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If an uptick in housing inventory and more favorable interest rates materialize in 2025, you’ll still need to find creative ways to generate buzz for your listings and expand your client network. Even amid the growing popularity of TikTok videos and Instagram reels, real estate open houses are still one of the best ways to get new clients in the door (quite literally!).
Here’s a guide to making your open house a can’t-miss occasion, with creative open house ideas that run the gamut from planning to marketing — from being the host with most to providing superb client follow-up. The right open house strategies will generate leads and establish your brand presence in high-demand neighborhoods among your most desired clientele. But what exactly is the right approach? Let’s dig in!
Summary
Open house ideas: Planning your next event
Not every one of your clients wants or needs to hold an open house, but you can certainly play up your open house events to help you reach your real estate career goals. We share some open house ideas to help you do just that, taking you through the planning, staging, marketing, hosting and follow-up for your open house events.
Listing and marketing properties is a complicated process. We recommend Top Producer for its CRM and transaction management tools. For every new listing, you’ll be reminded when to tackle important milestones. It’s a favorite feature among Top Producer users to stay on track with multiple processes — with about 25 task plans you can deploy for every part of your business.
1. Market homes to market yourself
Ideally, your open house should showcase a property with a lot of natural foot traffic in your desired farm area. This will help you meet the type of buyers you want to connect with. If you can’t nab listings like this, offer to sit open house events for busy agents at your brokerage who DO have listings in the areas you aspire to work in.
Pay attention to the characteristics of the property’s surrounding community and make sure your event meets the needs of the demographic you want to serve. For instance, if you want to work predominantly with families, you should invest your marketing, time and efforts into an open house for a listing in a good school district with plenty of nearby amenities.
Meeting new clients is the engine of your business. To keep it running, you need to capture their contact details using a tool like Curb Hero. Curb Hero is a privacy-compliant app that helps you digitize and organize your open house sign-ins, improving lead capture. Data collection works offline without an internet connection, then syncs to your database later (especially useful for properties in remote areas). Curb Hero integrates with more than 6,000 CRMS.
Check out the article for a list of more real estate apps and digital tools that’ll sync with your database and help with open house lead follow-up:
2. Strategically choose the day & time
Picking a time of day with plenty of natural sunlight will help highlight the home’s interior features, but a nighttime view of a city skyline can be equally dazzling for the right buyer and the right listing. An amazing sunset view from the backyard may make the golden hour the perfect time to showcase a property’s best features. Whatever your decision, work to highlight the property’s most attractive features and set the vibe accordingly.
You might think that weekends are best to try out new real estate open house ideas, but it all depends on your target demographic. If you’re trying to reach families, keep in mind they may be busy with soccer games and play dates on the weekends, so you should experiment with a few different scheduling options.
3. Stage the home (including virtual staging)
Staging homes generally helps you sell them faster and at higher prices. A recent study by the National Association of REALTORS Research Group revealed that using a home staging service yields marginally higher offers and fewer days on market.
Over half of the buyers’ agents said that quality home staging affects clients’ opinion of a property, with 81% saying home staging makes it easier for a buyer to visualize themselves feeling at home there. The median dollar value spent using a staging service was $600, compared to $400 when the sellers’ agent personally staged the home.
Before you start staging, consider these tips:
- Create a budget: With your clients’ input, agree on an appropriate staging budget and the desired return on investment (ROI) that you’d like to get out of your efforts.
- Create a floor plan: As an imaginative add-on experience, create a few digital floor plans and video property walkthroughs with virtual staging options. Post these to the listing and in your online and email marketing.
- Use a QR code generator: At your open house, post a scannable QR code in every room and encourage guests to compare it to the IRL version. QR codes in each room can link to virtually staged versions of the same room to help attendees reimagine the property in a variety of styles.
Here are two tools to help. Curb Hero offers FREE digital sign-in sheets and QR codes. Apply Design lets you virtually stage your listings on a budget (starting at just $7 per image).
Innovative ways to market your next open house
Not all open house events are created equal! While you can rely on a number of common marketing methods, you’ll want to align your open house marketing with the unique features of each property. For example, is the home in a walkable neighborhood or will buyers have to drive to the event? Such details should influence your marketing decisions and how you position your open house event on your MLS, social media, newsletter, etc.
4. Add open house details to your MLS listing
Don’t overlook the lowest-hanging (and most effective) fruit: your MLS. Be sure to share the date and time details of your listing’s open houses in your MLS. Hugely popular real estate search engines like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com will do a fair bit of heavy lifting for you when it comes to getting traffic to your open house — as long as you’ve mentioned these details in your MLS listing. Many people are searching Zillow, especially, so you’ll want to make sure your event details are readily available to them.
5. Tease out your open house with social media campaigns
Starting two weeks before the open house, post details and teasers on social media. Include behind-the-scenes footage of your property walk-through in Instagram reels and TikTok videos. You can even partner with local influencers (ideally ones who your target buyers follow) to craft custom content about your listing and its neighborhood, as well as lifestyle content about the area.
We love Coffee & Contracts for social media marketing. It’s a subscription-based social media toolkit founded by a former agent. For just $54 per month, you’ll gain access to a well-organized suite of done-for-you social media templates and formatted for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.
6. Promote your open house in local Facebook groups
Want to reach a hyperlocal audience? Posting your open house in city or neighborhood Facebook groups is perhaps the easiest way to reach interested homebuyers in the area. This approach boosts word-of-mouth promotion among group members, so even if viewers aren’t currently shopping for a home, they may know someone who is. Also, those viewers may remember you when it comes time for them to buy or sell if they see your posts in local Facebook groups often enough.
7. Market your open house with an email drip campaign
Send reminders at least two weeks ahead of time to the contacts in your email database who live in zip codes near the open house (or who have expressed interest in your listing’s neighborhood). Stir up engagement by asking them to forward your email to someone they know — a friend or colleague — who is planning a move to the area. Also, encourage readers to reply directly to you if they are in the market for a new home.
Market Leader lets you design and send automated email drip campaigns and organized your contacts in its robust CRM. And if you’re not tech-savvy, you can lean on the company’s ad experts to help you build marketing campaigns.
PRO TIP
Whether you’re calling, door-knocking or networking, be prepared to answer detailed questions about the house, including its square footage, lot size, year built, upgrades, school district, and more.
8. Cold call buyers in your database
With current low inventory rates, a new listing is a rare gem! No matter how advanced you are in your career, open houses still benefit from the traffic bump that cold calling can bring in the days leading up to the event. Keep it simple: Tell your prospects about the event and encourage them to stop by or share the details with someone in their network. You never know who might have a relative or friend hoping to move to the neighborhood or who might be ready to upsize into a larger home on the block.
Top Producer’s CRM includes an automated phone dialer to help you scale your cold-calling efforts and get more attendees at your open houses. Follow-up tools help you segment your client database, tagging them as buyers or sellers and according to their interests. With Top Producer’s fully integrated HomeIntel feature, you’ll know more about every client your database, including how long they’ve lived in their home, their home equity, and even the interest rate they’re paying on their mortgage.
9. Organize a direct mail campaign
David Myer, an agent in Bedford, New Hampshire, generated two additional listings with a recent direct mail campaign to just 100 homes in the area surrounding one of his listings. We love Wise Pelican for its affordable, oversized, full-color postcards.
Check out our in-depth guides to real estate farming, direct mail campaigns, and circle prospecting, linked below. You can use the strategies we outline to market your open house, your new listings and more!
10. Invite prospective sellers
We know that open houses are a great way to meet prospective buyers. It may sound counterintuitive, but open houses are also an ideal opportunity to deepen your relationships with prospective sellers in your network. Invite them to stop by and see your marketing skills at work! Your invitation might spur them to consider sprucing up their home now and readying it for sale — while positioning you as an active, successful agent working in your zip code.
We love Handwrytten for personalized open-house invitations that look as though they were handwritten by you — but can be ordered in bulk and sent to your database directly.
If you want a more targeted approach, you can use predictive analytics to identify potential sellers who live near your listing. SmartZip uses AI-driven data analysis to identify seller prospects based hundreds of consumer data points, tax records, and more. Its cutting-edge technology helps you target homeowners near your listings who are most likely to sell. Its lead nurturing tools help you turn those prospects into leads.
Creative ideas for hosting your next open house
Creativity is key when it comes to hosting a memorable, enjoyable open house. Put yourself in the home shopper’s mindset. They are trying to choose their next home, and it’s a huge financial investment. The process is stressful and the competition can be fierce. Buyers may be thinking about financing, making a competitive offer, and all the factors that go into choosing where to live. They’ll need to move soon (after a nail-biting escrow period). Try to ease their stress with a welcoming open house vibe.
11. Host an exclusive, neighbors-only preview
David Myer of AimPoint Realty Group, Keller Williams, generated three transactions by door-knocking the neighborhood before one of his open house events this year. Make the neighbors feel special and get more face time with them by hosting an exclusive preview of your listing for an hour before the public viewing begins. They’ll love the extra attention and the chance to be nosy. They’ll see you giving personalized service to your seller client and will likely remember that when it comes time to list their own home.
Here’s a little script you can use when door-knocking around your next open house:
“I’m hosting an open house at your neighbor’s this coming weekend. I’d love to invite you to an exclusive, neighbors-only preview so you can see what the home is like, and find out what homes in the neighborhood are selling for. I’d love it if you could stop by!”
12. Add custom signage to direct guests
Custom signage at your real estate open house can help visitors find the property. Starting from the curb, they should feel welcome and at home. Peruse Etsy and Amazon for more custom welcome mats. Seek inspiration on Pinterest for additional cute real estate open house ideas, like these custom water bottle tags to give as gifts.
Canva is a user-friendly tool for creating flyers, mailers, and custom signage for your upcoming real estate open house. You can start for free or upgrade to premium for advanced options like custom-branded fonts.
13. Set up a welcome table
Create a welcome table with a warm, friendly welcome sign and water bottles to make people feel at home. We love ready-made neck tags with your contact details on them, like the ones pictured above from Etsy. Canva is a user-friendly tool for creating a welcome sign for your open house. Don’t forget to add a QR Code from Curb Hero for easy mobile phone sign-in. Start for free with Canva and upgrade to premium for advanced options like custom-branded fonts.
14. Warmly welcome every guest
A good rule of thumb is to introduce yourself to every guest upon arrival so they can begin imagining your listing as a welcoming home they could call their own. Have them share their contact details and property interests on your sign-in sheet (see our Curb Hero recommendations earlier in this article) and tell them where you’ll be whenever they are ready to ask questions.
15. Serve trendy cocktails, wine & food
Not every real estate agent likes serving food and treats at an open house (think of the mess), but there’s no doubt that food is a fast rapport-builder. Have your event catered if that’s in the budget. Or serve popular, swoon-worthy treats from a local restaurant or bakery. Be sure to have non-alcoholic beverage options on hand if you’re serving wine, bubbly or cocktails. And if you can hire someone to handle the food service or invite a new agent from your office to help, that’s ideal. We love this easy-to-nibble, mess-proof charcuterie board, pictured above.
If you’re worried about having to haul away wasted leftovers, try handing pre-packaged snacks to your guests on their way out the door as a thank you. That way, you distribute your entire supply (no waste) and save yourself the hassle of cleanup. Freshly baked and individually wrapped cookies or these brown butter rice crispy treats are always a hit.
16. Goodie bags, contest giveaways & swag
While we don’t recommend giving branded items as closing gifts, an open house is an ideal place to offer keychains, pens, corkscrews, letter openers, fridge magnets or office accessories to your guests. Opt for something they’ll use and see every day (so they’ll see your smiling face, or at the very least, your name and phone number).
Goodie bags might also include local area information or a local magazine, your branded swag, and a wrapped treat like a cookie or candy. A contest giveaway is a great way to get guests to share their contact info with you using your QR code or favorite open house sign-in tool. Gift cards to local cafes or shops or a print by a local artist make ideal raffle prizes. Choose a giveaway that shows local residents you’re familiar with the area and that you support the community.
17. Mingle & network effectively
Strike a balance between being available to speak with guests and giving them privacy to take in the home. Highlight one or two interesting facts about the property and ask guests what made them decide to come. Before the guests leave, make sure to offer a final handshake (or elbow bump) and ask them again what they thought of the property. Tell them you will follow up via email so they know to look out for more communication in the following days.
PRO TIP
According to Zillow’s recent Consumer Housing Trends Report for Agents, 78% of sellers said they’re more likely to hire an agent who offers hi-res photography, and 71% said they’re more likely to hire someone providing virtual tours and/or interactive floor plans.
18. Livestream your open house for virtual attendees
Post a livestream of the event to Instagram and Facebook, inviting anyone who can’t attend IRL to check out a tour of the property through their device. You’ll extend your reach and share the listing with more people while simultaneously helping your social media audience get to know you and your marketing capabilities. As a bonus, you’ll have a piece of social media content that’ll live long after your listing is sold.
19. Collect contact information
Gathering lead information from open house attendees is crucial. Sure, you’re trying to market and sell your listing, but open house events are the best way to meet active home buyers. Lead capture is crucial for effective follow-up so you can turn those new leads into lifelong clients.
While paper & pen sign-in sheets do the trick, we prefer to place a sign with a scannable QR code for digital sign-in at the welcome table and even in every room. With Curb Hero, guests can scan a QR code to sign in using their own mobile phones, giving you immediate access to their contact information and making follow-ups easy. To encourage participation, invite open-house guests to scan & sign in for a prize draw to win a gift card to a local business.
Countless digital tools will sync with your CRM and help you follow up immediately(some with instant text messages or email drip campaigns). By the time the open house has ended, some of these tools will have already contacted your guests for you with a thank you, giving all those active homebuyers your contact information. Check out some of our favorite sign-in tool in this article:
20. Team up with local businesses
Nothing makes a real estate open house more memorable than stylish merch, tasty coffee and good music. One fun open house idea is to collaborate with local businesses, such as coffee shops, DJs or interior designers. After all, who says visitors can’t come for the real estate but stay for the good vibes?
For this real estate open house idea, choose local business partners who can help you set the right tone for the property. If you’re showing a luxury home with a big party pool, a nightclub-style DJ playing smooth electronic music would be the perfect addition to elevate the ambiance. On the other hand, a platter of local donuts and regional roasted coffee would be better suited to a family home where buyers plan to spend many early mornings packing lunches around the kitchen island.
21. Showcase local artists
For a more creative open house idea, showcase local artists by pairing a gallery showing with your next open house event. Local artists are always open to new opportunities to display their work. You’ll create a charming event that sparks conversations and connection. The artist may invite prospective buyers from their network, too. This approach not only helps you stage the home with beautiful pieces, but it also supports the arts in your community.
Open house follow-up ideas
It’s absolutely critical that you follow up with all open-house guests within a day after your event. Preferably within hours. If you don’t, you’re leaving money on the table and losing an opportunity with new, hot prospects who are actively home shopping and who may not yet have an agent to represent them.
22. Follow up with every guest, right away
Create an organized approach to ensure you reach out to every open house attendee within 24 hours or less. While they may not make an offer on your listing, they are actively looking — and you are now armed with vital information about the kind of property they’re interested in.
Whether you reach out with an automated or personalized email, text or friendly phone call, we recommend a pressure-free but highly professional approach that lets them know you’re available to answer questions about the property. Helpful and immediate outreach will help nurture your relationship with these new potential clients, increasing your odds of turning them into immediate sales and lifelong clients.
23. Segment your new leads in your CRM
We recommend segmenting your open house audience, tagging them as active buyers, with a reminder to send them comparable listings in similar price ranges, school districts and neighborhoods. While they’re all fresh in your memory, add notes about their interests, children’s names, property wants and needs, etc.
With over 250 integrations, Follow Up Boss helps you organize leads and delegate outreach among your team members. Immediately following an open house, you can set up a touchpoint with attendees via email, phone call or text message. You can even automate an email before your open house begins, ensuring everyone who attends gets an immediate follow-up!
Open house ideas: The full picture
Successful open houses require careful planning and follow-through, with marketing customized to the neighborhood, property and target audience. Open houses are still one of the most effective ways to connect one-on-one with new buyers and leave a lasting impression. We hope these creative open house ideas help you sell your listings quickly and expand your network of clients with easy, impactful follow-up.
