Closing the Doors on Open Houses
The Times has a story about a Boerum Hill family that went against the advice of their broker and settled for an offer because they were sick of holding open houses. More specifically: “Not long ago, buyers were offering the asking price, even before the first open house. But in a slower real estate market,…
The Times has a story about a Boerum Hill family that went against the advice of their broker and settled for an offer because they were sick of holding open houses. More specifically: “Not long ago, buyers were offering the asking price, even before the first open house. But in a slower real estate market, the broker, Antonio del Rosario of Rutenberg Realty, said, more clients may be growing weary of working all week and then preparing for and disappearing from the open houses they must hold every Sunday. He said that even though [the sellers] Mr. Hatch and Ms. Huters received an offer close to their $825,000 asking price, they could have received nearly $900,000 if they had waited until spring, when buyers would not have to trudge through snow and ice to see their home. But Ms. Huters and Mr. Hatch reached their breaking point.” The sellers aren’t remorseful, though, because they say the open houses had become too much of an intrusion on their lives, and the article notes that public records show they probably didn’t lose money on the deal. Have any readers reached a similar breaking point?
Losing Patience With the Open House [NY Times]
Photo by Bomee.
I wouldn’t want to do any open houses.
Are they really necessary? What if you’re selling a house? How many people really, really are in the market for a full house to be honest?
But there would be a lot of curious people tromping through filthing up everything to no, or little end.
We’ve gone to a couple (actually more interested in downsizing than just curious to see places) and was shocked at the crowds a couple of places…maybe they WERE all looking seriously. Who knows. The really expensive apartments probably don’t have quite the hordes coming through.
Am I wrong?
Why can’t serious buyers simply make an appointment through their broker?
seems particularly hard to do with kids. i know a family who tried to sell FSBO for a while but ultimately got a broker in part because they needed more out of the hassle of the open houses…it basically meant finding something for the kids to do each weekend while saturday was cleaning and sunday was showing. not fun during deep winter, but at least there are plenty of indoor things to do without feeling bad about it the same way you would in the summer! you can spend a whole day in Red Hook/Gowanus – morning/lunch is IKEA; afternoon is grocery shopping…
I had a three family and my sister lived in the owner’s duplex with her husband and one year old. She was going to relocate so I tried to sell before her move date. Problem was that any time someone came in to see the place the baby would scream non-stop and their pit/lab would lunge at the prospective buyers because he wanted to be friends. To compound the situation, one of the tenants was a hoarding family. There was only a small path around the whole two bedroom apartment. I ended up moving that tenant along and waiting for my sister to move out.
We also sold our place last year FSBO with a 1 year old at home.
Having to pack up the little one for 2 hours at a time in deep winter and head out was one thing. Dealing with the masses test driving our furniture and sitting on our bed was a whole ‘nother.
We made the choice to sell it on our own, so I really can’t complain about that. I was just not expecting people to take off their coats and get comfortable, ask for refreshments and poke through our sockdroors. Thought there was an open house etiquette, but obviously I was wrong.
Ultimately, all fine as we priced our place to sell quickly and only had to do the open house a few times – but I can empathize with these sellers to some degree.
We also didn’t go nuts with moving all the toys etc out of sight. Our buyers said they liked that. Made the place feel alive.
This is one of those non-issues, fake, pretend problems.
Gee, Muffy, should we take the asking price now or get even more later?
I sold an apartment in winter – timed in full agreement with my experienced broker. Fewer people looking for sure – but far fewer people selling so I think it balanced out as Howard said.
Bought in 2007 paid $749,000… Accepted offer close to their $825,000 asking price.
i had to host an open house in an apartment i was living in a while back… it was only for one day, for like 3 hours. by the end of the three hours i seriously wanted to cry, it was THAT annoying. there were literally HUNDREDS of people in the apartment at one time!!! i swear half of them were scuzzy brokers as well, even tho the advertisement for the apartment said apt for rent by OWNER! it drove my dog insane too, and this was a small apartment, i dont know how people keep track of in an entire house. do you hide all your valubles?
*rob*
<– Agent
If this broker thinks they could have gotten 900K in the spring, then he should buy it himself for the $825K price, and have an assumable contract so he can flip it to the 900K buyer…
There is no basis of fact that the seller would/could get more in the spring… buyers are more concerned with higher interest rates than climbing over snow. Also, more homes are generally on the market in the spring, putting further pressure on the sellers price position.
Howard