How Open Houses Achieve Lower Prices

Too many people in your home at once can make your property look smaller and therefore attract a lower price. MADDISONS conduct inspections with buyers personally – one family at a time. This gives us the time to point out the best features and benefits of your property that will suit that particular buyer. More importantly, it gives the buyer a chance to really get a feel for your home and ask any questions they may have. If buyers have any concerns, we can usually address them as they happen.

Open Houses always attract the wrong people – sticky beaks and negative people who don’t have any intention of buying your home. These sticky beaks may turn people off or influence a lower price from genuine buyers. MADDISONS will only have genuine qualified buyers viewing your property.

Read on....

Be Careful of Open Houses

THE DANGER OF OPEN INSPECTIONS - an extract from Neil Jenmans' book “Don’t Sign Anything”

In January 2001, Seattle real estate agent Michael Emert was murdered in a home he had been showing to buyers. In a 12-year period in the United States, 70 real estate agents were murdered in similar circumstances. Aware that almost identical conditions exist in Australia, one real estate group issued safety guidelines for agents. But no safety guidelines were issued for consumers, especially home sellers. If sellers knew the dangers, they might not allow their homes to be open for inspection. And that would not be good for agents.

Open inspections are an open invitation to anyone. The Australian columnist Danny Katz wrote, ‘It's incredible; you can just walk in off the street and spend up to an hour in the home of a complete stranger.' Katz points out that agents don't care who comes into a home. ‘A guy could show up in a blood-spattered smock with a swastika tattooed on his forehead and the real estate agent would say, "Come in, Mr Manson, have a look around ..."

Read on....

Open House, Open Slather

by Neil Ryder

The auction system spins on certain key elements: the advertising campaign, the bait pricing, the conditioning of the sellers – and the Open House concept. Open House inspections are another example of a system that harms sellers but benefits agents. Agents adore the Open House concept because:

It provides a pool of potential sellers of other properties.
It provides a pool of potential buyers for other properties.
It allows agents to under-quote to buyers and then report negative feedback to the sellers.
It minimises their time input - they don't have to organise private inspections or qualify potential buyers.

Open House is open slather. Anyone can roll up and wander through someone's house: curious neighbours, research-minded investors, bored tourists, tyre-kickers and career criminals. Sellers don't understand, because the agents don't tell them, that hundreds of visitors filing through an Open House has little to do with finding a buyer.

Open House inspections are a godsend for thieves. It's easy to wander through a palatial home and pocket small valuables. Or, more commonly, thieves can ‘case the joint' for a future burglary. They can check out entry points and items of value. Incredibly, many agents give out floor plans and explain the security system.

There are many recorded instances of burglaries following Open Houses. They include the celebrated case of broadcaster Derryn Hinch who was relieved of $50,000 worth of antique furniture by thieves who had earlier visited an Open House at his home in Victoria.

Agents claim there's no security risk because they take care of things. But they don't. I've tested this out many times. In Sydney I visited nine Open Houses in the inner eastern suburbs one Saturday. I walked in carrying a bag big enough to hide a VCR. None of the agents took my name or contact details.

Read on....