Open Houses | Why, When & How To Have One

When selling a home, an open house is a tool in the toolbox of marketing the property to attract buyers, with the goal of receiving offers.

As a quick definition of an open house – an open house is an event that is scheduled in the MLS (so that it syndicates out to all the online outlets like Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, etc) where anyone and everyone is invited to tour the home for a set period of time (usually 2 hours), without needing to have an appointment, and without having to be accompanied by a buyers agent.

This article explains the “why,” “when,” and “how” to host an open house.

Summary of An Open House

Before getting into the details of open houses, let’s begin with the main take-aways of open houses.

We like to schedule open houses for the second weekend that a house is on the market

Open houses can also be used after a price drop

Open houses held at random do not generally help sell a property

Many real estate agents hold open houses as a way to try to collect unrepresented buyers to help them buy a property

Concerns With Open Houses

The main concern of open houses is that there will likely be people walking through your home unsupervised.
As the goal of an open house is to draw lots of people into your home to find a buyer – there is usually the situation where there are multiple groups of people in your home at the same time, and only one real estate agent to supervise the groups – thus during an open house it is likely that, people will be walking around your home unsupervised.

Open houses are publicly advertised, so “anyone and everyone” is invited – there’s no vetting or screening of who may be walking through your house. So, if someone attends with intent to steal items, or other ill intentions – there will likely be minimal supervision of such people.

When To Host An Open House

There are two times in a listing period when an open house can be a good fit:
The second weekend after a house is listed
The weekend after a price reduction

The Second Weekend After a House is Listed
We are often asked “why not hold an open house the first weekend a home is listed” – here’s why: we list our houses on late Wednesdays or early Thursdays so that everyone with a saved home search in the MLS, Zilow, Redfin, etc. will be notified of your newly listed home from their saved search, and then those buyers will typically schedule a showing for that first weekend with their REALTOR or by reaching out to us as the listing agent. Hopefully we have an accepted offer on your property by the end of that first weekend it is listed. If we do not have an accepted offer that first weekend, scheduling an open house for the second weekend will then again notify everyone with a saved search of the open house, and anyone considering submitting an offer that toured the previous week, or for anyone that hasn’t toured your home yet but is planning on it, will see the upcoming open house, and psychologoically will be concerned that the open house will bring another wave of buyers, and that concern will oftne prompt buyers to submit an offer to “get a contract on it before the sellers get another offer from the upcoming open house.”

The Weekend After a Price Reduction
As a general rule, for “move in ready” homes in high demand areas, if we have not received an offer on your property within 2 weeks, or 10 showings, that means that the market is telling us that a price reduction is likely needed. At this point in time, you as the seller, of course, make the decision on whether to wait longer at the current price or reduce the price. The reason why a price reduction can be a fitting time for an open house the following weeked is that when the price is reduced, everyone with a saved search that your home is in will be notified of the price reduction, and will be notified of the coming open house. We find that the combination of the price reduction with the scheduled open house will trigger buyers that “have their eye on your property” or are considering an offer, to submit an offer before the date of the open house as these buyers can be concerned that the open house will bring in other offers.

Do Open Houses Sell Houses?

Generally speaking, open houses do not bring buyers that would not have already otherwise tour your home. A 2024 survey from the National Association of Realtors reported that 100% of buyers used the internet in their home search – indicating that buyers find homes from viewing the online portals (the local MLS, Zillow, Realtor.com, etc), or from their saved home searches in these portals. The main way that open houses can help sell a home is (as discussed above in this article), that buyers considering submitting an offer on your home may see the scheduled open house and get concerned that the open house may bring other offers, and this concern can prompt buyers to submit an offer sooner than later.

How To Host An Open House

There are 2 main elements of an open house:
Scheduling the open house in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
Prepping the home

Scheduling The Open Houlse In The MLS
As a refresher on what the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is – the MLS is the database that REALTORs enter your home’s listing information into, which the MLS then syndicates out to all the other online outlets (such as Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, etc). REALTORs working with buyers will setup a tailored search in the MLS which the MLS will then email any homes that match the buyers search criteria to the buyer. Buyers can also setup tailored searches in the other online outlets. These saved searches will also notify buyers of open houses for houses that meet their search criteria. Accordingly, the most important part of an open house is for the REALTOR to enter the open house in the MLS so that buyers and the online home search outlets all know of the open house.

Prepping The Home For The Open House
Prepping the house for the open house is pretty simple – its the same as how you would prep a house for a showing:

turn on all the lights
open all the shades
clean the home
declutter the home
have the grass cut
weed any landscaped areas
check that the house smells good
open and clean any pools (weather permitting)
remove any extra cars from the driveway and garage