5 Things I've Learned From Open Houses

Excuse the long absence I’ve been suffering from a little writer’s block!

I’ve been keeping myself super busy hosting open houses for the past month!  I love the research that goes into preparing for each one; what else is available in the neighbourhood (and previewing the competition whenever possible) what’s sold, comparable properties available in different neighbourhoods etc.

So far I’ve been in North Bowmanville, South Bowmanville, North Whitby & North Oshawa and it’s truly fascinating  learning all the nitty gritty details of each area!  The goal of course is to be able to answer questions from visitors and to be knowledgeable about the marketplace! So lesson #1 is know everything, lol!

This leads me to the 2^nd thing I’ve learned which is to be a little more safety conscious!  An example would be the Open House I hosted yesterday!  In my quest to be as much of a know-it-all as possible I set out to investigate the actual age of the furnace.  The listing had it as “newer” and “upgraded” and I wanted to know what that actually meant as it’s something that I’m always asked!

So I’m down in the basement, can’t find the light in the furnace room although I can see the overhead fixtures ~sigh~…I’ve got my trusty flashlight and I’m sort of crawling around in my cute little Open House outfit and in walks a gentleman (into the furnace room!!) scaring me to death and potentially putting myself and the home at risk! I was cornered in a dark secluded space with no secondary exit, so bad on so many levels!   So lesson #2 is do not put the sign out front and unlock the door until I am prepared to greet visitors at the door!  Luckily in this case the gentleman was part of a couple and they turned out to be lovely people but it could just as easily have turned into a very bad situation!

Lesson #3 is really just an observation…other drivers get REALLY mad if you try to pull over to put a directional sign at the corner of a busy intersection!!!

Lesson #4 is proofread your promotional material and then proofread it AGAIN before you send it to the printer’s!  I did up beautiful feature sheets for yesterday’s property but left off the asking price….then had to figure out how to get it on there using my own printer without reprinting everything entirely!

Another example is a short informational video I did on YouTube for the 1^st time to promote an Open House; everything turned out great except the map I attached was for Paris, France!  How that happened is beyond me, lol, but there was no way to edit the video and by the time I figured out the error there was no time to make a new video!

Here’s a link for your viewing pleasure:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF7dUG40dZw

Lesson #5 is I LOVE OPEN HOUSES!!! I love talking to people, I love being prepared with the right information and you can bet that lessons 2 & 4 will be heeded for next time!

I love my job and I can’t wait for next weekend!

 

Got an Open House story? Please share it!

Until Next Time…

Kelly