They are holding parties, providing car washes, including prize drawings and more. Efforts range from luxury VIP-only events to DIY tours open to all - and they don't just take place on Sundays as agents seek to sell if not this house, another house, or at least pick up clients.
Whether creativity or exclusivity makes a difference is debatable; some agents say clients want to assess a house in peace, while others say the extras make a house inviting and show off the lifestyle it offers.
"When football started, we did a tailgate party. We grilled hot dogs at one of the houses," said Tracey Lane, an associate broker with Keller Williams Flagship in Millersville. "I have seen clowns out on the street, and when the kids go in, they get hot dogs and face-painting."
"We set up a car wash right at the property," said Anthony Corrao, a Coldwell Banker agent in Ellicott City, recalling a warm-weather open house in Columbia.
On a recent Saturday, an all-day art show enlivened the walls of a vacant Hunt Valley house priced at nearly $1 million. In lieu of spaces staged with furniture, still lifes of food hung in the kitchen and woodland scenes framed windows overlooking winter's bare woods.
The listing agent hoped original art would attract a buyer. The dozen regional artists hoped potential buyers would be art lovers.
"The idea was that art would bring in the million-dollar buyer," said the listing agent, Ashley Richardson of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage's Lutherville office. "It's a big, big, empty house with good wall space."
Or, someone there for the art might have a friend considering moving. Darlene Wells of Monkton, a watercolor student of Claudia Brookes, Richardson's mother and the show's planner, did.
"I grabbed a flier to give to somebody else," Wells said.
Conversely, artists stood to create a buzz about their works; several arranged for the sale of prints, paintings and pastels priced from $17 to more than $1,000.
"It's exposure you wouldn't have otherwise," said artist Joyce Lister, whose pastoral scenes brightened the dining room. "Not that they are going to buy your pictures, but they can visualize their pictures there; oh, my sideboard here. It looks more welcoming."
The event, open to the public, and invited agents and people linked to the art community, brought 500 visitors. Many were there for the art or out of curiosity, but several potential home buyers showed.
And it was an anomaly in other ways. Fewer and fewer open houses last three hours, let alone nine, and it was held on a Saturday, not the traditional Sunday.
"Fighting the football games, we have had Saturdays," said agent Rita Cook, of Long & Foster Real Estate in Annapolis. She is among agents trying different days and times for a variety of open houses, including those for luxury properties.
Last summer, James Schneider, broker of Distinguished Properties in Annapolis, invited prominent people, luxury-home brokers and "people who own $3 million yachts" to a sunset soiree at an estate on the Severn River. He was listing it at nearly $13 million.
"I did it on a Tuesday evening," he said. "I didn't want to compete with weekend events."
About 300 people attended the catered, charity affair that began with valet parking and featured roses floating in the in-ground swimming pool.
A gift bag placed in guests' vehicles included a brochure of the estate with a note asking that they share it with anyone who might have an interest in owning the property.
"That was the way we parlayed it into selling the house," he said.
And there was a bonus: A photo spread of the party appeared in Capitol File, a high-end Washington magazine.
Most midweek parties are not as lavish. Twilight open houses, which are growing in popularity, especially for higher-priced homes, have had mixed success. Some are held only for agents, some include a broader group and others are open to the public.
Agents praise them as a way to show off city skylines and waterfront vistas.
Stacey Roig, a Chase Fitzgerald & Co. agent, held a twilight open house at a next-to-penthouse-level city condo last summer, inviting acquaintances who work downtown, agents and others. Five people attended a wine-and-cheese party that cost a couple of hundred dollars.
"There was a lot of leftover food. We ate cheese for a long time," Roig said. "The problem is Baltimore is not New York. ... A lot of people live in the suburbs. Everybody wants to get home."
Nevertheless, she said, in a different location - this was right by roads out of the city - she would try again.
Another approach, called clustered open houses, is also gaining popularity.
Last year, Coldwell Banker agent Kimberly Kepnes, whose niche is historic houses, began holding occasional tours of her Ellicott City listings, featuring several on a Sunday afternoon to entice old-house aficionados.
Each house has information on its past and the quaint Historic District to show its lifestyle potential. Interest has been high, she said.
And agents from several companies have begun to cooperate on traditional Sunday open houses in one neighborhood. Ron Howard, an agent with ReMax Sails in Baltimore, recently did that in a quarter-mile section of Canton with agents from nearby Long & Foster and Coldwell Banker offices, and said they all got more visitors.
One valuable sales tool, the weekday afternoon open house for other real estate agents, is changing as well. A broker's open house, for which a listing agent markets a house to other real estate agents in hopes that they have buyers in the wings, have expanded beyond light nibbles and soft drinks.
Agents know who among their colleagues provides a good meal. Some have featured prize drawings - a plasma TV was a recent prize - and more elaborate parties to lure agents to their showings.
open house tips
Your home should be presented well at an open house. Here are tips from the pros:Clean and sweep the front walk and entry. Adding a new welcome mat and flowers or greenery makes the house inviting.
Turn on all lights, even if it's bright outside. Open all blinds and shades.
Tidy up the yard. Shrubs should be trimmed, grass cut, leaves raked.
Use your nose. Besides appearing tidy and clean, the interior should smell clean.
Put away the dog's bowl; take down the refrigerator art gallery.
Make "lifestyle" information available, such as features of the neighborhood or nearby amenities.
Article by Open House Genie
Copyright 2010
Used, copied or quoted with permission only.