As open houses continue to play an integral role in the home-buying process, real estate professionals are doing themselves—and prospective buyers—a disservice if open houses aren’t part of their plan. However, as any real estate professional can attest, not every open house visitor converts to a sale, and it is difficult to separate out who really has an interest in moving. Also, open house visitors typically have little motivation to leave their correct contact information. This is why, on occasion, “Disney characters” will be found to have registered as guests at an open house.
To better coax open house guests to leave their email address, Top Producer has come up with “BrightOpen,” a system that allows agents to use their local area statistics report, Market Snapshot, as an inducement to sign in. The consumer is then likely to offer their information. The process is quick and simple, as it can be launched from an iPad. The reports then go out automatically, and by seeing how readily these are viewed, the agent can gauge the interest of the prospective customer.
“Agents who don’t use technology to leverage their listings will ultimately get left behind,” says Eric Christiansen. As the head of marketing for the Kate Christiansen Group in Valencia, Calif.,—the No. 1 team at Keller Williams Santa Clarita in 2012—Christiansen has seen firsthand how effective the BrightOpen™ app is when it comes to converting walk-ins into leads. By simply launching the app and signing in with your MLS number, pulling up the open house listing and having visitors fill out the contact form, they are then entered into the Top Producer™ system, simplifying the lead capture process. “People love interacting with technology, and the information that we’ve gotten through BrightOpen™ has been very solid,” adds Christiansen.
While the Kate Christiansen Group turns to open houses because they know they can always count on getting leads, they also understand the importance of giving something back to attendees. In fact, everyone who comes through the open house and signs up via BrightOpen automatically receives Top Producer’s Market Snapshot, the big takeaway, according to Christiansen. “The Market Snapshot™ is a great feature for any prospective buyer, as it provides a local perspective of the housing market and includes information such as recent sales, current actives and neighborhood trends,” says Christiansen. The Market Snapshot program also enables agents to take the temperature of every lead in the system to better determine the best way to follow up.
“When it comes to keeping the lines of communication open with open house prospects, I would rather have 400 amazingly solid, good leads that we can call up and know by name than have 2,000 people we don’t really know that we’re throwing stuff at,” concludes Christiansen. “And the BrightOpen app and Top Producer’s Market Snapshot™ enable us to capture leads, follow up and ultimately turn those leads into clients.”
For more information, visit www.topproducer.com/openhouse.
