Why Open Houses Still Work (When Everyone Says They're a Waste of Time)

Spring market is here—and if you've written off open houses as a waste of time, this episode is going to change your mind.

Lindsay Dreyer spent four years in new construction, sitting in a model home every single day. Every day was open house day. And after 22 years in real estate, she's still doing them—not because she has to, but because they work. In fact, an agent at her brokerage just picked up a buyer at an open house and had an offer written within two days.

In this episode, Lindsay breaks down exactly why open houses are one of the highest-ROI, lowest-cost lead generation strategies in real estate—and what most agents are doing wrong when they're not getting results.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why most agents think open houses don't work (and why they're wrong)
• The three real reasons your open houses aren't converting
• How to pick the right listing to hold open—and what to do if you don't have your own
• A step-by-step promotion strategy that actually drives traffic
• How to greet buyers without making them feel like they're in a hostage situation
• The sign-in strategy that captures contact info naturally (without the awkward clipboard ambush)
• Why follow-up within 24 hours is the difference between a pipeline and a wasted Sunday
• The real ROI math—and why open houses beat Zillow leads, Facebook ads, and paid referrals every time

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Open Method Course — Lindsay's step-by-step system for running open houses that generate real business. Includes the Buzz Builder Blueprint, Open House Survival Kit Checklist, Six-Figure Sign-In Sheet, a ChatGPT Super Prompt for a 12-month nurture campaign, and the Host-for-You Email Script.

 👉 happyagent.co/theopenmethod

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Transcript

Spring Market And A Polarizing Topic

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Hello friends, it is me, Lindsay Dreyer, brokerage owner, real estate coach, and busy mom of three. And I don't know about you, but Spring Market is officially here, and I thought we would talk about something that is a little bit polarizing. But why do open houses still work when I think a lot of people say they are a waste of time? An agent at my brokerage actually just picked up a buyer from an open house and they have already written an offer within two days of meeting them. So for those of you who say they do not work, push aw. They absolutely do. So I get it. There's a lot of misinformation out there or just salty agents, which I totally understand, who say they're a waste of time. No one actually buys from open houses anymore. It's just nosy neighbors or people killing time. And if you want real buyers, you need to be on social media or you need to be spending money on leads. And I get it. I get why agents think this. Because if you're hosting open houses half-assed, you are probably not getting clients. And it probably is a waste of time, like throwing up the balloons, sitting in the corner scrolling on your phone, and having someone walk in. That's not doing open houses. Open houses definitely still work and they work really, really well. But you have to know what you're doing and what you're trying to accomplish. I spent four years in new construction and I sat in a model home day in, day out. Every day was open house day. And I am so passionate about open houses because of that. When someone walks in the door, you are there to get them to buy a house, whether it's the one you're sitting in or the one down the street. But that is a lead. They walked in there for a reason, typically. Even if it's a neighbor, even if it is a curious renter, like you can always build a relationship with a person who walks through the door of an open house. So today I'm going to tell you exactly why open houses still work, what you are doing wrong, if they're not working for you, and how to turn a Saturday or Sunday afternoon into a pipeline of qualified buyers or sellers. So let's start with the obvious question. If open houses work so well, why do so many agents say that they don't? And I think that it is three things. The first is they're measuring the wrong thing. Second is they're doing the wrong thing. Sorry, guys. Three is that they don't follow up. And that is probably the most valuable one. So let's dive into they're measuring the wrong thing. Most agents are judging an open house by whether someone walked through the door actually bought that specific house. And you know what? Sometimes that happens, but a lot of the times it almost doesn't ever happen. And that's really not the point. The point is, did you get to meet somebody? Did you meet a potential buyer? Did you get their top contact information? Did you get to build a relationship with them? Because those buyers are probably going to buy something eventually. And if you didn't follow up, that is on you. If you did follow up, it's probably going to be with you. Number two, that you're doing them wrong. You're not asking the right questions. You're not qualifying the buyers. You're not collecting contact information in a way that feels natural. And you're basically just like not working them correctly. So you're like, oh, it's not working. It's a total waste of time. And it's really not. Like, I know so many agents who have closed deals from open houses. And if you are not closing deals from open houses, you are doing them wrong in one way or another. And it could just be a really small tweak that you need to make. And we'll talk about in this episode those tweaks you can make. The last reason is that they don't follow up. And to me, this is the biggest one. You can meet 15 people at an open house, but if you don't follow up with them in 24, 48 hours, it doesn't matter that you met them. They're probably gonna work with somebody else or they're gonna work with whoever they built the relationship with. So having follow-up and having a plan for nurture is crucial. I can't tell you on like the Facebook groups how many people are asking what are the best paid lead sources? And you are sleeping on open houses because it is actually a free lead generation strategy or very low cost if you're doing some like marketing stuff with it. But you're not having to pay for Zillow, you're not running Facebook ads, you're not buying leads, you're not paying referral fees, you are just showing up, being helpful and real human, and meeting people who are actively looking for homes or honestly nosy neighbors who are potentially selling down the road. And if you do it right, you will walk away with a list of people who want to hear from you, who you have built a relationship with. And that is not a waste of time. That is an absolute gold mine. All right, so let's talk about what makes an open house actually work because I know you're like, so I'm gonna walk you through my tips. And I also have an online course called the open method, which if you want to check that out, it's only$47 and it gives you everything you need to know on how to run and nurture and rock a profitable open house. Um, but we will go through some of my tips that I have learned over my 22 years of hosting open houses and my new construction days, which were like the ultimate open house boot camp. All right, so open house tip number one is picking the right house. So, first you need to pick the right house. Not every listing is a good open house candidate. And if you're just defaulting to like, well, I have a listing, I guess I'll hold it open, you're setting yourself up to sit in an empty house for three hours. So I understand that some sellers, like you're gonna need to do it, wave the flag, especially if you do a price reduction. I think you have to hold it open. Um, but here are my tips if you are hosting an open house for someone else in your brokerage or you want to like reactivate one. So, number one is it's in an active buyer market. So that means that there are actually buyers looking in that price range and that neighborhood right now. So really going somewhere where there's activity, where listings are moving. The second tip is it needs to be priced right. If that if that house is overpriced, buyers are not gonna show up. And if they do, they're gonna walk through and then leave because it doesn't match the listing online. Like they're just like, this is not aligned, this does not work. So finding something that's priced right is super important. Number three is is it moving ready or close to it? Because buyers want to see homes that they can picture themselves in. This kind of goes back to like the model home theory, where if it's a model home or it looks really nice, it's gonna be inviting. People are gonna want to spend time there, they're going to want to stay and chat with you. If the house is a total gut job or a mess, they're not gonna linger. They're gonna be like in and out and they're gonna walk through in five minutes and then leave. So pick something that is comfortable to host and that buyers will want to linger. The next is it's in a visible location. So this could be corner lots, main roads, neighborhoods with good foot traffic. These tend to get those walk-ins, and it also is great for your signage. So if your open house doesn't fit this criteria, you might want to just do some searching. Also, the first weekend on the market, first or second weekend tends to be the busiest. So, like those stale listings, they are not typically the best opportunity for you. So I get it, most agents hate doing open houses. But if you choose one that is aligned and you're picking the right house, they can be really, really profitable. The house does matter, so I wouldn't waste your time on a listing that doesn't draw a lot of buyers unless it's your listing and you need to do the open house for your seller. All right, the next tip is promoting it like you mean it. You actually have to tell people that open house is happening. And I know that this sounds obvious, but most agents just do the bare minimum. They put the open house in the MLS and maybe post it to their Instagram stories, and then they're like, oh, I did it. I promoted my open house. And that really is not enough. You need to obviously put it in the MLS, make sure it's showing up on Zillow, Redfin, all the portals. And I think you need to put that in at least five days in advance so it's sitting there, people have had a chance to see it. I also like to create a Facebook event and invite my sphere, share it publicly, post about it on Instagram, and this is the money shot, like those local Facebook groups. I don't know about you, but like my town here in New Hampshire has an extremely active Facebook group. And if you post your open house, you will yes get some troll comments, but you will get some nice comments, but it does get you publicity and gets people to your open houses. So whether that's next door, your Facebook groups, listserves. I know for condo buildings, a lot of them have like internal listservs that your your seller can post to. Make sure that you are hitting those ultra hyper local channels because those are gold mine. The next is sending an email to my database. So letting them know I'm having this open house. If they know anyone looking in the area, forward it to them. If they just want to come say hi, that's great too. Um, definitely texting my sphere contacts who I know are actively looking or have friends or family looking. Um, use your resources, get those relationships out there, like use those relationships that you have. And then putting signs out, not just at the house, but those major intersections, make it impossible to miss. And this is key. You have to market it. Now, another one is if you really want, you could invite the neighbors, get some door hangers, or just like print out some flyers, make sure there's no non-solicitation stuff going on. Um, but you can always invite the neighbors as well if you're brave and like to do that. I personally, it's not my vibe, but I think that it works in some communities. Um, I know in Washington, DC it does not. In New Hampshire, it might work a little bit better. But again, it just depends on your neighborhood and like kind of the vibe. So those are my tips. You have your MLS listing, five to seven days out, social media, local groups, list, serves, use those to your advantage, email to your database, texting your key contacts, make sure you have really great signage, and then invite the neighbors. If nobody knows about your open house, nobody's coming. So you have to promote it. Tip number three is run it like a professional, not a hostage situation. So people are walking through the door. Now what do you do? And this is where most Asians completely blow it. They either hover over somebody like a used car salesman, like making people real uncomfortable, or they sit in a corner on their phone, just like ignoring everybody who walks in and kind of just like is scared of them, or just like ignoring them. Um, and I I have heard that from like buyers, honestly, people who attend open houses. They're like, that agent was horrible. They just sat there on their phone the whole time. And we all know, I think instinctively, that none of those strategies work. So I know when I was at a model home, I would walk up to someone confidently and greet them warmly, not aggressively, just really friendly, like, hey, welcome. I'm Lindsay. What's your name? And then get their name. Feel free to look around. I'll be here if you have any questions. Um, if you wouldn't mind, could you sign in for me here, please? And then that's it. You've acknowledged them, introduced yourself, given them permission to explore. Like, you just let them walk around. Do not follow them, do not narrate the house house hunter style, like just let them look. And when they come back to the main area, that's when you engage with them. And that's where the magic happens. You can ask questions, not like, are you pre-approved? That's way too aggressive, but it could be your casual question. Now, I know I have my favorite question, which is so where do you live now? And that usually gives me all the information I need to know. But it could be like, what did you think of the home? Are you looking in this area? Is this your first time seeing homes, or have you been out before? And then you just listen. And it naturally leads to a conversation because this is not confrontational. The goal is to build a relationship with people and really prove to this person that you're friendly, you care about them, and that you're knowledgeable about the area. And so that's what you're trying to do in this conversation is just build that relationship. And their answers, listen, because they're going to give you information about what they're looking for and how you can help them. And you can then figure out what that natural next step is. Um, so it is really easy. That's what you're trying to do here with this conversation is build a relationship and then look for ways to deliver value. What is a natural next step that would position you as someone who's helpful and also someone that they would want to work with? So engage, do not sell, ask questions, listen, qualify without judgment, and then deliver value. Now, number four, we kind of already touched on it, but you have to collect contact information without being weird about it. And I think this is where a lot of agents get weird about asking for contact information. They either don't ask at all, which is I think totally ridiculous, and the buyer walks out, they never hear from them again, or they shove the clipboard in their face the second they walk in, they're like, sign in, and then the buyer feels ambushed. And neither of those work. I chatted about in the previous step, what I do is it's like a friendly greeting. I let them know, like welcome them, and then I just casually ask them to sign in. I will tell you 95% of the time, most people know the drill and they are going to sign in. If you know that it's going to be a busy open house, do not let the sign-in become a bottleneck. I will have four clipboards with signed in sheets, and my special sign-in sheet actually has items of value, and you get that if you get the open course quick plug for the open method. Um, happyagent.co slash the open method. Um, you'll get my template, but you want to have items of value. So, like they're like, oh, this is actually really helpful. So I would say 5% of people maybe don't sign in, but I think that we just think people don't want to. And honestly, I really haven't had an issue because and then if someone does say something, I'm like, look, if you had people walking through your home, would you not want a record of who's been through? And most people are really understand. All right, we've got their contact information. Now, following up immediately, this is where agents either win or lose. So open house is over, you met 12 people, you got contact information for 11 of them, and four of them seemed really serious, you had really good conversations. So now what? This is where 90% of agents drop the ball. They wait. They think, oh, I'll reach out in a few days, or they add them to their CRM and set a reminder for next week. You need to follow up within 24 hours. And this is so crucial because here's what happened: the buyer you met on Sunday, they went to more open houses, and whoever follows up first and built that relationship is probably going to be the person that they go to for real estate assistance. So whether that's Sunday night or Monday morning, or depending on when you held that open, I am going to send a personalized text and email to everyone that I met, which is basically it was great meeting you at the open house yesterday. Based on what you mentioned, I think you would love this property, this other property. Um, if you're curious about seeing it, let me know. Or hey, it was great chatting with you. Would you like to grab coffee? Um, I'd love to get to know what you're looking for. Like whatever the logical next step is, and that's what I'm big on, is like it needs to fit their situation. So whether they needed to get pre-approved, or maybe they were still shopping about neighborhoods, maybe they weren't looking to move for a year. Whatever you feel like the next logical step is, that's what you are going to help them with. It is personal, it is specific, and you reference the conversation that you had. That is another reason why I love paper sign-ins for an individual person. So like one sheet for each person, it's because I like to write notes on the back. I put like, they have a dog named Spike, they had they have two children, they live in Bloomingdale right now. So I then can follow up with them. And I have had open house of like 50 people through, and I have specific notes on the back that I can reference when I'm following up with those people. So that is really, really important, is make sure that you're following up immediately, but then also use that information that you collected along the way because the fortune is in the follow-up. Do not let these relationships go cold because they are so important. I'm hoping by now I do not have to convince you about the real return on investment on an open house is, but let's talk about the math. Let's say you hold an open house on a Sunday afternoon, you spend three hours there, maybe you spend$30 or$50 on like snacks and materials, and that's your investment. Three hours,$30 or$50. Let's say you meet 10 people. Out of those 10, you get contact info for seven. Out of those seven, you convert two into active buyer clients. And I would hope that you'd close one deal out of that the next 60, 90 days. So that is a, oh my gosh, depending on your market, that could be like$8,000 to$20,000 commission from one open house. Three hours,$30 to$50,$10 to$20,000. Now, I know not every open house is gonna generate deals, and that's okay. Some are gonna generate zilla zero, some will generate five potential clients. But over time, if you're doing it consistently with a method, which is the most important thing, you will build a pipeline of buyers that costs you almost nothing. Compare that to Zillow leads, which is insanity right now. What I mean, like last time I looked, it was like$750 a lead or something, or you're doing the referral fee of 40%, which is bananas. Um, or Facebook ads, which is like$500 to$1,000 a month, which is insane, or paid referrals, which is 25%, 35%, whatever you're charging. And open houses are free, 99. And if they are free, they are for me. So if you work them right, I think they convert better than anything else. They are one of the highest return on investment lead gen strategies in real estate. And if you are not doing them, girl, you you gotta start because they are amazing. So I know a lot of you probably stopped doing them years ago because they quote unquote didn't work, or maybe they didn't fit your lifestyle, which I totally understand. But here's the thing: the markets shifted. I think buyers are overwhelmed by online listings. They're tired of like the constant scroll on Zillow. They want to see homes in person, they want to talk to a real person who can answer their questions. And right now, a lot of agents just aren't prioritizing open houses. And that means that there's less competition out there for those eyeballs or those relationships. So if you start doing them and you do them well, I think you will start to stand out and you will start becoming known and seen in your market as an agent who is active, which is another really big benefit. It's like you're just out there meeting people, which is great. Also, lead gen costs are going up, like the portals are getting greedy, like everything is going up, and everyone's fighting for the same eyeballs on Instagram. I really still think that open houses are one of the last free face-to-face, key face-to-face lead generation strategies that we have. So if you've given up on them, I think now might be the time to start doing them again or prioritizing them and making them one of the pillars of your business. But the key is don't wing it. Learn a system, follow the process, and then watch what happens. All right, small plug. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, Lindsay, I'm sold and want to start doing open houses, which I hope you are, but I need more than just this episode. I need the full playbook. That is exactly why I created the open method course. It is a step-by-step training that gives you clear, repeatable systems, the same one I developed over years and years to run open houses that work for your business. And it's built around four things organizing, promoting, engaging, and nurturing. And that's open O-P-E-N clever, right? Organize, promote, engage, nurture. And at the end of the course, you have your system that you can run over and over again. Um, you also get some bonuses, which let me tell you about because they're good. You get the BuzzBuilder blueprint, the open house survival kit checklist, which is exactly what I have in my open house survival kit, six-figure sign-in sheet, which is the sign-in sheet that I was talking about earlier. You get um the chat GPT super prompt, and then a host for you email script, which is the email you can send to agents at your brokerage asking them to hold their listing open. And that works. It's like you have to pitch yourself because that is important. So it's everything you need, it's done for you, it's ready to use. Again, you can grab it at happyagent.co slash. The open method. Before we wrap, I want to leave you with this. Open houses aren't just about generating leads. They are about building relationships. Because when you meet someone face to face in a home having a real conversation about what they're looking for, you're not just another agent that they found online. You are a real person. You are someone that they've met, they've exchanged energy with, someone that they hopefully trust because of the relationship that you built with them at that open house. And in a world where everything is digital, where everyone's hiding behind their screens and algorithms and automated follow-ups, I really feel like this analog human connection matters more than ever. So yes, open houses work. And they work because you show up with intention, because you're present and because you give a shit enough to ask good questions and follow up and actually help people, which is that's what makes you different. And that's what turns an open house into a business building tool. So I hope that this episode convinced you to get out there and start holding some open houses now that it's spring market. It's nice out. People are out and about, they're, you know, taking their walks again. We're not in hibernation anymore. If this convinced you to start doing open houses again, please forward this on to a friend who maybe needs to hear it or someone on your team. And until next time, stay happy.