Disaster open house turned out successful

[Allen Cones]

First Open House started out a disaster and ended up working in my favor.

Good morning Bigger Pocket family.

I’m a newbie to the Bigger Pockets community; currently I own 4 rental properties that I’ve owned for 5 years. Since joining the Bigger Pocket community, reading the blog posts, podcast etc. I’ve gotten the Real Estate Investment bug again.

A couple weeks ago I was driving to one of my rentals and noticed how much the area had improved. In addition, I noticed 6 teardowns that were in various stages of construction taking place on my rental street.

I decided to put a for sale by owner sign in the front yard to see if any of the builders would approach me about buying the property.

As soon as I put the sign in the yard I received so many phone calls from realtors asking to see the property that I decided to have an open house.

I set my open house date and phoned my tenant to let him know. I then called my tenant 3 days in a row the week of the open house to remind him about the open house and to make sure the house was clean.

This past Friday I had my first open house. I arrived 30 minutes early to do a walk through. Upon entering the home I noticed the house was not really clean; there was a lot of clutter. There were dirty dishes piled up in the kitchen sink. The appliances were dirty and on top of that the house smelled.

Approximately 12 different real estate agents showed up with clients, builders etc. One of the potential buyers was walking across the front yard and stepped in some dog crap. I was so embarrassed by the presentation of the house; I kept apologizing to everyone as they walked into the house.

My gut feeling is that the showing presentation was so bad. It gave people the sense that I wasn’t really trying that hard to sell the property. I didn’t appear desperate, the turnout was great, the location is awesome; property has dual zoning. All these factors trumped the interior condition of the property.

In the end, I saw close to 30 people. I have 3 couples interest in seeing the property again, 1 offer, and some good realtor contact that I may consider using on future deals.

Sorry for the long winded post.