Another peaceful afternoon

I held a house open this weekend, which meant that I got to spend another peaceful afternoon watching television, uninterrupted by the need for human discourse. Open houses have been terrible lately, just another sign of the times in the real estate market. The last 4-5 open houses that I have held probably drew a total of 6 people, with several having no one.

Open houses have always been a mixed bag for Realtors. Many hold them in hopes of finding buyers that they can work with and that does work most of the time. Some hold them because the home owners insist that they do so. While I will admit that I have sold houses to people who came through on open houses, it is getting pretty rare. Most buyers are too busy to spend the day wandering around looking for open houses. About 1/2 of the people who've come through my recent open houses told me that they had actually found the house and the open house notice on-line first or they wouldn't be there. So, even open houses are benefiting from the movement to the Internet for information about everything. I normally advertise my open house on at least 5-6 sites on the Web.

I'm not sure that I'll do too many more open houses until the fall. On nice summer Sunday afternoons people seem to have better things to do than be inside, looking at houses.