Bucks County Real Estate, to open house, or not?

I came across a very interesting article in one of our local newspapers, last week, regarding open houses.  http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-13/120253533995340.xml&coll=1#continue

The article focused on a 72 year old resident of a New Jersey town, who spends about half the year in Florida, and claims that he and his wife have been visiting open houses for decades.  They say in the article, rather proudly, that they never go with any intent to buy anything, they are just nosy and curious.  So, the question is, although realtor open houses are a long time staple of the industry, do they work?

I was very fortunate, early in my real estate career, to have met a motivational speaker/trainer, by the name of Mike Ferry, who was extremely opposed to open houses.  I have continued to follow that training, for the most part.  As the article referenced above points out, very few buyers actually ever buy the house they came to the open house, to see.  More often than not,  I have found that visitors to open houses are nosy, and the least motivated buyers.  What most realtors don't tell their seller clients, is that realtors do open houses, to find clients.  That's great, except it doesn't do the job that the seller has hired us to do, which is to sell their house.  I have always felt that an open house was perhaps the most passive marketing strategy available to a realtor.  You don't have any way of qualifying the buyer, or to find out if they are serious about buying a house, or not.

With statistics showing that more than 90% of actual buyers in my market place, find that the Internet is the most important place for them to find the house they ultimately buy, along with information from their realtor, to me, those places are the most productive way to market properties. 

I don't mean to ruffle any feathers, for those realtors that do focus on doing open houses, but if you are a seller, and ask those realtors for an honest and open assessment of why they are holding open houses, Sunday after Sunday, most will admit that they are using the sellers house as a tool to attract clients, in the hope of selling them something else.  Again, this is a very personal perspective, and I know that there are many, successful agents, who might not agree with me, but it is an interesting conversation to have.  I have found that the overwhelming majority of my clients, when told that I am not a big believer in the open house strategy, are relieved, and tell me that they hated the idea of doing open houses, anyway. 

As always, your comments are welcome.