, they’re warmer to the relationship with you as their buyers’ agent and as their listing agent.

And, do make sure you have the mindset to also meet potential seller-clients at your open houses. By putting together a well-organized and highly-marketed open house, they’ll see that you’re a stellar agent worthy of their business, and they won’t care whose name is on the For Sale sign outside. You can also let them know they’d have an advantage working with you—someone who doesn’t also have their competition listed and can apply more of your efforts into selling their home.

To learn more open house strategies and marketing tips, check out my book, Your Key to Open House Success.

A 2002 study shows that not only do restaurant goers tip more when given a mint or candy along with their bill, but we tip significantly more when then server gives an additional mint and hints that it’s “especially for you.”

Is this data relatable to real estate, and with open houses in particular? I believe it is.

Going back to the study, there are three explanations for why the customers gave generously:

they felt the server was friendly/nice (a quality appreciated in wait staff);
the candy itself lifted the moods of the customers (sugar high?);
the feeling of reciprocity — meaning, “they gave extra to me (one mint or two mints), so I feel I must give extra back to them.”

So, how can we apply this to our open houses?

Be Friendly/Nice (to Build Rapport)

Unless you hate being in real estate or open houses are your least favorite lead generation activity, you’re probably pretty friendly to your open house guests already. Your attitude when interacting with the public (aka, potential clients) at these events will largely impact whether they would like to do business with you or not. Buying and selling homes can be an emotionally difficult process in itself—no one wants to add a negative agent to the mix.

The way to turn your open house guests into clients is to build rapport with them. Rapport is your “one mint.” If the guest feels as though they can trust you and that you care about their well-being, the likelihood of hiring you for their real estate needs increases. Rapport starts with asking your open house guests open-ended questions about where they are at in the home buying (or selling) process. For example:

How does this home compare with other homes you’ve seen?
What would the floor plan of your perfect home be like?
How much does this particular neighborhood weigh into your decision?

The next and most important step in this process is to LISTEN. I mean truly listen—not the half-listening that makes you look like you’re paying attention while you’re really contemplating the pitch you want to give them about hiring you—it’s the kind of listening where the speaker can tell you genuinely care about every word coming out of their mouth.

Two Mint Step

Suggest items of value you can send to them after the open house based on what they said. Every other agent they meet at open houses will ask them for their email addresses so they can send them alerts every time a new home comes on the market. For the two-mint response, which is confirmation that they’re resolute on working with you and only you, you must offer something unique—something more special than what all the other agents are offering.

To continue the examples I gave above, you can:

Mention homes that have expired recently that may fit with what they are looking for, or that you have an “in” with some For Sale by Owner listings in the area—show them you have access to what they haven’t seen yet/what they may be missing out on. You can also mention coming soon listings, although this is becoming a widely-used open house conversation that may now fall back into the one-mint category.
Tell them you’re going to spend a few days next week combing through the inventory in-person to find that dream floor plan for them. Ask, “If I find that floor plan, will you meet with me to see the home together?”
Depending on their answer to the neighborhood question, you can offer to take them to lunch and tour other areas they may want to consider. If this neighborhood is their one and only, invite them to the next HOA meeting or community event as your special guest.

Your possibilities are endless—all you need to do is listen to your guests and find that unique thing you can do to stand out and show them they’re special to you.

Sugar High

Slipping them an extra chocolate chip cookie as they leave your open house may not get them to sign a buyer representation agreement, but there are ways we can relate this to the mint theory.

One Mint

I am a firm believer of having treats at open houses. Open houses should be viewed as an event where you, the host, want to leave a good impression on your guests. An open house with no treats does not leave quite the impression as one where a nice spread is provided; plus treats act as a good ice-breaker. There are caveats, of course, like don’t take over the whole kitchen, distracting guests from the home’s features because you have trays of cookies everywhere. But, overall a nice spread will help show the guests that you mean business and that you’re the type of agent who goes the extra mile for their clients.

Two Mints

Again, I don’t think we can convince people to do business with us just because we give them a sugar high. So while the thought of giving them a goody bag to take home with your information is a good way to stick in their minds for a while (someone posted a really cute idea for this and popcorn in my Open House Mastermind group), I think it can be taken a step further.

Think about the typical agent at an open house. Many are too shy to even strike up a real conversation with the guests. I’ve visited open houses where the agent was too engrossed in a romantic novel to look up at me (she didn’t know if I was agent before I opened my mouth), and I’ve even walked in on agent asleep at the kitchen table! What if you weren’t just good at building rapport at the open house, but you took it a step further and invite guests to meet for coffee in the coming weeks? I can guarantee you that most agents will be too scared to get to this point—insecurities prevent them. Show your guests you’re about building relationships—treating them to coffee to learn more about their real estate needs is the first date. Even if they put the idea off, you’ve made an impression on them that will last until they’re ready to make a move.

Reciprocity

We’ve covered that agents typically offer to send listings, so this isn’t a value-add that makes you stand out against your competition. To really launch your guests from customers to clients you need to make them feel like they’ve been offered something so good that they feel impelled to return the favor and do business with you.

Of course, it’s good business practice to send thank you notes to your open house guests, and some agents take it a step farther and enclose a small gift, such as a $5 gift card to a coffee shop, in those notes. If you do this, consider dividing those tasks—slip your open house guests a generic “Thank you for coming” card with the $5 gift card inside and then follow up with the mailed letter that is more personal to your interaction with the guest. If the theory with the wait staff giving the “special” second mint increases their tips, then perhaps giving the gift card at your first meeting, rather than a couple of days later, will help you land the client quicker!

The reciprocity theory is a two-mint step all the way, and you can offer value to your guests in different ways, depending on whether each is a potential buyer or a potential seller (because both scout for agents at open houses).

Applying the Mint Concept with Buyers

If you learn that you’re speaking with a first-time, or first-time-in-this-state-buyer, offer to give them a one-on-one (or two-on-one) crash course on real estate. Let them know that this is a special, in-depth meeting that not everyone receives, because you want to make sure they know all the intricacies about buying property in your state, after all, it can save them thousands of dollars. Now you are offering them real value. Even if they think to themselves, “Ha, I’ll get all his knowledge and go out and do this on my own!” once someone sees EVERYTHING a REALTOR® does for each transaction, they’re often more than happy to have you working for them.

Other monetary benefits you can bring to the table in hopes of reciprocity are to have coupons from industry-related vendors that offer discounts on services needed during the home buying process. For example, some lenders offer free appraisal coupons to agents who regularly refer them business. You can even tie this in to your next meeting. “I’ve really enjoyed talking with you. Can you meet next Tuesday or Wednesday for coffee? I have some coupons to services you’ll need during the home-buying process that can save you hundreds of dollars.”

These things bring value to your services and are stepping stones to building a loyal relationship with your guests. And, notice that they are already things you do for all of your buyers? All it takes is actually telling them about the benefits you provide—something many agents never get the nerves to do at open houses.

Applying the Mint Concept with Sellers

In fact, you can even do this with the potential sellers you meet at open houses—you know, the looky-loos trying to size up the competition and steal staging ideas. I’ve heard agents offer these open house guests, “Give me your email address and I’ll send you comp values for the neighborhood, so you can get a good idea of what you can sell for.” But, they fail to go that extra step, “Can we meet so I can tell you about the professional staging, photography and videography I personally pay for on all my listings?” This is skin-in-the-game marketing that not all agents do and it tells your guests, “Hey, I’m willing to invest in you when you invest in me.”

Next time you’re hosting an open house, think about how you can go the two-mint steps for your guests and earn their real estate business. For more open house strategies, check out my book, Your Key to Open House Success.

It’s that time of year again—the New Year is fast approaching and along with making New Year’s resolutions, we all start thinking about our career goals for the coming year.

While I believe there is no special starting time for your goals—TODAY is always a good day to get started—the renewing spirit of a new year is a good prompt. This is especially true for REALTORS® who, aside from the obvious tax reasons, are driven by annual numbers when it comes to production goals and accolades.

All the best goal touting gurus will tell you that you can’t simply set a goal and wish for it to happen. You must also define how you are going to hit your goal. In other words, follow, “I want to make $150,000 in 2017” with “by selling ___ homes per month.” (The number that goes in this field will be determined by your commission split and by your average listing price for the homes you list and sell in your market.)

But, as real estate professionals, we need to take goal-setting to another level. We need to identify how we are going to sell those goal-hitting amounts of homes each month.

To do this, you will first need to identify the source of each closing you had in 2016. If you don’t have one already, make a spreadsheet where you label each closed address along with the price and the source of the lead. Possible lead sources include: database, referral from past client, open house, farm, Internet, phone duty, and listings that came from a FSBO or an expired listing. Gather your data and calculate how much each lead source individually attributed to your income.

If your goal is to make $150,000 next year and last year you made $100,000, you are expecting a 50% increase in income. Therefore, you need to realize a 50% increase in your efforts applied to each of the lead sources. For example, if your database has 400 people in it, your new goal is to increase your database to 600 people this year.

In real estate not every buyer or seller turns into a closing, nor does every person you meet at an open house turn into a client. You will need to account for your closing ratio—client to closing—in each category. This means that if 2 of your closings last year came from open houses and you hosted 20 open houses, you should now host 30 open houses to shoot for 3 closings attributed to open houses.

(By the way, did you know that if you host 40 open houses in a 52-week year, you have 3 whole months off from open houses! Plus, think of all the database building you can do through those open houses! Learn more with Your Key to Open House Success.)

Once you know the numbers it will take to hit your goal, you can begin to piece it out month by month. You’ll be able to clearly finish the proper goal-setting sentence, “I want to make $150,000 in 2017 by increasing my database to 600 people and my farm to 250 addresses, doing 3 open houses per month, going on 6 listing appointments per month, meeting with 6 buyers per month, and by talking to 3 FSBOs and expireds each month.”

Having the specifics laid out like above makes it clear for you to see if you are on track to hitting your income goal all throughout the year. More importantly, they are not numbers that you came up with out of thin air; they’re derived from your actual past performance and show you what you can realistically expect when you apply yourself according to your new goal.

To help make this an easier process for you, I’ve made this one-page downloadable sheet of questions. I also go into greater detail in my book Prospecting with Purpose. As always, feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

Download the FREE PDF Here!

Here’s to a successful 2017 for you!

Shannon

I love hearing positive feedback from agents who, after reading Your Key to Open House Success, have flipped their attitudes about open houses and have begun to hold successful ones—they get more guests, more clients and more closings because of the quality of open houses they begin to hold, their can-do attitudes, and application of winning strategies.

Many times the first step to increasing your business through open houses is overcoming your objections to them. Below are the ‘Top Three Excuses’ agents give to why they don’t think open houses work for them, and how to power through them.

Excuse #1: “Putting signs in the ground is too hard and I hate getting out in the heat/cold/wind/rain to do it.”

Yes, this is one of the more labor intensive sides to the job. You sweat, you curse, you get honked at. But, putting out directional signs is a must with open houses. The most obvious reason of course is that you increase your traffic to your open houses. But, did you know that plastering your directional signs all over the neighborhood gives you an added benefit? When neighbors see your directional signs weekend after weekend, you become a neighborhood expert in their eyes. They see you out working, and working hard. Those directional signs start to give you neighborhood credibility (like street cred for REALTORS®). Add your sign visibility to the other marketing material you send to the neighborhood, you have a one-two punch!

Tip: For maximum success with your signage, aim to put out at least 10 signs and have them branded to YOU! Also, focus your open houses in one area so your signs are repeatedly in front of the same people.

Excuse #2: “No one showed up to my last open house. They don’t work, so I’m not doing them anymore.”

Have you ever shown a house to a potential buyer, only to never hear from them again? Ever lose a listing appointment? If you answered yes to either or both of those questions, are you still in real estate? Of course you are! (I know because why else would you be reading this…which also means you are not a quitter!) You know that this business is a numbers game. The more homes you show and the more listing appointments you go on, the more closings you will have. The same theory applies to open houses. You can’t do one, or a few, and throw in the towel if a closing doesn’t result. You must keep at it, just like every other aspect of real estate. Did you know that if you held an open house on 40 out of the 52 weeks of the year (that’s three months off!) and you had a modest average of 4 people per open house (some have zero, some will have eight…on the modest side), you’d have met 160 people that year through open houses? In five years that number becomes 800! Wouldn’t you like to grow your database by 800 people in the next five years?

Tip: Think outside the open house. Even if you have zero guests, the open house has given you an opportunity to meet others in the neighborhood through your invites and other marketing material. No open house is ever a lost cause.

Excuse #3: “No one ever buys the house at an open house.”

While this excuse is not even true—plenty of offers have occurred due to an open house and I personally know this as a fact—it shows narrow-mindedness. You aren’t setting up shop to sell one house to one person. No, you’re there to meet potential clients—buyers and sellers alike. You’re even there to meet the down-the-road potential clients. If you’re not the one meeting these interested buyers and sellers, another agent will be. Open houses are a great opportunity to get in front of your target audience and build rapport with them. When you build rapport with your guests, it sets the stage to a lifetime of you working together. Don’t think of open houses as a one shot deal to sell a home, think of them as the opportunity to sell many, many homes.

Tip: Hold open houses for other agents and don’t hold open your listings. Guests may be more guarded around you if they know you’re there to represent the seller. But, as a buyers’ agent, you can help break down their walls and build rapport easier. Also, this gives you more opportunities to sell more than just the one house. A listing agent has a main objective—sell this listing—and find it difficult to switch gears when a guest isn’t the right buyer for the home. But, a buyers’ agent is always on alert to turn every guest into a client, no matter the home.

I go into greater detail about these objections, and seven others, in my book, Your Key to Open House Success. If you’ve ever found yourself turning down the idea of an open house, pick up your copy today to bust through your objections and achieve greater success in your real estate career!

If you have any listing experience, you can probably recall this exact scenario: You show up to a listing appointment and begin to tour the home with the potential sellers. As you move from room to room they boast about the paint colors—especially the faux-painted walls that took them weeks to complete—the dining room light fixture which couldn’t be more specific in taste, and the flooring which, according to the sellers, is a style that’s finally coming back around, thank goodness they never changed them!

They’re beaming ear to ear with pride and you…well, you’re cringing on the inside but nodding your head on the outside. You take your places at the dining table to go over what they’ve called you into their home to discuss. Before you can even open your CMA, they continue to gush about the love, sweat and equity they put into the home and how they know it’ll all pay off. We bought that microwave four years ago, someone will certainly appreciate that! When you get to the comparable sales and start to talk numbers they begin justifying their home’s value based on the emotion they have to the home—the sales data is irrelevant to them.

Here’s where two choices are typically made: horribly offend the hopeful sellers or lie to them for the sake of saving their feelings. Both are wrong.

It’s our fiduciary duty to treat all parties honestly, let’s put that right up front. You must be honest and the best form of honesty comes through communication and education. Honesty is why they are hiring you and how real estate continues to hold its longevity as a valued and needed profession. Education is the bonus you are bringing to the table. Most agents garner the ability to educate their clients from their own experiences in the industry. The more experience an agent has and the more confident they are with integrating their experience into the education they provide their clients, the more value an agent can bring to the table. Rookie agents don’t need to fret if they lack perceived experience—they may have personal experience with buying and selling real estate prior to becoming an agent, or they can work closely with mentors and piggyback off of their experiences.

You can effectively apply honesty through communication and education without offending your clients. Refrain from blurting out the first thing that comes to your mind and stick to the facts instead.

Don’t: “Ugh, those drapes are hideous.”

Do: “The homes priced in the higher end of the market analysis all had drapery from Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn with simple or solid patterns. If we look at the homes priced lower in the CMA, we see that they all had custom drapery, much like yours, with less universal patterns. Eyes are drawn to drapery in the photos online, and you should consider removing or replacing your drapery if you want to compete with the higher-priced homes.”

And, remember, selling a home is usually an emotional time for sellers. If you show aversion to their belongings, they will take offense. But, if you show them how the market reacts to the style of their home, it isn’t your personal preference at play, it’s you educating them on the best way to sell their home.

The same applies when you are working with buyers. When you tour a home with buyers, let them take the lead on describing the home. You provide no value by walking ahead of them and calling out the seller’s bad decorating taste. This is your time to listen. Don’t learn to listen only after your foot is in your mouth—you never know when your buyer actually loves the cheetah print wallpaper covering every wall in the master bedroom, including the ceiling. But that was my favorite part of the house is a hard line to recover from.

Offer your buyers education over opinion. “You may love the green shag carpet, but do understand that when you call me in five years to sell, I will sit across from you and show you homes in this area tend to sell for a higher price if they have wood floors installed.” Education, not opinion. Honesty, not lying or concealing. It’s important to communicate these things so they aren’t mad at you when they turn around to sell the home and hear the bad news about the home from you for the first time.

When working with sellers and buyers remember that you must build trust and rapport with them to earn their business. If you come in swinging with negative comments about a house, they are going to become guarded around you, making it harder for you to gain that trust and rapport. Be sensitive to their emotions so you can communicate to them what it takes to sell their home or find the home of their dreams. Ask questions and listen. Reading your clients’ emotions, asking the right questions and listening are all characteristics of a great salesperson.

And, don’t confuse bluntness with being offensive. I’m a blunt person. I just see no way around it—if my mouth isn’t saying it, the expression on my face is! Bluntness is best used when it’s surrounded by honesty, communication and education. It shouldn’t be confused with speaking without a filter. If what you are about to say doesn’t help someone or couldn’t be used as a learning tool, keep it to yourself. People are stressed out enough as it is during the home selling/buying process, don’t turn up the heat by offering opinions “just because”.

Finally, my biggest trick to deliver bad news about a seller’s design choices is to not do it at all…I let my stager handle this part of the process! The stager is the design professional after all and I rely heavily on my team rather than trying to be the be-all for my clients. When the design choice does not affect the pricing decision, I am confident that the news does not need to come from me, but from the stager I hire to speak with the sellers. Find yourself an amazing stager who will walk your sellers through the psychology of selling a home so they understand why they need to make the necessary changes—this person will be a crucial member of your team and takes the burden of offending your sellers from your shoulders (make sure you find one that can do this delicately as well, or you’ll have an offended seller on your hands anyway!).

And, remember the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. If you were selling your home, you’d want an agent who was honest, communicative and willing to keep you educated on the process. You’d build a wall between you and an agent who spoke offensively instead of offering helpful advice that spoke of the market’s reactions. Be the agent you’d most want to work with and you’ll find it easier to build trust and rapport with your clients.

Happy Monday!

How are you beginning your week? Are you coming off a victorious week of closings and a super-busy weekend meeting with clients? If so, do you have a system in place so you don’t lose momentum this week?

Or, was last week slow for you? Perhaps you’ve decided today is the day to buckle down and refocus on your career. You know the winter months are around the bend and if you don’t put a system in place, you may not make it to the spring selling season.

Maybe you aren’t sure if you are even on the right track or not! Things seem fine, but business could be better.

Well, here’s a simple checklist to measure your activities last week—if you find yourself answering no to two or more of these, then you know you have some weak areas in your business that you need to work on. If last week was an “off” week for you—you were on vacation, for example—then think back to your previous work week or shift the questions forward to think about and prepare for your business building activities this week.

Last week did I:

◘ Manage my time with buyers & sellers, leaving time to prospect for new clients?

◘ Add people to my database daily?

◘ Spend time enhancing my online presence?

◘ Reach out to my farm?

◘ Prepare & execute a successful open house?

◘ Meet the FSBOs/Expireds in my farm/near my open house?

Where do you see yourself falling short? Put a plan in place to spend more time in each of the categories above this week so that you can achieve a more balanced business that consistently churns out closings. Focus on turning your weaknesses into strengths and you will stop the cycle of starting over after each closing—strive for a continuous loop of gaining new clients and closings.

If you answered yes to all of these, but are still in a rut, may I gently suggest you fine tune your sales skills. Yes, you are in the business of selling houses, but what you are really selling is yourself.

◘ Do you have a branding package in place so that you are memorable in the minds of the people you meet? Are you consistent with using your branding?

◘ Do you talk more than listen? This applies in and outside of business. Fight the urge to use words to prove your value—people are all about themselves, listening to them will get you much further.

◘ When you are talking, are you asking the right questions? Don’t ask questions that can be answered with conversation killers. Instead, ask ones that elicit open-ended answers that really get the other person talking. Which question do you think is more effective?

How many bedrooms does your family need?
If you could create your perfect home, what would the floor plan be like?

◘ Do you consistently follow-up with people or throw chance to the wind and think they’ll call you when they’re ready? There are no shortages of real estate agents in this world, if you’re not in front of your leads/database/sphere of influence/farm, someone else will be—guaranteed! Commit to a schedule that tells you when to contact your people so you don’t lose track.

Speaking of keeping track, you need to track where your clients come from. You can qualify your data through closed sales only so you can learn what is truly working for you. For example, you can create a simple Excel spreadsheet similar to this:

The data in this example proves that your Internet presence needs some beefing up, and you are neglecting the FSBO/expired segment of your career. The data speaks for itself and is a telling sign of where your business has imbalances—keeping track is an important tool in your business. When you see deficiencies, work toward improving those areas of your business without ignoring the things that have been working well for you.

How do you achieve this? The best way to do this is to write down your schedule each week and make sure you’ve set aside time for each area in your business. Without a clear, written plan, it’s nearly impossible to keep track of your weaknesses and stay on the path to success.

In my most recent book, Prospecting with Purpose, I dive into how a balanced real estate career should look like and strategies on how you can achieve it. Get your copy today and get on a focused track to success!