Mike, when you put the home on the market, no showings until the first open house event on a Sunday afternoon.... and market it like you mean it.....the more eyes that see the marketing, the better.... it works for us every time..... but, of course, the property MUST be priced to sell...if that happens, you'll have multiple offers and over list price...

then you market THAT happening to secure MORE listings....get mileage out of every- single-listing....

• Pre-marketing - lots of it
• Make it an EVENT, not just an 'open' house.
• Great food & beverages
• While you're setting up, videos on social media - and keep blasting away!

Good luck, Mike!

Is the goal to PACK the open house event or to SELL that property?

I've never concentrated on packing an open house Mike Easton , my focus has always been on attracting a qualified, ready, and able buyer.

Advertise way in advance in a multitude of mediums, over & over & over, til you've saturated the market for your Open House. Then be prepared for a stampede. 

Advertise, Great Price, Good Pictures, Signage, 

That being said, a packed Open House does not mean an offer will arrive

Price it right, market it and they will come.

Nationally *Open Houses do not sell houses effectively anymore (only 7% of all properties for sale sell from an open-and that's mainly new construction model homes not re-sale *NAR source), but if you wish to make your time I'd throw a preview reception for the neighbors an hour before the official open, then do as suggested by others in this Q&A to pack it with public. But I'd rather focus my energy on the 93% results than the 7%. In 20 years of selling, none bought my listings from an open.

Announce in mls, and Social Media.

email blast to your data base.

Pass out flyers to 100 homes near your subject property.

Put out plenty of open house direction signs.

I'm not sure you are asking the right question.  If your goal is to pack the open house, have a free BBQ.  Seriously, you will have more people there than you can handle.  Is that your goal? 

Or are you trying to sell the house?

Prepare, execute, follow up.  Many suggestions from our Rain friends on preparation, Barbara Todaro Debe Maxwell, CRS  Annette Lawrence , Palm Harbor, FL 727-420-4041 

Not an Open House fan, but Barbara Todaro has a ggod suggestion!

Shoot, edit, render and upload videos open house tours on demand... that is how you "pack" your open house for showings on your buyer's time. Not limited to 2 or 3 hours hit or miss style Mike Easton !

Following 6 of the 7 points on the KW 7 point open house plan, I had a packed open house two days this weekend.

I am with Michael Jacobs 

Follow the advice of Barbara Todaro. 

What Michael Jacobs said. Then again, I don't do open houses as I've never sold a home from one. 

Free food...

FB Boosts

The right price !

Outstanding marketing, social media, and professional photos. 

Advertise to the surrounding neighborhoods and offer something of value. Keep the Open House to 3 hours or less.

Mike,

Listen to Barbara Todaro .  A

Mike, this is a great question. 

And you got great answers. 

Good luck with open house.

Free drinks! But seriously most important is to price the home right

Advertise, advertise, advertise.  

Drink plenty of water.  it's guaranteed that when you go to the bathroom, some one will walk in.

you need to change the goal to selling it, not to packing an open house.  Getting people in with food/gift is never the way to get it sold.  Market strong to people looking to buy the product you are trying to sell.  Look for the right people, not most people.  Quality over quantity. 

one thing that has helped me... the week of the open house...  boost a facebook ad within a 2 or 3-mile radius of the house, featuring the property... typically it doubles my OH traffic. 

... and with that same boosted FB post, I typically see an uptick of showings from agents from offices in that radius.. now this was an unexpected outcome.. but thinking about it.. makes sense that agents from brokerages in that area would see that boosted FB post .. this for me is much more exciting than the extra public traffic.

In terms of getting the place sold,  I would take an agent showing over a busier open house anytime.  In terms of picking up more prospects for other homes and listing other homes.. a busy (but not too busy) open house can be good for me personally...but not convinced it makes much difference for the seller.

Great sign placement, conducive hours wrapping around other local events

I am not a fan of open houses. I will just leave it at that. 

From my observations of packed places two things may be needed.

OPTION 1. A Genius bar. Those iPhone places are always packed>

OPTION 2. CBD - those selling various forms of cannabis extracts attract a crowd.

The home owner may not be 100% receptive to cannabis at the open house unless they can attend.

For traditional real estate practices the successful open house must have several elements.

#1. Purpose.
#2. Eligible (19 turns on a dead end street deep in the bowels of the community is not the best candidate for an Open House).
#3. Exposure/Marketing. To me this means creating scarcity, a collaborative business partner, a well trained team and highly tuned self-selection elements.
#4. FREE. It can be hot-dogs, ice cream, kittens, (actually FREE STUFF sign,  will be a siren song.)literally

What you choose depends on the purpose of the open house. Now if you think the PURPOSE is to get the house sold and the seller has not empowered the agent by sacrificing equity or creating options, the reality is, the purpose is NOT to get the house sold. Unless you determine the purpose to be one of the other four, the open house is an exercise in accidental real estate, meaning it would have sold anyway if priced within the perception of aligned value. The purposed open house will be successful regardless of the outcome. And since your question was about PACKING and not selling, I think the PURPOSED Open House is for you.

Good price and good condition attracts potential buyers.

Give "free" anything but then again...not all who show up are buyers. So, what do buyers want is the better question....

Barbara has the best idea.

Keller Williams offers a course called "Hold It Open and Close the Deal" which provides an over-all plan to use an open house as a business opportunity.

Follow what Barbara Todaro has to say!

what is a good reason to pack an open house?

Get the owners out of there. Nothing worse than host a sale where owners follow viewers like hawk. 

I've had great results with this method

Rocking an Open House

I would rather have 1 real buyer than a house full of lookers. But i do like the idea of holding showings until the open house. 

I have seen success with an Auction format. Not an actual auctioneer but getting people (qualified buyers) to put in bids, like a silent auction. And then you have your list of interested buyers.

Put your open house on Zillow or your local MLS, people will come. Just sold a home off Zillow open house posting.