Why I Call My Front Desk at 2:45 p.m Sunday

Gauging Open House Traffic

I don't know about other Realtors, but whenever I host a Sunday open house (I've been doing Sat./Sun. double-headers lately), I like to call my front desk to find out how busy it's been.

So, I try to check in around 2:45 p.m., before my front desk closes at 3 p.m.

Here's how I'd characterize the possibilities, from most to least busy:

"Jumping"

"Busy"

"Steady"

"Slow"

"Dead"

For the record, yesterday's activity was somewhere between "Slow" and "Dead" -- about par for a hot, late Summer day.

Which is still important to know, because it's one more piece of information about how the market perceives your client's property.

Establishing a Baseline

Obviously, the best combination is to have non-stop traffic on an otherwise slow day.

And any one open house hardly makes for a statistically valid sample. (First open's typically draw disproportionate, "neighbor-heavy" crowds; ditto for an open house after a long interval without.)

However, if your open houses are consistently moribund when it's busy elsewhere, it's a (loud) signal that something needs addressing.

If the home has been well-staged, photographed, networked, and marketed . . . that "something" is often price.

P.S.: And no, that's not the City Lakes' front desk pictured above -- it's a stock photo I found online.