The whole point of an open house is to collect leads, so if you’re not getting contact information from the people who stop by, you’ve just wasted a whole lot of time, money and effort. Take a second to think about how you feel when you go to a used car lot and see the salesperson walk out of the building and start headed your way. Your gut might clench a bit, your back tighten, you get a little anxious and panicky that he’s going to be some outgoing creep trying to sell you the most expensive car on the lot just so he can stick a big fat commission check in his pocket.

You remember that feeling? Yeah, well guess what? THAT’S THE FEELING PEOPLE AT YOUR OPEN HOUSE GET WHEN THEY SEE YOU! In today’s world real estate agents are looked at in the same light as used car salesmen, politicians and lawyers. It may not be fair, but it’s life. The important thing is to acknowledge and even talk about what people are really thinking, and then overcome it. Put them at ease and show them you’re just a person like any of them (this is where the tip about dressing casually comes in handy – it puts people more at ease).

Here’s a list of non-confrontational questions you can ask people to get a conversation going:

• What made you stop by here today?
• Where do you live now?
• What do you think about the home?
• When do you think you’ll be looking to move?
• Are you working with anyone in the real estate business? Maybe I know them! (If they’re already contracted with another agent, obviously you can’t do much for them).
• The seller requested I get the contact info of people that stopped by, they may want to send thank you cards or something – if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your first name?

From there you can collect as much of their contact information as possible: name, address, phone number, email address, etc. Don’t just set out a guestbook or a sheet of paper that invites people to fill out their information, because they won’t. Well, most of them won’t. It’s better just to ask them for their information in a conversational tone. If you don’t want to use your sellers as an excuse, use your broker! Ask their name and tell them your broker requires you to send a thank you gift to everyone that attends your open house or you won’t get credit! Then politely ask for their address and even their email, promising you’ll never give the info out and letting them know you get coupons from local businesses that you’d love to be able to send them.

Explain that you can also email them any updates on properties for them and news on how the market in their area is doing. Lastly, ask for the phone number and slip it in casually toward the end of the conversation. Something as simple as “Ok, thanks for your time, what number can I reach you?” will get you their phone number about 80% of the time. The other 20% – well, if you’ve got their name, address and email to go from, you don’t really even need the phone number yet!

You’ll get much more contact information from people by approaching them conversationally rather than out and out asking for contact information or having a sign in sheet for them to leave their own. One of our co-founders, Rory Wilfong was so good at this that he would actually be able to schedule appointments with visitors for AFTER the open house ended! Not every agent can do that, but it’s a worthy goal to have in mind for an open house! Once you’ve collected all the leads you can and the visitors have stopped trickling in, it’s time to close up shop and get home to add everyone to your pipeline.