Having an open house for many years was one of the best way to generate interest and exposure for your property.  We would place an ad in the Sunday edition of the Kalamzoo Gazette, put up an Open House sign, maybe serve some refreshments and we'd be good to go.  It would not be unusual to have a dozen couples come through your home on a Sunday afternoon open house.  A dozen couples, plus a few of the neighbors.

While open houses sometimes can still generate some activity, times have changed.  A recent survey by the National Association of Realtors indicates that 86% of today's homebuyers begin their home search online.  Which makes sense, don't you think?  After all, which would you prefer to do.....look at as many home listings as you want in the comfort of your home OR look at the newspaper on Sunday morning and then pick out 2 or 3 open houses to go see? 

What Kalamazoo home buyers are doing is use the Web to do their research and then contact their agent to get inside the homes they've selected.

Now that doesn't mean open houses NEVER work well to promote Kalamazoo real estate.  But they have gone from the primary tool in the box to just another tool in the box to effectively market homes for sale Kalamazoo.

When I plan a Kalamazoo open house for a Sunday afternoon I want to maximize the effectiveness of the open house, so I have a check list that looks like this:

• 
  Publicize the open house at least a week in advance on the major web sites.
• Publish the open house in the Sunday Kalamazoo Gazette.
    Place directional signs at strategic locations three to four blocks away to guide people to my open house.
• Place signs in the yard several days in advance indicating the day and times of the open house.
• Send out 200 post cards to the neighborhood promoting the open house.  Many times the neighbors will know someone interersted in living in their neighborhood.
  Leave space in front of the home for visitors to park.
   Place flyers or brochures describing the home in the entry area.
• Have a place for visitors to remove their shoes or provide shoe covers.
• On hot days in the summer, have small bottles of water on ice to give away.
• Make sure my sellers have followed my instructions about putting away valuables.  Especially small ones that fit into pockets or purses.
   Let visitors tour your home with as much privacy as possible.
• Request visitors complete a registration with their email address in order to follow up with interested parties.

Open houses certainly aren't what they used to be but you still need to get inside the home before you want to buy it.  So I still have open houses and once in a while........they work well.

There is a lot of free information available to you about buying, selling or investing in Kalamazoo MI real estate. For complete information about the Kalamazoo MI real estate market including current homes for sale, property values and more please visit the most complete website dedicated to everything Kalamazoo real estate.  See for yourself at http://www.HomesofSWMichigan.com

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