Did you hear about the recent outbreak in open house thefts? Two men, one in his early fifties and one in his early twenties, were visiting open houses throughout the area, from Alexandria to Baltimore, pretending to be interested buyers, and while one of the two was asking the agent questions, the younger man was roaming around the house trying to find jewelry. They managed to rob several homes before getting caught. Our association and our MLS system send out notices to all Realtors to be alert, and soon after, Realtors recognized the men’s strange behavior and got them arrested.
There have been stories in the past about open house visitors stealing pills from medicine cabinets, and even isolated jewelry thefts, but I haven’t heard of such an organized effort before. This poses the question of what can one do to avoid such situations?
Certainly securing all valuables is something every seller needs to do. Unfortunately an agent can’t be in every room at the same time. But beyond that, I have to question the purpose of an open house. This is not new; I have always wondered how valuable an open house is, beyond making an agent look good to a seller. I have always held open houses for my listings, simply because sellers expect it, and in one occasion the property sold to someone who attended the open house.
According to statistics, a very small percentage of properties sell due to open houses. I can’t remember the percentage, but I think it was 1% or less. And I am not sure what “selling due to an open house” exactly means. In the case of the listing I had that sold to a person who came to the open house, the person had an agent, and would have seen the property regardless. It just so happened that his agent was busy and he came to the open house alone. Should that count as a “property sold as a result of an open house”? I wouldn’t count it.
I am not against open houses, but in my experience they are not the magic sales tool that many sellers believe it is. Some properties absolutely need an open house, simply because they show much better in person than they do in pictures. Some properties show well in pictures, or are in such a location that an open house won’t add much.
Let’s think it through for a moment; what type of prospect comes to an open house? 1) the curious neighbors, 2) people who are just starting to look at what’s available and don’t have an agent yet, or might not even be ready to buy, but are just curious, 3) prospects that have an agent, 4) prospects that do not have an agent.
In 1 and 2, it is fair to assume that the chances of making a sale are virtually none. In situation 3, prospects that have an agent, will visit the property with their agent anyway. In situation 4, I am always skeptical. Why would a serious buyer look for a house without the help of an agent? If I am looking to buy, I want to see all the houses available to me. Not all houses are open all the time. In my experience, whenever I had someone come to an open house posing as a serious buyer without an agent, they ended up being either bargain hunters or anything but serious.
I am sure some Realtors have different opinions, and we could analyze this further, but I’ll wrap it up here by summing it up in one question:
Does an open house add more value to a listing than the potential danger of having numerous strangers walking in and out of a home?
