Nationwide Open House Weekend is Coming April 20-21, 2013

Did you know?

• Mid-income buyers, those with income between $55,000-$75,000, are most likely to find their home through an open house compared to those in other income brackets.

• Married and unmarried couples are more likely to walk through open houses than single buyers.

• Repeat buyers use open houses more frequently, and are more likely to find their home from an open house than first-time buyers.

(Source: National Association of REALTORS®)

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REALTORS® across the country will host the nation’s largest open house weekend Saturday and Sunday, April 20-21, 2013. Nationwide Open House, organized by the National Association of REALTORS®, allows real estate professionals around the country to showcase properties currently on the market.

How many open houses will be entered into RMLSweb this year? As of April 3, we have a mere three open houses scheduled.

Sharing your open house via RMLSweb will not just attract other REALTORS®—potential clients also access the information directly on RMLS.com, our public-facing website. The National Association of REALTORS® site, REALTOR.com, also displays this open house information. (On their site, click on “Advanced Search” and check the “Open House” box.)

We’d love more subscribers to join in and advertise their open house through RMLS™! Here’s how. In RMLSweb, navigate to the Back Office menu, and click on Listing Load. Find the right listing, and click on the box labeled OH/BT. Select New Open House. Then enter the date of your open house, the start and end time, directions to the property, whether you’ll be providing food, and any other remarks. Click on the Save button in the upper right hand corner. Congratulations—you’ve added your open house to Nationwide Open House Weekend!

If you’d like to read some tips on holding your open house, check out these articles:
• How to Prepare for the Open House (REALTOR® Magazine)
• Six Ways to Capture Clients at Open Houses (REALTOR® Magazine)
• Is an Open House a Waste of Time? (MSN Real Estate)
• Make Your Open House Memorable (RealtyTimes)

If you’d like a little break-time fun, be sure and check out the Who Comes to Open Houses? Quiz.



Open House Info Coming to RMLS.com & IDX Feeds Soon

Look for it on October 1

Effective October 1, open house data will be available on RMLS.com and in IDX feeds to your personal websites. What does this mean?

IDX feeds: your IDX provider now has access to these fields. They may be able to set up an open house search feature for you – ask your IDX provider about what they can do with the new data.

On RMLS.com: users will not be able to search exclusively for open houses, but if there is open house information for a listing, it will be displayed in the listing information. So, if someone sees a house they like, they can look to see if there are any open houses coming up for it.

Benefits? Get more exposure for your open houses! Make sure to enter specific open house data on RMLSweb – here’s how:
1. Go to Listing Load on RMLSweb.
2. Find the listing you want to enter an Open House for and click on the OH/BT button (Open House/Broker Tour).
3. Click “New Open House”.
4. Enter all of your Open House details & click Save.