Open Houses Are Back | Are You Going?

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Well just like that, Open Houses are back. I know a lot of agents are excited about this. Personally I have mixed feelings and am more than slightly curious as to how the market will respond. Here’s what I’m talking about.

For a little over a year now pretty much all showings have been by appointment only - even for some vacant properties. Yes, there were agents trying to pull off the “walk up appointments” to circumvent the restriction, as silly as we all knew that was.

Here’s what I liked about the appointment only world (other than not having to put out “Open House” signs.

We more or less knew that the Buyers coming were fairly serious. Why is that? Well for one thing to go to the trouble of signing PEAD forms, submitting pre-approval letters in some instances and then actually showing up with an agent showed some degree of engagement and seriousness, at least compared to a lot of the lookey loos and neighbors I’ve met at OH over the years (many of whom did become clients).

What I have also liked about the showing protocols over the last year, and a lot of this was driven by the fact that I attended every showing, is that I got a sense of who each Buyer and agent was. There was more than one instance where that helped my Seller clients make the right decision as to which offer, of the many multiple offers, to accept.

Simply put, with public Open Houses we have less insight to potential Buyer’s motivation and intent.

I also think it was a good thing that Buyers got in the habit of viewing properties with their agents (as opposed to just looking on their own). In fact, I think the agent participation in some way helped accelerate the price appreciation, but not as much as the low inventory.

So here’s how the various stakeholders might be affected by this change.

SELLERS

Sellers will have to decide how comfortable they will be with public Open Houses with a horde of strangers coming and going. After the past year of no more than 3 people (supposedly) being in a house at one time, now there will be more, a lot more. Here’s some of the guidelines from C.A.R. for the rules we’re supposed to be following:

“Multiple Groups Now Allowed on Property: For both open houses and showings, you may now have more than one individual or connected group of persons on the property. The number of groups or individuals should allow for social distancing between each group. The total number of persons allowed also depends on tier level. The simplest way to approach this is to:

1. Have social distancing between households and

2. Adjust and limit the number of persons in the property at any given time to achieve social

   distancing.”

Additionally, at least for now, masks are supposed to be worn inside.

So basically this puts Realtors in the unenviable position of having to enforce rules that they may not be able to - particularly with strangers. At least when people were coming with their agents, safety protocols were easier to follow because it was more of a controlled environment.

I can also share with you that, at least at the time of this writing, not every Homeowner / Seller is really interested in having strangers - masked or otherwise, tip toeing through their bedrooms and backyard.

Question.

Will Sellers who don’t want to have their agents hold Open Houses be at a disadvantage to those who do?

BUYERS

I’m expecting this change will be well received by both serious Buyers as well as those playing with the market. Pre-pandemic, people loved going to OHs. Great free entertainment.

This change may have the unintended consequence of making an already highly competitive market even more so. Here’s how.

Because scheduling has been somewhat cumbersome and awkward over the last year, now having the freedom to just show up may increase the number of listing Buyers look at and lead to more offers being made.

What’s wrong with more offers?

Nothing if you are a Seller, but for Buyers this may lead to more Seller friendly terms.

Oh, and expect to have to sign in now with no ifs, ands or buts. OH sign in sheets are taking the place of the PEAD.

AGENTS

There are a lot of agents who are very excited about seeing OHs back. That’s because they use Open Houses as a lead source. In other words, the Agent working the Open House may be more focused on “picking up” Buyer clients than getting that house sold. Truthfully, there are Agents who rely on Open Houses as their sole or primary lead source.

And quite often the agent working at the Open House is not the listing agent. It might be someone on their team or in their Brokerage.

There are new C.A.R. sanctioned sign in sheets which also mention some of the Covid safety protocols the the PEAD forms also did.

So expect to see all those “directional” OH signs out on corners and other inconvenient places coming to your neighborhood soon.

BEACH CITIES OPEN HOUSES

Since you are here, might as well take a look at what is open this weekend. These results will update in real time whenever you return to this page. Expect to see the most listings Thursday - Saturday and fewer other days of the week.