[00:00:00] Speaker A: You are listening to thereeastatepodcast ca, brought to you by JNC Toronto Real Estate Group.
Well, hello, everybody, and welcome back to thererealestatepodcast ca, your source for everything real estate related, from the rookie real estate agent, to the seasoned home buyer and seller, to the renter, to the renovator, the layman, to the landlord, the curious and the just downright confused. We got you covered when it comes to real estate.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: I like this new little part that you made. It's really cute. Thanks.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: I'm going to do a new one. I just wrote it this morning.
[00:00:40] Speaker C: It's funny.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: As you were doing it, I'm like, has you been saying this every single time? And I'm listening to you so little that I haven't noticed.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Got to mix it up, right? Definitely got to mix it up. If you don't us yet. We're John, Cheryl and Nicole of the J C. Toronto real estate group. And boy, are we happy to be here. So, Cheryl. Yeah, exactly how was your Christmas, Cheryl?
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Well, the weather outside, you went caroling or karaoke.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Actually, I should know this. I'm not asking for myself. I spent every little moment of Christmas with Cheryl. It was lovely, wasn't it? It was wonderful.
[00:01:12] Speaker C: We didn't do anything.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: I was thinking of you, John. My niece got a karaoke microphone where when you sing into it, just the microphone itself. Forget karaoke, just for talking. Yeah. You can remix. You could do remix and then it's so loud, remind so into it.
[00:01:26] Speaker C: To show you that, Rebecca sent us a video of Marcella. Marcella got one too.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: And as soon as I saw that, I was like, what is this?
[00:01:33] Speaker C: I want it.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: I must have it. So we're going to do karaoke here in the shed for one day. Yeah. Nicole, how was your Christmas?
[00:01:41] Speaker B: It was fabulous. Thank you for asking.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: Sure. How were your holidays?
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Holidays were amazing.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Okay, good. Is that all you're going to share?
[00:01:48] Speaker C: Having a toddler is both wonderful and.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Yeah, she's got a little one who is the slowest unwrapper, by the way. Stop making noise there.
[00:01:57] Speaker C: I was unwrapping.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. We can hear it.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: I spent lots of money and got lots of gifts, which I try not to do every year. And Noah's favorite gifts were from the dollar.
Excellent. Of course, like the two things from the dollar store, glow sticks. And I can't even remember what the other thing was. Oh, a styrofoam sword and shield.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: You know what? See if you can keep that up. It'll save you lots of money in the. Yeah. Okay, enough about us. Let's get to today's episode's topic. The topic is, what's the deal with open houses? But before we delve too deep, it's Nicole's turn for the disclaimer.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: I've been excited to read this. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities that we represent.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Wow. Thanks, Nicole. Awesome, as usual. Really great.
All right, so, Cheryl, not to put you on the spot, but what's the deal with open houses?
[00:02:52] Speaker C: What do you mean, what's the deal with open houses? Would you like me to explain what open houses are, why we do them, how they work, what I like about them?
[00:02:59] Speaker A: You pretty much just covered everything. That's it for the podcast.
[00:03:04] Speaker C: I have not read the paper yet, so I like to go off the cuff.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: No worries. Well, I'm going to ask you a few of those questions that you asked me, and that's what we're really going to do. We're going to answer a few questions that we often get about open houses. I'm actually really excited about this topic because we couldn't do open houses for a few years with COVID And I think we will all agree that we all kind of like to do open houses. Not every agent does love them.
[00:03:28] Speaker C: We all like talking to people.
And also, it is our job to sell our clients home. And it's such a great opportunity when people come in and you can share all the great things about your client's home to sell it.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And so this could be for new agents. This could be for chronic open housers. This could be for people that if you want to get a look behind the proverbial velvet curtain.
Velvet rope.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: No, the curtain.
[00:03:54] Speaker C: Behind the curtain. But it's not a velvet curtain.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: It's the velvet rope.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Well, it could be a velvet curtain.
[00:03:58] Speaker C: It's behind the curtain.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: The curtain could be any material that's.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: A non, just not here, because then.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: No, that wouldn't make any non.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: All right, so we're going to pull back the curtain, and if you're looking for the vip, unclip the rope on the staunch.
And we're going to also give you a little bit of history on the open house. Sound good?
[00:04:18] Speaker C: Sounds.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: I love when you do the history.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. I'm a history buff, so shut up, Cheryl.
All right, history. Ladies, I don't know if you know this, but the open house has been around since the dawn of man.
[00:04:31] Speaker C: The house was open.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: No, I meant before the Internet.
And it used to be the first great look at a property. We've sat down with some agents who've been. The Mike Clarks out there have been agents for very long, 30, 40 years. And it was way before the Internet. And so they used to have something called the book, which would arrive every week. Well, once a week.
[00:04:54] Speaker C: Do we know this for sure?
[00:04:55] Speaker A: Yes, because he spoke to someone, or I did, anyway, at our brokerage recently, and he was telling me about how he couldn't really grasp tech back in the day. People would get excited to get the weekly book.
[00:05:05] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: A lot of the book, a lot.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Of times there would just be Polaroids, believe it or not. And so sometimes you might be able to borrow the Polaroids and take them to see with your client, looking at a few different properties. But then that would kind of wet their appetite to actually want to go and maybe see the property in person.
[00:05:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: And not just for people and clients, but agents would go to these open houses to kind of preview. It's a great way to. If you hold an open house, you can get a lot of people in at the same time.
[00:05:31] Speaker C: The agent open house.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: That's correct.
[00:05:32] Speaker C: Are we going to talk about that?
[00:05:33] Speaker A: We are. We are going to talk about agent open house. We're going to talk about every kind of open house you can imagine.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: There's not that many.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: Buckle up. There's three or four, actually.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:42] Speaker C: Is there?
[00:05:42] Speaker A: Well, there's variations. Anyway, we'll get to it. Right. So big question that we do get from both buyers and our sellers alike is does it help to sell a property?
[00:05:54] Speaker C: Open houses?
[00:05:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:56] Speaker C: Do you want me to answer that? Sure, I believe that it does. And I think you were saying it only takes one buyer that. I always say that it only takes one person to fall in love with your house to purchase a home. And what if that person comes in through the open house?
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:06:11] Speaker C: Not supposed to be scary, by the way.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: No. We've actually found buyers the Halloween open house. Yeah. I think there's been a few of our recent listings where the person who eventually bought came through our open house. Myrtle, for example. She came through a couple times.
[00:06:26] Speaker C: Well, and people have this idea that someone coming through the open house are nosy neighbors or looky lose or somebody who isn't represented. But sometimes a realtor may not be available in the time frame that the house might sell or they want to come back for a second or third look. And you, as the listing agent, can share more information that might help them fall even more in love with the property.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: And some people really like open houses. We get a lot of buyers from open houses. And what I've noticed is that even once they start working with a realtor, they like the idea of the open house. They like the time, they like the process of it, them themselves going. So many of these buyers that we are then working with full time that we've met at an open house still love to open house consistently over the weekend. And then when they see something they like, we go back with them for a second look.
[00:07:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So here's another question. What kind of people do come through an open house?
[00:07:19] Speaker C: I think that's a big long list.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: It is. And I've got a list here. Let's see if.
[00:07:24] Speaker C: Okay, realtors, all of us go through open houses when we're just curious.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: Absolutely. Houses that in our own neighborhood, in areas that we might farm, or we have other clients looking. Just, heck, if we're walking around on a weekend, we're like, oh, let's go check it out. It's good to know as a realtor what inventory is out there.
[00:07:39] Speaker C: And also you get to meet the listing agents or realtors that might work in your area, which always helps with any kind of sale.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Right? Yes.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Neighbors.
[00:07:48] Speaker C: Nosy neighbors. Yes.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: That's like the next one even we know from doing open houses and being neighbors.
[00:07:55] Speaker C: Neighbors, definitely. Because people are curious how their neighbors live. Right. And also, what does a house look like? Staged. And would I use this realtor in the future?
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And if I can just add buyers, buyers and more buyers and the different kinds of buyers that you have out there, the people that are actively looking maybe don't want to bug their realtor.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: That's kind of a good one as well. If they're looking all over and across the city and if they don't know the neighborhoods yet, it's like, hey, why don't you go out and check this open house, and while you're there, check out the neighborhood as well. Yes, for sure. And we have more motivated buyers that have gone and checked out tons of places. And then actually, once they've seen a property at an open house that they think they're really interested in, then they'll let us know and then we'll go through a second time with them so we can give them an idea of what our take on the property is.
[00:08:45] Speaker C: I believe Nicole already said that.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Did she?
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Buyers'families, buyers'families.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: Parents of buyers.
[00:08:51] Speaker C: Oh, yes.
[00:08:52] Speaker B: Right. They don't want inconvenience or their schedules are very difficult.
[00:08:55] Speaker C: I thought, though, when you said buyers, buyers, buyers. If you can add buyers, is the given, you would think that open houses are for buyers. I think that the misconception might be that open houses are not only for buyers. There are so many other levels of people that enjoy open houses and use that. Buyers families being one example.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Oh, that's true. We've had open houses, or I've had open houses where people come in and we're always talking to people and they're just, you know, like to get design tips from open houses. Right. Even. Because often they're staged in Toronto.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: Lucky lose. There's chronic open housers, people that just love to do it.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Yes, I've heard actually stories because I have a young child of moms that are like, when I don't know what to do with my kid on the weekend, between two and four open houses, sometimes there's candy. They're a little bit like quieter because they're in a strange space. Take the kids to open houses. That's hilarious. Yes. I'm like, please don't do that.
[00:09:47] Speaker C: I think that I'm a chronic open houser.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: You're an adult and you're also a realtor.
[00:09:52] Speaker C: Okay, we're going to give it a.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: Pass if it makes sense for you. I'm thinking.
[00:09:59] Speaker C: I think I fall into that category.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: Another thing I want to touch on is there are some sellers that don't want to do it. We've met one or two that they're adamant that they do not do an open house. And at the end of the day, we'll take our clients instruction, but we also have to give them advice. And usually it's our advice to do an open house if you can.
[00:10:18] Speaker C: Why do you think some sellers don't want to do open houses?
[00:10:22] Speaker A: I've got a couple of reasons here. My stepmother, for example, was selling her house down in the states and she did not want to do, not just an open house, but she did not want to have photos of her property on the Internet. And we had a good chat about that. It's just privacy concerns in many cases, and sometimes it's warranted.
But I know that they don't want their neighbors coming to look through to see how they live. And so there are some people that are quite guarded security concerns as well.
[00:10:53] Speaker C: Although we always will advise or guide our clients. Take away anything in the house that is worth anything to you that you don't want taken, even while listing on the market, apart from open houses.
And although there'll be a realtor, and sometimes more than one realtor in the open house. Obviously, people are moving in and out of rooms without supervision. So there is that level of concern for some.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: You okay there, Shell? You almost choked.
[00:11:23] Speaker C: Choked on my own saliva.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: That's so hot.
Let's talk about the security aspect of it. Signing in. There are some agents I know that are adamant that will be, like, 100% breathing down your neck unless you don't sign in immediately when coming in, leaving a phone number, an email, and then there's others that are like, yeah, it's okay. We don't want you to sign in. We saw that recently with one on our own street with an agent locally. He was like, yeah, no problem at all. So we do ask, did that person.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: Know you were a realtor when they didn't?
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Yes, but no. We were sitting and chatting, and I noticed that somebody came through while we were sitting chatting with them, and he didn't have them sign in. So it's kind of to each their own. I think that it's in the best interest that we do try to have them sign in. We get people that leave fake names all the time, but it's just a little bit of an added layer that we're at least looking out after our clients, the seller's best interests, and trying to keep their property secure.
[00:12:20] Speaker C: We were taught, I think, during studying for our real estate exams, that that was something that was important for security. So I think that a lot of realtors do it from that, and then it has grown into other things. So lead generation and all of that.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: And we have realtors ask, too, because we do quite well with open houses. People say, like, well, how do you do so well? And I think one of the basis points is make sure everybody signs in and people will say, but how do you do that? How do you get people to sign in? We've never had a problem. Yes, it's a very normal thing. You're going into someone else's space. No one ever in my life. Life. Yet people have been like, right now, no. You can look first and then sign in. I've never had someone say no.
[00:13:00] Speaker C: We've had a ton of people say no.
[00:13:01] Speaker B: Have you?
[00:13:02] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And what are you going to do? Force them to kick them out? It's in your own right to kick them out if you want to. This is someone's private residence.
[00:13:08] Speaker C: However, you and I just keep an extra eye on those people. When they're refusing or they scribble something fake, you're like, just kind of not follow them into other rooms, but just keep an eye to make sure that they're not there for the wrong reason.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Yeah. I usually will say if one of you. Because sometimes it'll be a big group, if one of you just don't mind signing in real quick before I'll say real quick. Sometimes that'll get them to sign in, at least at the beginning, and then with going back to lead generation. And some agents do use the open house as a way to generate potential business. And so if you do get information from them on your sign in sheet, it might be like, would it be okay if I reached out just so that you can solicit for business later? And there are some agents that do that is one of their biggest parts of lead generation, and getting new clients for people that are not represented with a buyer agent that do come through an open house.
[00:13:55] Speaker C: I want to talk about this because we're talking about open houses. Our podcast is about open houses. And why would this podcast be interesting to the person outside listening to our podcast? What does it look like for us, setting it up? Why do we do them all of that? But people, I think, don't fully understand, or maybe the layman doesn't fully understand, that this is a way that realtors do generate business.
They do their lead gen by hosting open houses to collect those unrepresented buyers names and to solicit for that business. And that's something we've had to explain to many of our clients when they're going through open houses, that that realtor, whether they're the listing agent or somebody on the team or somebody in the brokerage, may be asking you to sign in, because they do want to find out if you're working for somebody and.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: Capture you as a potential client. So what we do is we give our buyer clients. That's what you're talking about, our business card, so that when they do go open housing, they can pass that on to whoever's hosting the open house and say, oh, these are my agents. And you know what? Then the people hosting the open house, if it's the listing agent, can actually follow up with us to see if there's any interest from our buyer clients. And I did want to touch on the fact that for the general public, if you're open housers, you may realize that the person hosting the open house is not always and sometimes not usually the actual listing agent. It's another agent from their brokerage that is hosting the open house on behalf of the brokerage, because you're still a client more or less of a brokerage, and those people are usually there to try to potentially get new business.
[00:15:27] Speaker C: You just said our client of the brokerage. I feel like that's going to be a topic that isn't in a different podcast that we'll need to go deeper into. Because that just changed on December 1.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: Yes. Well, essentially the brokerage will still be providing services to that person.
[00:15:41] Speaker C: I don't think we need to go into it right now because it's very complicated.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: You're the one that mentioned it.
[00:15:46] Speaker C: Sure, I know, but I just want to be clear in case there's a realtor out there who's going to call us out on that.
Something else that I don't know if you two would agree with this. It may be a good way. Open houses may be a good way for the consumer to shop for their realtor.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: That's what I was going to say at some point. Yeah, but it is. It's a great way because we've met many clients through open houses and a lot of them have been through many open houses and then start liking with.
[00:16:11] Speaker C: Us, don't like this person. You guys were wonderful.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a great way to shop for a realtor and spend time talking to someone, see how knowledgeable they are, see their portfolio. Right. If you're looking to sell in the future, see what they've done with a property.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: Absolutely. It's a great way for you to showcase how you deal with potential clients, customers and how you represent the property.
[00:16:32] Speaker C: Some listing agents are kind of aloof.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: If there's 100 people in the open house, you get to see how this person deals with very stressful situations.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: And we've been in the weeds at open houses before where.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: Hi.
Take off your shoes. Don't touch that. Oh my God. Running around.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: Did you break it, kids, I tell you anyway.
Yeah. So that's another little interesting thing as to how do we handle objections from sellers? Do they not want to have the open house? It's up to us to explain that we'll take care of security, do their best to preserve their privacy in many cases, but I think it's to their benefit if they do have an open.
[00:17:08] Speaker C: House, I think the majority of sellers are okay with it. And especially if you outline the reasons why you think it's helpful. Because we've had some clients in the past say, yeah, but my friend said it's only for nosy neighbors. And then we give the five examples of times where the buyer has come through the open house. And had we not had the open house, we may not have seen that buyer come through the property at all. So once you explain to know this is why we're doing it and they're on board, then what happens? John, this is my next question, is.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Like, how and what do you do to prepare for an open house, Nicole?
[00:17:41] Speaker C: Do you think, do we all do it the same?
[00:17:43] Speaker A: I think so.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: I think quite similarly, but also maybe because, and one of the things with us as a team, we all sort of learned together. So how do we do open houses? The way we all sat in the same room, had someone teach us how to do open houses. And so we've all gone out and done it kind of the same since.
[00:17:58] Speaker C: So what do you do, Nicole? Your seller has an open house three.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Days before I get the heavy sign. Not three days before. One day before I pull the signs out and I put them everywhere in this office and I curse as the Windex and I try to scrub off the address from the last open house, and I arduously write out the address, time and date.
[00:18:19] Speaker C: Do you like open houses?
[00:18:20] Speaker B: I love open houses. I ate. And if any realtors are listening to this, they'll agree the signs are the bane of the open house.
I was going to say for the female realtor, but not necessarily. But then the concept that now we're going to be dressed nicely and we're going to slog these big, very heavy. My signs are humongous.
[00:18:39] Speaker C: Let's just talk about the fact that your signs are double the size of most.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: I don't know how that happened. But now you're in high heels and you want to look nice and, oh, it's probably summer, maybe it's winter. I don't know. There's equal problems with these. And you're like slogging big, heavy signs into your car. Now they're going to come out of your car.
[00:18:56] Speaker C: Okay, so how do you prepare for your open house?
[00:18:58] Speaker B: Then I go and I do shots because I'm so stressed out about. No, I don't. I don't do that.
So we get the signs that's been briefly touched on.
[00:19:08] Speaker C: Now, I think the first thing you want to do is make sure your open house bag is prepared before you.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: Even do the sign. I start with the. Yeah, well, fair enough. We have an open house bag with all of our sign in sheets. We have some waters, some chocolates, as have already briefly been mentioned, and we.
[00:19:26] Speaker C: Don'T always do chocolates. It depends on the open house.
[00:19:29] Speaker B: Fair enough. Pens.
[00:19:30] Speaker C: Pens.
[00:19:31] Speaker A: Pens to sign in. Sure. We like to set a mood. Cheryl and I will bring a speaker, play some light jazz and usually a diffuser. Yeah, diffuser. Well, let's talk about smells. In the old days, some agents, they said bake cookies, so they'd bake a batch of toll house right before you are about to come on in. So the home is all welcoming smells like freshly baked cookies, like a home should be. Imagine your family and kids running around, I need to buy this house right now and give me a cookie.
Diffuser is another thing. But we also had people just at their listings do the plugins that just make me want to, I don't know, my nose and eyes ache.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Generally our listings smell nice.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: No, but you can do that as you're preparing for an open house.
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:16] Speaker C: So basically the preparation is to set a mood in the home so that people feel like they're welcome and that they could imagine themselves living there. Be prepared. So have all of the things that you would need when those people come through. So sign and sheets, signage outside open house, flag that we have and also maybe know all of the houses for sale in the area, all of the recent sold. So when people start asking you about that information, you're prepared.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: Cheryl, this is a two tiered answer. That's right. If it's our listing, we generally know this information already. But if we are doing open houses for, let's say, someone else's listing, a lot more preparation goes into it, knowing all these things. Like you said, what school catchment is it? Where's the local grocery store?
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Well, for your basic general public person, if you're listening and you walk into an open house and you ask that person that's hosting the open house about some things like schools or what some of the other recent sales are, or can you tell me how old the furnace is and the person doesn't know, then it's a reflection upon that listing agent, or the listing agent. Whoever they've chosen to host the open house, you're there to provide a service for the seller first and foremost, which is to be able to give information about how to sell the. We also, when we've had our people host open houses for our listings and we've not hosted them, Cheryl's been amazing at providing them with all kinds of great information that'll help them sell the home.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: And actually, even if it is our listing, sort of doing like the crash course on those facts, that might not be top of mind. One of the top questions that we get from people going through an open house. And I think it's just to be nice and conversational. And it's a lovely question consistently, in what year was this house built?
That's not always top of mind for me. I have to ask Cheryl beforehand, when was this house born again? So that I remember, but mother gave.
[00:22:04] Speaker C: Birth to the home in 1907.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: You mean you don't just go into Geo warehouse and look at land register?
[00:22:09] Speaker C: No, she uses Cheryl.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: I say, cheryl, when was the house born?
[00:22:12] Speaker C: And Cheryl gets annoyed that she did rely on me for information.
[00:22:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:16] Speaker C: Cheryl is not an encyclopedia.
[00:22:18] Speaker B: She kind of is.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: All your lights on?
[00:22:24] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:22:24] Speaker A: Toilet seats down. But that's also for photos, but for.
[00:22:28] Speaker C: Real when we walk in. So let's pretend we've got our bag, our open house bag, we've got our open house signs. We've gone probably about a half an hour before open house opens to make sure that all lights are on, all scents are on, all music is on, all curtains are open.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: There's nothing weird going on in there.
[00:22:44] Speaker C: We're presenting, right? Like, this is a presentation and we are the hosts of this presentation and we want this house to be in the best possible state that it can be. Make sure the please remove your shoes sign is up. All of that sort of thing. Things that should be done for showings as well. However, if you haven't been there between showings, someone might kick the sign over, turn a light off, use a toilet.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: Or someone's living there. Maybe they don't make the bed quite the way you prefer.
[00:23:13] Speaker C: The way you prefer. I feel like this is just like an anal Cheryl thing. Like. No, the pillow must be topped this way.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: Maybe she's just a perfectionist Cheryl OCD, I believe.
[00:23:24] Speaker B: Just making sure that the house is show worthy. I have a story, but I don't know whether it's appropriate.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: Okay. No, well, let's come back to that, because later I've got some questions about strange things and inappropriate stories and all that.
[00:23:36] Speaker C: And if it isn't appropriate enough, Nicole.
[00:23:38] Speaker B: Just edit it out.
[00:23:39] Speaker C: Edit it out?
[00:23:40] Speaker A: That's right, John edits it out, too. Off the wall.
[00:23:43] Speaker C: If Nicole is no longer in this video, we've edited her out.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: She's so inappropriate.
[00:23:49] Speaker C: You have balloons here, John?
[00:23:50] Speaker A: Yeah, because when we were first realtors, we had an expert open houser. She loved to have her balloons. She wanted three balloons on every single open house sign, which is your attention.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: It does street for sure, and we.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: Used to do that.
[00:24:07] Speaker C: But we still have some unflown up balloons.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: We do, yeah.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: Oh, you would. I actually remember doing open houses and getting the helium balloons.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: So having that being part of the preparation money, it's a lot.
[00:24:19] Speaker C: And I will say that when you are first starting out as a realtor, which is now quite a few years ago for us, you are trying not to spend money. Right? So, yeah, we used our own breath to blow up those balloons.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: All right. I want to pop back really quickly back to the open house signs. There are some agents out there that that's their form of lead generation. They don't even have open houses and they're putting open house signs in all kinds.
[00:24:40] Speaker C: Open houses.
[00:24:41] Speaker B: One time I was in the beach and it's an agent that we know and I followed a loop. Just the signs were just in a loop. Like the air was like, this way, this way. And yes, we put the address on it, but when you're driving and it's small, sometimes you can't see. And so I just drove around the block like four times being like, where is it? And I finally got out in front one of the signs to look and it said, next week, blah, blah, blah. I was like, you've got to be.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: It drives us nuts because we actually follow the rules. You're not really supposed to have them out until when your open house is actually happening. We know people that put them out overnight and leave them out.
[00:25:15] Speaker C: Supposed to. Bylaws.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: Yeah, and it's annoying. And then you also have some of the discount brokerages that just have their signs out all the time.
[00:25:25] Speaker C: It's annoying. But also it's against the rules.
Bylaws. And if it pisses off the general.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: Yeah, it pisses off the general public.
[00:25:32] Speaker C: And if we get in trouble, there are some municipalities that now don't allow open house.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:25:37] Speaker C: And that's what we're trying to avoid. So please, if you are a realtor listening to this and you put out your signs for extended periods of time above and beyond what the bylaw allows, please don't. Because we want to continue to be able to put out our open house.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: And be able to do that.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: I'm going to come full circle around to my other comment too, about how stressful it is when you have the heels on and you're lugging the signs in and out of the car. Part of the reason I find it stressful motorists is that I feel bad pulling over and putting my blinkers on and doing this. So please just take mercy on it. Take pity.
[00:26:03] Speaker C: I see a pretty girl in heels.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: We're trying to get them off the street because it is an irritation to pedestrians. Please don't. I've had people, like, honk at me, and I'm sorry that I'm irritated. No matter what you do, you're ruffling someone's feathers. So I'm sorry.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: Screwed if you do, screwed if you don't.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: I'm sorry. Canadians say sorry.
[00:26:20] Speaker C: Both very canadian.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: Sorry about that.
[00:26:23] Speaker C: Sorry.
Also to the pedestrian thing. Pedestrians sometimes get mad at realtors for whatever reason and kick their signs over.
[00:26:30] Speaker A: Yeah, we've had a couple road kicked, run over, smashed.
[00:26:33] Speaker C: Yeah, we've seen some thrown into bushes.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Yeah, we had one of ours snapped in, too. That was in Parkdale. Our sign got. Our sign got parked.
Right. Next we're going to talk about events because I know there's some agents that go all out. Did you drop your pen, Cheryl?
I like your antlers by the. Oh, yeah. Put those on if you want.
[00:26:57] Speaker B: When did you put them on? We were wearing them the whole time.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: No, go ahead.
So let's talk about events. For example, if it's the holidays, because we're recording this shortly after Christmas, the ladies do have their antlers on.
You could do some type of holiday theme.
[00:27:14] Speaker C: I would wear these antlers.
[00:27:16] Speaker A: Exactly. On Halloween, you can even get dressed up. But when I talk about events, there are people that will have, like a popcorn machine or a food truck or ice cream truck just to try to do something that will set their property apart to entice more people in to make it look like this agent, especially if they're like a neighborhood driven agent driven agent. Just to show anyone else looking to potentially sell their home, look at what I do for my sellers.
[00:27:46] Speaker C: And if you're trying to generate excitement around that listing, sure. It's a way to hopefully do it, at least in the neighborhood. And a lot of times you have sponsorship, but yes, a mortgage broker or a nearby company might help to take on some of that outlay by sponsoring. And they get some attention as well.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: Yeah, totally. We've seen there's a couple of agents that we know that will put out like a full red carpet. Yeah.
[00:28:12] Speaker C: Great.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: It's kind of fun just to make people feel special, like, make the home seem like it's a huge, big premiere.
[00:28:19] Speaker B: High end. High end property.
[00:28:20] Speaker C: Wine and cheese. There's lots of realtors who do this, actually do wine and cheese. Open houses on like a Thursday or Friday night, generally just for neighbors. But it is great, I think. And the whole red carpet vibe does make you feel a little bit special. And especially for a high end property.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Like if it's a tear down, you're probably not going to bother doing that. No, he wouldn't. Exactly.
[00:28:44] Speaker C: Maybe you will.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: Who knows? You don't do the prosecco.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: You do like shots of Jamie Wild turkey.
[00:28:49] Speaker C: Actually clowns. I don't know if I've ever seen a clown in an open house, John. So I don't know why you wrote down clowns.
[00:28:55] Speaker A: I don't know. I thought it was kind of funny. Maybe we should. Maybe I should get.
[00:28:58] Speaker B: They could be doing balloons out front for the kids that are going to run around my open house with their chocolate fingers.
[00:29:03] Speaker C: So if there's any listeners out there who have ever seen a clown at an open house, please contact us. Let us know. Pony rides, if that's actually happened.
[00:29:10] Speaker B: Pony rides? Like walking when they do circle.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: If you would like to see me dress up like a clown, please email us at
[email protected] I know I'm going.
[00:29:22] Speaker C: To be the first person to email you.
[00:29:23] Speaker B: Like, do we have a really fun listing coming up where John could be a clown?
[00:29:26] Speaker C: Let's just dress him up as a clown at any listing from now on.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: Do you think I amuse you? Is that why I'm here? What am I, a clown? Yes.
[00:29:33] Speaker C: No comment.
[00:29:35] Speaker A: Let's talk about the. Not just Saturday, Sunday, two to 04:00 p.m. You talked about wine and cheese. Could be an evening open house that maybe isn't advertised on the MLS.
Well, you could advertise on the MLS wine and cheese and this and that, but be prepared to. You got to be careful with that though, as, no, no, you would never want to, but you could do something just for neighbors.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: Are we technically supposed to be giving.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Alcohol if it's for free? Yes. You just can't sell it, right? You can invite neighbors over to do it. Absolutely.
[00:30:07] Speaker C: But then also being smart serve certified, you should actually be asking people's ages.
[00:30:11] Speaker A: Which is why we have them sign in and of course we ask them.
[00:30:16] Speaker C: I am smart serve certified.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: Thank God.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: To let everyone know and you're smart.
[00:30:19] Speaker C: Hold on.
I wanted to give the perfect world scenario if Stella was on board. It was a good house to do this, good neighborhood to do. This time worked and we knew we would get some back and forth of this. The perfect, I think schedule, say if you have a week long marketing period, so holding offers, so you want to get this house in front of as many people as possible in that seven days. MLS is always going to be the best way because people shop online and the people that have realtors, those will be in the search, but you'll want to do a Thursday day agents open house where you might have some food. You entice agents to come check it out who might have clients. But also put that on the MLS, put that on Realtor CA so you get people coming through that maybe don't have time in the evenings or aren't.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: Available on the weekend.
[00:31:09] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:31:09] Speaker C: Friday neighborhood. Maybe a wine and cheese or something special to have all the neighbors come through. Because usually if neighbors like living in the area they're going to want their friends and family to also live in the area.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: Yes, I was just about to say that maybe they're not looking but they've got friends, family that are looking.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: And if I could just add, having the neighbors come by the night before kind of leaves it so that they're not taking your time away when it's actual the buyers on the weekend at the point possibility, yes.
[00:31:36] Speaker C: And from the perspective of lead generation it's also a way to show what you do for a listing.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:41] Speaker C: So to have neighbors through, neighbors can ask you questions and all that sort of thing.
And then yes, the Saturday and Sunday, some people will do longer than 2 hours, some people will do one to three or twelve to two. We do one to three.
[00:31:54] Speaker B: Depending on the market. We've seen one. Didn't we see it was like a.
[00:31:57] Speaker C: Six hour long house just because they're throwing all the spaghetti at the wall? Because it's been hard to get people into houses lately. But whatever it might be, you want to at least do 2 hours. Two to four is the most popular time on Saturday and Sunday. And even if you as a listing agent cannot work those hours, have somebody who is well versed in the house do those open houses for you because it is that extra level of getting it, having the opportunity to get in front of as many people as possible.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: Right.
[00:32:28] Speaker C: And that's my perfect world. Open house schedule.
[00:32:31] Speaker A: I would be on board for that. As a matter of fact I am on board with that. That's pretty much what we do.
[00:32:35] Speaker C: Cheryl, when we had the three open houses in one week. Oh yeah, we had to put one. Open house was twelve to two, one was one to three, one was two to four, and we were constantly flopping.
[00:32:46] Speaker A: To each other's open just a few short months ago. This is what happens when you have three listings really coming out day after day after day on the same week.
[00:32:52] Speaker C: That all have open houses.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: Thankfully there's three of us and we were able to kind of pivot, having one person at each of the open houses at all times. And then we finished up with all three of us at the end. So that was interesting. And that was busy.
[00:33:05] Speaker C: Those were busy.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: They were very busy. Even for what was supposed to be considered a bit of a down market. It just goes to show. And I think on Myrtle especially, we did have the parents come through of the eventual buyers on one day, the couple who bought it the other day. So it happens quite often. Cheryl and I have picked up both clients not necessarily to buy the properties that we are listing in, but also the buyers who have eventually purchased have come through the open house in many occasions. So from our experience, definitely worthwhile to do. All right, let's move on to strange things to happen at open houses.
Well, first of all, not necessarily strange. Let's talk about, we've all had these open houses where literally nobody comes through. It's a property that's been on the market for a very long time. It's a bit of a down market. What do you do, Nicole? Twitter.
[00:33:55] Speaker B: Nobody's coming through Twitter.
You know what, because we're usually doing two days, we're always optimistic. So first day, I'm always like, yes, it's going to be so great. Like, people are coming through. It can be a bit of a bummer. I literally just sit there, wander around the house. Maybe I clean a little bit. I do have a single tier that comes down the next day. I bring my computer, then I work spot my phone.
[00:34:17] Speaker C: Yeah, we've worked some holidays where we've ended up just sitting at table working.
[00:34:22] Speaker B: I said to another realtor the other day, I said, I always make sure I have music. And they're like, well, of course you would have music to set the mood. I'm like, of course you would have music to set the mood. But if I know no one's coming, I'm really making sure that I've got maybe a different kind of mute. Like, I'm like, entertain myself in there.
[00:34:35] Speaker C: What kind of music do you listen to when you're entertaining yourself and you're not worried about people coming in?
[00:34:39] Speaker B: And I just don't listen to the french jazz.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: No, you listen to Taylor Swift, don't you?
[00:34:43] Speaker B: I probably do. And then not single tear. I'm sitting there, like, crying. Like, oh, my God.
Why are you crying, ma'am?
[00:34:53] Speaker A: Because there's nobody in my open house. Oh, wait. And it's also the music. It reminds me, actually, there's two kind of funny accounts. If you're a realtor if you like real estate, the broke agent. And actually agents, they have just a ton of memes about open housing. And it usually has to do with the agents being either extremely hungover, showing up late, or signed or working on signs. So a lot of times he'll get a good chuckle out of those. We've had this a couple of times. Strange. Not strange things to happen, but we've had this a couple of times. When people come through and it's chalk a block, it's very busy and you have someone coming through and just disparaging the out of the house. It's not great.
[00:35:35] Speaker C: Excuse my French.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: I'll bleep that out. I will.
It's kind of not cool, right. But it does happen sometimes. And what do you do?
[00:35:45] Speaker C: People are just speaking their mind. I don't think you can do anything. Just hope that you don't have those types of people. Right. And there might be, we've had it where somebody has been disparaging. So say it's somebody's come off the street. We don't know who they are, they're being disparaging and somebody else is in the house who sticks up for the house in some way. And you try not to get involved. Right. Like, I'm sorry you feel that way. But then you see this interaction of somebody who likes the house and somebody who doesn't going at it.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: I'm trying to think if I've had that or what you would do. And I think I've had it one time. And you sort of try to draw the. I tried to draw the person to the corner, like, oh, really? You have negative things. Why don't you come over here in this corner and tell me about it quietly over here?
[00:36:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:24] Speaker C: It's hard because you can't control people.
[00:36:27] Speaker A: No. And we've had some weird, weird people walk into the open houses. And sometimes you just keep an eye on them from the corner of your eye. Hopefully they don't steal or break anything. We've been fortunate that we haven't had anything stolen or broken. We've done hundreds.
[00:36:42] Speaker B: Especially if you're spidey senses. I do follow them a lot more.
[00:36:45] Speaker A: And it's tough as a single agent if it's a busy open house or a big house.
[00:36:49] Speaker C: But I think big houses generally, we always do our open houses together if we can. So there's always two of us. And we usually will go on different floors if something like that is happening.
But you should maybe consider asking us to do an open house with you once in a while.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:05] Speaker C: Just kidding. You do?
[00:37:08] Speaker B: We've done some together.
[00:37:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: Sometimes we need three people. Right. Especially if we're doing a duplex or a triplex property where there's separate, very fire separated units.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Yeah. All these doors are closed with a condo as well. Here's the other thing. Some condo corporations and property management and boards will force you to have multiple people there, one person to give people access and stay down at the front door, and then another person up in the unit. So that's just for security, which makes sense, I think.
[00:37:36] Speaker C: Also, if we can go back to my perfect schedule of an open house and just us talking about how two people are needed and that sometimes nobody shows up, sometimes the house doesn't sell. All of these things just goes back to the whole thing, that being a realtor isn't easy and it's time consuming. And we do have a lot of boxes to check, depending on who our buyer or seller or house or property is.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: And if I'm going to take it way back to the reality show episode we did, no one's doing body shots in our open house. You're not going to see us in dresses that aren't. Dresses, just kind of like pieces of fabric that cover the stripper gear, the particular parts.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: Yeah. No, we're a little classier than that. I'd like to thank. Anyway. You don't want to see me in stripper. Anyway.
[00:38:20] Speaker B: Nicole and I are classier than that. You're going to be a clown.
[00:38:23] Speaker A: A sexy clown.
[00:38:25] Speaker C: You have here funniest questions you've had and funniest things happening.
[00:38:29] Speaker A: Weird questions.
[00:38:30] Speaker C: You know what? This is terrible. Putting me on the spot and maybe why I should have prepared for this. I don't have any things that come to mind. Usually when we start talking, I have things that come to mind.
[00:38:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:41] Speaker B: So we had been thinking about this earlier and same thing. We've had some pretty seamless open houses. Thank God you talked about the speaker. I think one of the funniest things that I've had to happen. And especially when you're new, funnier things happen when you're new because you're stressed out. It's funnier because you're so much more so.
[00:38:55] Speaker C: It's new.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: It's new. You're on edge. Right. But I remember once. Sorry, are we doing the stories now? Go ahead.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: Yeah, please tell us.
[00:39:03] Speaker C: No, leave.
[00:39:04] Speaker B: No, I'm sorry. It's not that hard. Be quiet. The speaker. So you have the speaker. You have it playing your music. Obviously it's doing the, I don't know the tech words now, but the music is going to the speaker from the phone.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: Bluetooth.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: Come on, Nicole. Be better.
[00:39:18] Speaker C: Nicole's a millennial who's actually a.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: So it's coming from your phone. If someone calls you on your phone and you answer your phone now, the conversation on the Bluetooth, that is embarrassing. You're like, hang on.
[00:39:30] Speaker C: Or when you're on Instagram, what are.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: You doing on your phone, John?
And then whatever video on Instagram coming on the speaker, what is going on?
[00:39:40] Speaker A: Thankfully, it's, like, usually g rated. I can imagine there's been some agents.
[00:39:45] Speaker C: But it calls you out at the very least, you on your phone, you're not, like, answering a text message. You're actually on social media.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: You know what? This would be a good time for any agents out there. If you have a really crazy open house story, email it to us,
[email protected]. And we'll cover it in an outtakes or an upcoming episode when we turn it over to our listeners.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: That's kind of a fun idea. I was listening to another podcast, and they sort of, like, read things that people send in. And sometimes people have had more dramatic stories than us, that's for sure.
[00:40:16] Speaker A: Wow. I'm just going to talk about horror stories or put it out there on one of the Facebook groups that had, like, 30,000 members, because there's a lot of us out there. They're very active. Maybe we'll get some good questions to be able to.
[00:40:26] Speaker C: I've read some horror stories on some of the Facebook real estate groups that we belong to, but they're never, like, funny, ha ha. They're all like, hopefully that never happens to me. Sort of like abuse or that kind of stuff or stealing things or whatnot.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: Yeah. We were talking with someone the other day about craziest things that ever happened when they were on a showing, not an open house. But, yeah, we've heard a couple recently that are.
[00:40:51] Speaker B: I mean, if we're looking for stories, I can reach for one here. It's sort of an open house story. Way back in the beginning, before I was a realtor, I was a realtor's assistant.
[00:40:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:40:59] Speaker B: Thank God it wasn't my day. We had multiple open houses, but we had someone prepping a Parkdale listing. And so they went and they prepped it, and house is staged. There's no one there. People are not home. So we get a call and they're like, no, I guess the owners came back. Like, they're sleeping in the bed. They're not here. And the open house is starting, and they're not here. And we were like, no, they're quite out of town. Call the police. So a homeless person had broken up. We're there.
[00:41:25] Speaker C: See?
[00:41:26] Speaker B: Good thing we go and set up for our open houses. Check, make sure everything is okay. What might not be okay? Someone had broken in, and a homeless person was sleeping in the bed of the house. Open house canceled?
[00:41:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess so.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: Called the police to come and get them out. And you're only there 45 minutes before.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: Canceled due to breaking and squatting.
[00:41:45] Speaker C: But would you cancel it? I would stand at the front door and tell people, we can't let anyone in.
[00:41:52] Speaker A: During the time when it was actually supposed to be held open. You can say, I'm sorry, but if you want to get in to see it at another time, we can book a showing for you.
[00:42:01] Speaker C: That was a good story. I feel like you've told us that one before. But the strange things to happen. I would have expected this to be the most interesting part of our podcast. And I feel like we've come up short. Kids. We're boring.
[00:42:14] Speaker B: I know. That's why I was reaching for a good, like, well, here's one.
[00:42:18] Speaker A: We've had people literally destroy a bathroom. Not in a good way during our open houses.
[00:42:22] Speaker B: Have you had that happen?
[00:42:23] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:42:24] Speaker C: Was it you?
[00:42:27] Speaker A: That's kind of a given.
Other than myself.
We do get a lot of people asking, is it okay if we use the washroom? And of course, there's people that are driving around with kids or doing multiple open houses.
[00:42:41] Speaker B: I very much like going to the washroom in a sanitary environment.
[00:42:45] Speaker A: Yeah. But there's a lot of listings that just don't have toilet paper. And that's one way to stop people from.
[00:42:51] Speaker C: It's one way to cause a mess.
[00:42:55] Speaker B: But it was. This is, once again, not super open housey, but we had a listing, and someone had done what you are saying in the toilet and then left, and then John was there and had to clean it. And there wasn't toilet paper.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: I think so.
[00:43:07] Speaker B: I can't remember what you used, though.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: No, just my sock, probably.
[00:43:13] Speaker C: No, then it wasn't our listing because we would have had. I always make sure we have toilet.
[00:43:16] Speaker A: Paper in our list. I do remember something like that happening.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't want to be specific.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: Okay. Before we kind of wrap. No, on that high note, let's talk about, like, wrapping up. So do we like them going back to. I think we all kind of enjoy doing.
[00:43:33] Speaker B: Love them.
[00:43:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And I know there's a lot of agents that don't at all. And they won't do their own open houses.
[00:43:39] Speaker B: Feel free to call us.
[00:43:39] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:43:40] Speaker B: We will do your open houses for you.
[00:43:41] Speaker C: Partly because open houses are time consuming and take away your weekends. And even though they're only 2 hours, there's prep that goes before they're right.
[00:43:49] Speaker A: In the middle of the day.
[00:43:50] Speaker C: If you have to follow up with people or call agents afterwards. It's a lot of work. Yeah, it's a lot of work. It's a whole day.
[00:43:56] Speaker A: It is pretty.
[00:43:58] Speaker C: I think some agents don't like it because of that, especially since we work long hours during the week as well.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: Children and want to spend time with.
[00:44:05] Speaker C: Their kids instead of doing open houses. But I do think that if you were to ask, say, 100 agents, there'd be a larger amount that say, I don't like them or I don't want to do them if I don't have to, versus yes, in all three of us.
[00:44:18] Speaker B: I would say I almost feel like in our community it's considered like a rite of passage. Like at a certain point you're like, I don't do my open houses anymore. Whereas I don't feel like we would ever be that way. We'd be like, give me, give me more.
[00:44:29] Speaker C: I want to make sure that sure.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: It'S done right for our seller client, but also it's an opportunity to potentially meet some new great buyer clients if they're non representative great people. It reminds us a lot of our previous job when we used to do selling art on cruise ships and doing an open house is very much like doing your first night gallery. In the gallery, it's a similar sales cycle and getting leads, but it was a much shorter sales cycle on the ship. It was only seven days. And so it's your opportunity to meet people, see what they're interested in, if in fact they're interested in buying the works of art, follow up with them, answer any questions that they have, and then by the end of the cruise, see what they might like to purchase. It was a similar vibe when we were doing our open houses. And we did open houses for almost every single weekend for the first few years that we were agents.
[00:45:17] Speaker C: I want to say a fun story.
You were talking about the fact that we used to do a lot of open houses. So all these agents who didn't want to do their open houses, John and I would put our hand up, we'll do them. So we did do open houses and it felt like every weekend for years. Yeah, we did one down the street from where we now live.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I remember that.
[00:45:37] Speaker C: And John met our neighbor, like our actual next door neighbor, who we share a house like we're in a semi detached. And he had an interesting conversation about the history of the area with him and that's how he remembered him. So we met him again years later when we sold this house and we bought this house. He's like, hey, I think that we met and had those conversations. So, fun story.
[00:45:57] Speaker A: Yeah, that was great.
[00:45:58] Speaker C: When you meet at an open house.
[00:45:59] Speaker A: And we used to go all out because of our experience with video production and everything like that. When we were brand new agents, we would agree to do videos for the open house, promoting it. I do like after effects, like graphics and sponsored ads.
[00:46:14] Speaker C: Videos were born.
[00:46:15] Speaker A: Yeah, we absolutely enjoy doing it and we'll continue to do it.
[00:46:21] Speaker C: This is a point. Nothing about whether or not we like open houses, but we're talking about, like, do it, do it, do it. There are occasions and properties where it doesn't make sense or isn't needed, or you can't. Some condos won't allow it.
[00:46:34] Speaker A: All right, so let's just do some quick takeaways. Going from the very beginning. Should you do it? We think so. Does it help? Yeah, on most occasions. Does it help to sell a property?
[00:46:44] Speaker C: It can.
[00:46:45] Speaker A: It doesn't hurt.
[00:46:47] Speaker C: Yes. It's a no stone unturned.
[00:46:49] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:46:50] Speaker C: Process.
[00:46:51] Speaker A: And if it means you might get that one extra offer in a hot market, instead of four offers, you have five, I think that that can be beneficial.
[00:46:59] Speaker B: You never know.
[00:46:59] Speaker C: Or if it's a struggling market and that buyer just happens to come through and fall in love with the property, you never know. I said no stone unturned. We say this all the time, that when we are selling a property, we leave no stone unturned. And this is just another stone that we'd like to turn.
[00:47:13] Speaker A: You got it. And for those new agents that maybe are listening right now, I think it's a fantastic opportunity for you to get to know more about houses, speak to some buyers, speak to some other agents, and potentially pick up some new clients.
[00:47:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Take the pressure off, too, especially if you're nervous about talking to people.
[00:47:31] Speaker C: It's a learning opportunity, for sure.
[00:47:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And you can have fun with it, too. If you've got a sort of premier higher end listing, you can do some events, you can partner up with some of your preferred partners, home inspectors, mortgage brokers, local businesses. So there's really a lot of different things that you can do just to be creative and mix it up.
[00:47:54] Speaker B: We should do that now. You're giving me envy that we haven't done, like in the farm, an ice cream truck.
[00:47:58] Speaker A: Well, we will when we go in doorknock this winter for some of our spring listings. We're going to partner up with someone local. You heard it here first.
[00:48:07] Speaker B: Yeah, let's do something.
[00:48:09] Speaker C: I want nothing to do with organizing this, you two. Just so you know, it's on you anyway.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: Hot dogs.
[00:48:16] Speaker C: Oh, geez.
[00:48:16] Speaker A: Veggie too.
[00:48:17] Speaker B: As soon as you were out, I was like, hey, John, what are we going to do?
[00:48:19] Speaker A: Hot dogs.
Let's see. And you know what? I think that takeaway for me is that the open house is part of our full comprehensive marketing plan to get a property sold. And Cheryl told you our perfect schedule in an ideal world to maximize the number of open houses. And when for those that are out currently shopping for a property, open houses.
[00:48:45] Speaker B: Or a realtor.
[00:48:45] Speaker A: Or a realtor. It's a great way to look at both properties and meet some great agents. Or meet some agents. You can get an idea of what they're going to be like if you were to want to work with.
[00:48:54] Speaker C: I love having conversations with other agents. I like when other agents come in and ask questions.
[00:48:59] Speaker A: I enjoy the agent. Open houses, I think are fantastic for us to get to know the inventory and to get to know the other agents that are in our neighborhoods. Because they're our colleagues, they're not our competitors.
[00:49:08] Speaker B: No. And they have great feedback sometimes on the listing. That.
[00:49:11] Speaker A: Got it. That's it. Anything to add before we wrap it up?
[00:49:15] Speaker C: I love you guys.
[00:49:19] Speaker A: And you know we can't wrap up a podcast without doing a support local. And this episode, our support local featured business is second voyage vintage. They're located in the heart of Riverside in Toronto at 734 Queen Street east. It's just across the street from the opera house and a few doors down on the other side of Broadview from the Broadview Hotel. Cheryl and I went to an event, a holiday event for the Riverside BIA, who we work quite closely with. And we had a chance to meet some new owners of businesses in the BIA. We met Kyle.
He was great. And looking at their place, he takes pride in curating a wide range of unique housewares and clothing with modern appeal. If you go and check out their website, which is secondvoyage CA or their Instagram and Facebook at Secondvoyd Vintage, you'll see it almost looks like a boutique shop that's not necessarily even upcycled vintage. And I think with vintage stores it's all about who is curating it. And he does a great job.
[00:50:19] Speaker C: I agree.
[00:50:19] Speaker B: May I ask how long it's been there? Do we know?
It's fine if we don't. It's new.
[00:50:27] Speaker C: Don't put them on the spot.
[00:50:29] Speaker B: Cut this part out.
[00:50:32] Speaker C: It was built in 1907.
[00:50:36] Speaker A: You're always calling me out like lasers from his eyes.
So go and check out second voyage. They've been there for a while. I know that they moved to their new location in September.
[00:50:50] Speaker B: Oh, so you know quite a bit.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: I do. But that's their new location. I'm not sure how long. How long have they been there?
[00:50:55] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:50:55] Speaker A: Since September.
[00:50:56] Speaker B: That's good to know because sometimes people will be like, oh, I was just by there. Walk by. What? Did I go in there?
[00:51:01] Speaker A: No.
[00:51:01] Speaker B: Been there since about September.
[00:51:02] Speaker A: That was awesome.
[00:51:03] Speaker B: Of 2023.
[00:51:04] Speaker C: I'm going to look to see how long their instagram has been around.
[00:51:07] Speaker A: Oh, nice. That's a good way to figure things out.
[00:51:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I might be here a while.
[00:51:11] Speaker A: Well, Cheryl's going to do that. I'm going to sign us all off. On behalf of all of us, JNC Toronto Group and therealestatepodcast ca. Make sure you check us out. Our previous episodes are there. We're going to be doing a lot more content here in the new year. We look forward to connecting and keep listening. Thanks, folks.
[00:51:28] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:51:31] Speaker A: You have been listening to therealestatepodcast ca. Visit our website for more episodes and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube at JNC Toronto Group.
