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We agreed to the lower % as a professional courtesy. I have had a real estate license in this State for 20 years. However, I do not like, nor do I work in, residential. Also, she has made quite a bit of money from me and my family.
As far as costs, I'm not sure what extra costs she is incurring due to my listing. As stated previously, I print out the flyers for the front yard sign. Other than MLS fees, I don't believe there is anything else. I may be wrong since (as just stated) I do not work in residential real estate. My company does not belong to any associations because we use LoopNet to list our properties. Residental MLS would not do us any good. Are there additional fees per listing?
So you feel that the signs put out the night before is the best way to go?
OK, I still don't know why she would have agreed to that, nor why you would suggest it - but that's between the two of you. I don't think it will help in your ultimate goal, getting the house sold quickly and for the highest price possible.
She is carrying your listing in inventory, every day it doesn't sell it's costing her money and in a depreciating market you're losing money as your house is worth less this month than last month. Is she doing any marketing at all? If not, why are you listed with her? I'm sorry, maybe I don't fully understand your state and your situation. When I list a home, I list it a fee that my company and I can make a reasonable profit and then I give the seller all of the skills that I have and the marketing tools that my company offers. The seller is responsible for keeping the curb appeal up and making sure the house is show-ready on demand. It almost sounds like you're in a hybrid situation.
In my case, I put my portable signs up just before the open house, as I'm afraid they'll disappear if I put them up any sooner. I do have a fixed sign in the ground, which has an "Open Sunday" rider on top, but the portable signs go up just before the actual event. A month ago, I put a sign up across from the house and then went to the end of the street to put the others up and folks showed up before I could get back to the house! Now the last portable sign I put up is in front of the house.
I prefer to have the open house sign in front of the house by no later than Wednesday so people driving through the neighborhood know it's coming up. The directionals and balloons I put up the morning of the open house.
The signs are great, but the agent also needs to promote the open house on the big sites like REALTOR dot com, OpenHouse dot com, craigslist dot org and their own web site as well as perhaps a newspaper ad that morning. I have also walked around a neighborhood with flyers a few days prior to meet the neighbors. Marketing is all about a media mix, you need to saturate the market with your message.
I have offered door prizes at open houses. Still got no more traffic than before (maybe 2 families per OH). People still didn't want to sign in. People didn't want to register for the door prize because they didn't want to give out contact info. Makes you wonder why these "secret shoppers" are really at the home. I'm just not a fan of open houses for several reasons.
Yep - I've done open houses with Lots of Signs, an ad in the newspaper which included a photo of the home (nice one) as well as mention of a Target Gift Card to be given away. NOT ONE looker!
So much depends on the location of the home and even just the particular weekend. This was a nice weekend when I had no lookers . . . maybe the weather was too nice???
I've also had a few open houses that were very well attended. Still a waste of time, IMO. But if the sellers want an open house, I'm willing to do them. And even advertise them. Generally, though, it's mostly lookyloo's who walk through. There's a few serious buyers (in which case, if they're serious they usually already have an agent and have already looked at homes that more closely fit their needs). In all honesty, I don't know if I've ever heard of someone buying a home they looked at during an open house. I know it does happen, but I think it must be 100,000:1 odds.
Gretchen, I had 2 sales last year from buyers who saw the home for the first time at an open house and a third who saw the home with an agent first and then came back with parents that Sunday (and their agent). When I was picking up my signs, my phone rang with an offer waiting to be picked up.
Gretchen, I had 2 sales last year from buyers who saw the home for the first time at an open house and a third who saw the home with an agent first and then came back with parents that Sunday (and their agent). When I was picking up my signs, my phone rang with an offer waiting to be picked up.
That's fantastic WhoFan. See, there, "past experience may not be indicative of future results" (or whatever that disclaimer is - I should have added it to my post).
Is your market mostly local buyers? Our market here is probably at least 70%-80% out-of-town buyers. I think that probably has something to do with the poor turnout we have for open houses here. In fact, there's usually only a handful of open houses each weekend. Agents have tried the Neighborhood Open Houses all on the same weekend, but have also had a very poor turnout, especially considering all the advertising, giveaways, etc.
I'd say we're 50/50 at least that's who's subscribing to get e mails from the company's website. There are several open houses each Sunday, some more productive than others. If a house is new on the market and priced well, it will draw.
Gretchen, I had 2 sales last year from buyers who saw the home for the first time at an open house and a third who saw the home with an agent first and then came back with parents that Sunday (and their agent). When I was picking up my signs, my phone rang with an offer waiting to be picked up.
That's really good but nationally only .02% of home sales of listed homes came from open houses. I've only heard of one home selling in my market from an open house but it's always the example of why they tell new agents should do them.
Of course I know the real story. The Realtor fell asleep on the couch and nobody had come through. At 6 o'clock (was over at 5) some buyers came in and woke the agent up when they rang the doorbell because they wanted to see the house. They wrote up an offer after they saw it.
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That's fantastic WhoFan. See, there, "past experience may not be indicative of future results" (or whatever that disclaimer is - I should have added it to my post). 
