Open houses are generally synonymous with selling a home. However, this blog post raises the question “are open houses necessary and does the value of the open house out weight the risk?”. It is becoming more and more common (especially in today’s economy) where open houses are used for thieves to recon a property so that they can come back and burglarize the property at a later date. Both jewelry and medications have been stolen during open houses and Real Estate Agents and Home Owners have been assaulted during open houses. So…those are the risks…now what is the value?

Based on the 2010 NAR (National Association of Realtor) Profile of Buyers and Sellers only 4% of all buyers visited an open house as their first step in the home buying process…in contrast 36% looked online for properties and 19% contacted a real estate agent. Since the dawn of the internet, open houses have become unnecessary and I don’t include them as part of my marketing strategy. Furthermore, it surprises me the number of Seller’s that allow their Real Estate Agent to “open” their homes to the world. Why? Because there is no need to take the risk. The internet has replaced the purpose for the open house. At one time, open houses were necessary because it was the only way for Buyer’s to initially preview properties. This was back when there was no online MLS (it was a book) and you had to take film into a store to get developed and it generally took a week! That is no longer reality! The advancement of technology has allowed potential Buyer’s to virtually walk through a property and decide if they want to see the property in person….which is a huge benefit because you have now either eliminated a Buyer that wouldn’t have liked the property anyway or you have a more serious Buyer because they liked what they viewed online and now want to see it in person.

So…back to the initial question…”Does the value of an open house out weigh the risk?”…I say no.