Summer in South Carolina is a prime time for home tours. If you’re a listing agent, you’ll want to take advantage of tourist season by hosting an Open House for each of your clients. It’s always helpful to schedule these events in conjunction with local community events, such as a county fair or food and music festivals. Keep in mind that an Open House is not only a valuable tool for helping to get the word out about a client’s home for sale. It’s also a great way for you (the agent) to generate leads, especially if you provide a quality sign-in sheet.
Remember, however, that if you generate 100 leads but don’t follow up on any of them, they’re useless to you. Avoid this problem by having a plan set ahead of time to reach out to every person who participates on your sign-in sheet. People tend to shy away from being the first one to sign something. You can resolve this issue by asking a few friends to attend your Open House so that they can each fill out the sheet. This way, when other guests arrive, there will already be a list of names, and people might be more inclined to sign it.
Increase participation by offering prizes or a raffle with an Open House sign-in
When one of your primary goals for having a sign-in sheet at an Open House is to generate leads, you must make it fun for attendees so they’ll want to sign. One way to do this is to offer prizes. For example, you can add a note at the top of the sign-in (or nearby) stating that filling out the sheet automatically enters the participant in a raffle.
You can draw names after the event and contact the winners. There might only be one winner or several, depending on whether you have multiple prizes available. The following list includes some great prize suggestions:
- Tickets to an amusement park
- Tickets to a local festival
- Tickets to a sporting event
- A welcome mat (for a new home!)
- Cash prize
- Gift card for home décor shopping
People love to win things, especially when it costs them nothing but their signature and answering a few questions to enter the raffle. Speaking of questions, don’t forget to include a few on your sign-in sheet.
Questions to ask on an Open House sign-in sheet
If you’re asking people to fill out a sign-in sheet, make it worth your while as an agent by asking questions relevant to generating leads. Here are a few examples:
- Do you think you might buy or sell home within the next three years?
- Do you have questions about this house or buying and selling a home in general?
- Do you currently have a home for sale?
- How did you hear about this Open House today?
The last question on this list is a great way to know if your advertising campaign for the event was effective. Answers such as “I saw a poster at the grocery store” or “A postcard came in my mail” mean you did a great job getting the word out to the community.
Always include contact information on a sign-in sheet
Make sure you have a basket of business cards right next to your Open House sign-in sheet but also include your contact information on the sheet itself. Also, remember to include space for guests to add their email or phone number (You might want to add a note promising not to share the information with other businesses).
Most importantly, don’t let too much time go by before reaching out to every person who signs the sheet. A well-designed sign-in sheet can help generate leads and some of those leads might become clients! If you haven’t obtained your real estate license yet, bookmark this page so you can return to this post when you’re ready to host your first Open House!