While open houses provide invaluable prospecting opportunities, the underlying goal is to sell the home and to track your open house marketing ROI.

“It’s all about selling the house,” says Jeff Ristine, president of Weichert, Realtors – Kingsland Properties. “We target our marketing towards buyers in the area, and reach them with email campaigns and reverse prospecting.”

While consumer open houses target potential buyers directly, even the savviest marketer may not be able to reach the most applicable buyer. An open house marketing plan that includes both a broker open house and a consumer open house is a strategic, integrated approach. Broker open houses familiarize other agents with your listings to keep them top of mind for their qualified clients. Broker opens also create important partnerships and build relationships in a competitive industry.

“We host broker open houses to network and uphold our market presence with peers,” says O’Connor. “We invite top agents to make them aware of the listing, and to let them know they can send their buyer and we will honor their agency relationship.”

Broker open houses are also a valuable – and entertaining – way to keep your pulse on the local market and to continually learn from your peers.

“Hosting a broker open house gets the word out to the broker community, especially if you’re in a competitive market like Naperville,” says Ristine. “We want to get other brokers into the house to showcase special features, to question them on whether the home is priced appropriately and to find out if they have a client looking in that price point. It also helps to entice them with a tempting menu or exotic food.”

One very appealing way to hold a broker open house is under the guise of a cocktail party. “Every community has restaurants or a caterer that everyone likes,” says Ristine. “Twilight open houses that include finger foods and hors d’oeuvres make the environment more relaxed and enjoyable, and create a party-like atmosphere. You want other brokers to hang out, especially if it’s a larger home that is great for entertaining. It helps you really showcase the features.”

When hosting a broker open house during the day, O’Connor recommends skipping the typical lunch fare, and allocating that budget to giveaways. “I find gift cards – Starbucks, gas cards or drawings for fine dining – are a big draw instead of a lunch,” she says. “You can give everyone that comes a small gift card, or choose to do a larger amount for a drawing of attendees.”