How to run a broker open house that agents actually attend
Agents attend a broker open house when the time fits their week, the invitation says what is worth seeing, and the visit takes twenty minutes. Pick a weekday morning or lunch window, announce it in the listing and by direct message, have the property show-ready, and follow up the same day with the agents who came. Check your board’s rules and your brokerage’s policy on how broker open houses are listed and what may be served.
A broker open house is a showing for other agents, held before or beside the public open house. It has one job: get the people who work with buyers into the house so they can describe it to their clients from memory. Most of them do not come, because the invitation arrived late, said nothing useful, or landed at a time nobody could make. Fixing those three things gets most of the turnout.
Pick a time agents can make
- •A weekday late morning or lunch hour usually beats a weekend, when agents are busy with their own buyers and open houses.
- •Give a window, not a moment: 11:30 to 1:00 lets people drop in between appointments.
- •Hold it early in the listing’s life, ideally in the first week, so a buyer’s agent has seen the house before offers matter.
- •Check the neighbourhood: avoid a clash with a large local broker tour or office meeting if you know of one.
If the listing is coming soon, check your board’s rules and your brokerage’s policy on what you may hold or announce before it goes live.
Tell them why to come
An invitation that says “Broker open, Tuesday 11 to 1” gets ignored. Give the one or two facts an agent can picture a client in.
- •The headline: the renovated kitchen, the finished basement, the lot backing onto a ravine.
- •The price and what you are asking agents to bring: buyers, questions, or just a look.
- •Anything that is easy to get wrong from photos: room sizes, a layout that works better than it looks, natural light.
- •Parking and access, so nobody circles the block.
Put the same details in the listing’s open house remarks and in a short message to the agents you work with. Use a person’s name. A blast to a distribution list reads like one.
Set the house up for twenty minutes
- •Show-ready, as for any showing: lights on, beds made, counters clear, the smell checked.
- •A feature sheet on the counter with the price, key facts, inclusions and your contact details. Agents will photograph it and move on.
- •A sign-in for agents: name, brokerage, phone and email. It is also your follow-up list.
- •Food and drink are optional. If you serve any, check your brokerage’s policy first.
- •Your seller out of the house, with pets and valuables put away.
Work the room
Greet each agent, ask who they are thinking of for the house, and then step back. Agents want to look without being sold to. Keep your own notes on the comments you hear about price, layout and condition, because that is feedback you can pass to your seller without a single showing.
Follow up the same day
- •Thank each agent who came, by name, within hours.
- •Send agents who could not come the feature sheet and the next time they can see it.
- •Report back to your seller: how many agents came, and what they said about price, condition and layout.
- •Keep the sign-in. An agent who toured the house is the first call when a matching buyer appears.
Frequently asked questions
When should a broker open house be held?
Early in the listing’s life, in a weekday daytime window when agents are free, such as late morning through lunch. Avoid the weekend, when agents run their own events.
Do I need my seller’s approval?
Yes in practice: it is their home, and the day affects how it is lived in. Tell them the date and the window, and when they should be out.
Can I serve food?
Check your brokerage’s policy before you do. Some brokerages have rules on food and drink at open houses.
Is a broker open house advertised to the public?
It is aimed at agents. Check your board’s rules on how a broker open house should be shown in the listing.
How do I know it worked?
Count the agents who came and the comments they gave on price and layout, then see how many showings follow in the next week.
How Listing Launchpad handles broker open houses
Listing Launchpad was built so open houses are scheduled once and show up everywhere they need to, whether they are for the public or for agents.
- •Two kinds of open house, one list: the listing’s Open houses tab holds Public and Broker open houses together, in the order they happen, so Tuesday’s broker open house sits before the weekend’s public ones.
- •The date living in three places: schedule an open house on the listing and it is on the timeline, your calendar feed and the listing page.
- •The seller who is not told: a reminder goes to your sellers the day before each open house, in wording you control.
- •The seller who is not asked: through the client portal your seller can read and approve the open house plan, or ask for a change, and the sign-off reopens if the plan changes afterwards.
- •The follow-up list: the open house kiosk and QR sign-in turn visitors into leads tagged to the listing, which suits the public open house that follows.
The kiosk, the QR sign-in and a plain thank-you email are on every plan, with a Listing Launchpad credit on Free and Starter. Pro and Studio add your branding, sign-ins tagged as leads and a feedback ask in the thank-you. Seller sign-off is part of the client portal, included on every plan.
Robert Cekan is a REALTOR® in Hamilton, Ontario, the publisher of Urbanicity Hamilton, and the founder of Listing Launchpad. The playbooks here come from running real listings.