Open Houses on Easter Sunday

The Case For -- and Against

In a microcosm, the considerations for doing an open house on Easter Sunday are the same as for deciding whether to list a home during a traditionally slow time of the year (like around the holidays).

Here's how the arguments shape up:

Pros:

--Not much competition from other open houses, so the ones that are open stand out more.
--Quality over quantity: fewer Buyers are out on Easter Sunday, but the ones who are, are disproportionately serious, motivated, etc.
--The same things that make a home welcoming for company ("dressed up," nice smells, seasonal touches) impress Buyers, too.

Cons:

--Fewer open houses on Easter Sunday, which (further) depresses traffic (like car dealerships that cluster in the same area, having lots of nearby open houses helps attract Buyers).
--Intrusion on family time, privacy. Opening one's home to the public -- and doing all the cleaning and prep necessary ahead of that -- isn't necessarily how people want to spend Easter (on the plus side, it's a lot easier to kill a few hours away from home now than in frigid December).

In addition to the foregoing, one other factor that's relevant, at least at the margin: real estate offices are all closed.

That means Realtors won't be able to set up any showings to take their Buyers through, people lost on the way to an open can't call to get directions, etc.

So, which way do the foregoing factors tilt?

For most Sellers (and their Realtors), probably against.

That's especially the case given that there's an ideal day to hold an open house so close to Easter Sunday: one week later, when there's predictably a nice pop of pent-up Spring demand.