Steve Belt

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I don't have much luck with luck based contests, but hey, that doesn't mean I can't win, it would simply be the first time. So maybe like Jay says, closing the window would help me "luck out".

This topic just reminded me of another agent I know at my company. I think he's the overall top producing agent in the luxury market in Arizona, and perhaps of all agents in Arizona as measured by gross sales volume. For some reason, I only recently met him, and found him extremely approachable. I also noticed he sits his $10M listings open on the weekend. That's right $10M listings. I asked him about it in email this week. His reply, "54 years old, 20 years in business and yes, I'm still in them...It's the best way to meet people." I was flabbergasted. I should note that nearly all of his listings are vacant homes that he built, so there isn't an inconvenience to a seller (other than himself) to hold them open.

I market property via an appropriate mechanism for the market. I'm not going to say I won't ever do an open house, nor am I going to say I will alwyas do an open house. During the huge fenzy period we had in Phoenix recently, open house was a very effective way of selling my listings. Open house directly resulted in multiple offers and/or higher priced offers than would have otherwise happened. Open house directly resulted in offers that never would have been made, primarily as a result of the manic pace that the market was in, and how poorly agents were serving their clients. Today's market is dramatically different. Open house is largely ineffective for the typical listing, and I don't do them. However, one market segment they are working well in right now, is marketing short sales. They'd probably work well in marketing a foreclosure (I've seen a few agents do them, but never talked with them about their success), though I don't have any in my inventory, so I don't know. When my office decides to do a short sale open house, we advertise in the local paper, and the phone will ring like mad with buyer's that are looking for a great deal (30 calls that day isn't uncommon). There's pent up demand out there by buyer's looking for a great deal, and a short sale listing appears to be the easiest way of conveying to the public this is a good deal (even if it really isn't). In fact, it has me thinking I should advertise all of my (priced at the bottom of the market) listings as a short sale. Then again, maybe not.