Why Should I Have My Home in the House Hop Tour?
We are going to promote The House Hop Tour for our seller clients in print advertising, on the Internet, on brochures, business cards and invitations, on Craigslist, on our 24 hour hotline and our House Hop signs. This brings more buyer eyes to your home. In this tough market we need to think out-of-the box to get buyer interest.
Why Not Have a Normal Open House?
Having a house sold through an open house is like winning a contest. It rarely happens. We are very honest with our clients and I'm going to share a secret. Agents hold open houses to find unrepresented buyers. We know there is a very low probability the house will sell while we sit there for 2-4 hours, so we're hoping to find a buyer or two.
You most likely want to hire a successful agent to market your home. Our team lists a lot of homes and has years of experience. It is not feasible for us to sit an open house every weekend for each one of our listings. Yet we understand that an open house is tangible marketing that a seller can see. That's why we devised The House Hop.
It benefits sellers as they don't have to disappear for hours at a time. Go take a walk, run to the store; take as much or as little time away from your home as you want. We'll be out in about 20 minutes.
How Does it Work?
We will set up a route of homes on The House Hop Tour and will most likely only include homes in Homer Glen, Lemont and Orland Park. Here's the rest:
- We will start The House Hop Tours in March and continue with them through October.
- We will start out with each house on the tour once a month, possibly twice.
- We will advertise The House Hop to get buyers to go to the web page and view the current route.
- The Monday prior to the next Sunday's House Hop will have a special sign placed in front designating that this home will be part of The House Hop on Sunday and will specify the time frame that the house will be open.
- Each house on the tour will be open for 20 minute increments.
- Buyers can attend the entire tour or come to particular homes on the tour at their designated times.
- While one of us is at one home, the other will be waiting at the next one.
- At each home buyers will receive a flyer with that day's House Hop schedule and a flyer for each house on the tour.
- Once we leave each home, we will take The House Hop sign with us.
- We will contact you on Monday to let you know the activity at your home.
What if No One Shows Up?
This can happen with a regular open house, no matter what kind of advertising is done and no matter how many hours it is open. In the 28 years I've been in the business, I have tried everything to get buyers into open houses. I have used print advertising, Internet advertising, multiple directional signs, neighbor invitations, serving food and refreshments and more. No matter what was done, it has always been hit or miss.
We aim to create synergy with The House Hop and will work to make it popular enough for local buyers to want to attend. It might take a while to gain traction, but we're going to do everything possible to make it successful. We want to be recognized as The House Hop Team and to have buyers look forward to our next tour.
