As the market changes and your listing is still for sale 24 hours after they hit the MLS, it’s time to resurrect some of the old-school methods to market it.

One of the best is the broker’s open. Done right, you’ll get the most important eyes on your listing – those of other agents.

Sure, it’s usually a cattle call, with agents spending as little time in each home as possible. But yours will be different.

Yours is one that will slow them down.

It’s all in the planning

It takes careful planning to pull off a successful event, and your broker’s open should be considered “an event.” The higher the price of the home, in fact, the more eventful your broker’s open should be.

Don’t let being low on cash stop you from throwing an awesome broker’s open. Enlist the assistance of your favorite title rep, stager or loan officer.

Determine the menu. Yes, you need to come up with a way to slow these agents down and stopping into the kitchen or dining room for a snack is the ideal way to do it.

We’re sure you’ve seen what’s popular at your local brokers open, but here are a few suggestions we got from agents across the country:

• Platters of sandwiches on various types of bread, cut in quarters, bowls of chips, fruit and/or green salad, bottled water.
• At morning open houses, consider two or three types of quiche (cut in squares or wedges) small breakfast burritos, fruit and/or a green salad and juice and/or coffee and tea.
• An assortment of appetizers on platters. You can purchase downright delicious frozen appetizers at Costco and Sam’s Club, or have a caterer create them.

After coming up with the menu and shopping list (plates, napkins, etc.), make an agent feedback form.

Include all the questions you know your sellers would like answered by other agents in your agent feedback form:

• What do they think of the price?
• Rate the home’s interior condition on a scale of 1 to 10.
• Rate the home’s exterior condition on a scale of 1 to 10.
• How does this home stack up to other homes the agent has viewed in this price range?
• Anything the home seller (or listing agent) has missed that should be remedied?

The chances that agents will fill these out are best if they’re near the food and you ask them to fill them out.

If there’s an incentive, though, the chances are even better. Come up with an interesting prize (even a gift card can be compelling) to raffle off to all those who threw their completed feedback forms into a designated and prominent “drop your entries here” bowl.

This is a great way for your title rep, stager or loan officer to get involved. Have them sponsor the prize.

Finally, ensure you have enough directional signs available for that day and determine where you will place them.

Get the word out

At one time, broker’s opens were listed in the MLS. Even if that’s still true, in a changing market you may need to do more to get the maximum number of agent boots through the door of your listing.

Free ways to get the word out about your broker’s open:

• Announce it at the office sales meeting and, if you attend the MLS meetings, announce it there as well.
• Make up flyers and get to the aforementioned meetings early. Place a flyer on each chair.
• Put flyers in the office mailboxes for each agent.
• If you belong to local real estate groups on social media, post about it. Mention all the cool things they’ll experience if they attend.
• Send an email to the mega-agents in town. They’re the ones that are typically too busy to hang out on social media. Make your email a visual delight, with eye-catching photos and, again, promises of the cool stuff on offer (food! A drawing!) at the broker’s open.

You might also want to create a special invitation that you can snail mail to the top buyers’ agents in town and to agents with whom you’ve built a solid professional working relationship.

Direct mail is far more powerful in the digital age than at any time in its history.

Play nice with other agents

Put your phone away and vow to not pick it up during the duration of the brokers open. Greet everyone individually as they come in and thank them for coming as they leave.

Invariably, agents who are also friends will show up but don’t get so involved conversing with them that you ignore the other guests.

The fortune is in the follow-up

Yes, even with other agents. You never know how one simple phone call or email to thank them for attending will endear you to other agents. You never know how it might prompt their memories just when they picked up that new buyer.

If you choose to do a mass email, don’t forget to congratulate the winner of the drawing.

Finally, ensure that you attend other agents’ broker’s opens. They will be far more likely to reciprocate if they’ve seen you at theirs.

Send Panoramic Luxury postcards from the Luxury Market Series to announce your newest listing, Open House or Sold in style!

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!