Skip to content Quick Links:
- Why do most open houses sit empty?
- What is the fastest way to fill an open house?
- How do you build the neighbor call list?
- What do you say when neighbors say no?
- What happens after you add someone to your database?
- How do you layer ads on top of the calls?
- What results should you expect from these open house marketing ideas?
- Your one week open house marketing plan
I hear this one from agents every week: “Tyler, I sat at my open house for two hours and nobody came. Are open houses even worth it anymore?” The reality is, the open house format still works. It’s the marketing behind it that usually never got done.
The worst thing you can do with your Saturday is sit in an empty living room, then call your seller and explain why nobody showed up. We blame the market, we blame the holiday weekend, we blame the weather. But when an open house is marketed correctly, people show up.
I’ve been a licensed agent for almost 20 years, and my team still uses open houses as one of our best listing tools. Here are the seven open house marketing ideas we use to fill the room, including the exact script for the one that matters most.
Co-authored by the REDX Publishing Team and:
Tyler Fenn
Tyler Fenn is the lead trainer with REDX Academy and a real estate agent actively in production.
Why do most open houses sit empty?
Because most agents never actually invite anyone. The typical open house gets a note on the MLS listing, a sign at the end of the street with a balloon on it, and maybe one of those little flags flapping in the wind. Almost nobody is paying attention to any of that.
Think about it like a pilot’s pre-flight checklist. A commercial pilot runs the checklist before every single flight, no matter how experienced they are. An open house works the same way: there’s a short list of marketing steps that make it succeed, and skipping them usually means an empty room and a hard conversation with your client.
The seven open house marketing ideas below are that checklist. The first one does most of the work.
What is the fastest way to fill an open house?
Personally call the 100 closest neighbors and invite them. That means a real phone call from the agent who’ll be standing in that house on Saturday, not a mass text or a flyer on a windshield.
Here is the weekday schedule my team runs for a Saturday open house (keep your calls to weekdays and daytime hours, in line with REDX’s calling guidance):
- Monday through Wednesday: call the 100 closest homes to the listing. Personally invite everyone who answers.
- Thursday and Friday: call everyone you did not reach on the first pass.
And here is the script, word for word:
“Hi, this is Tyler with the Lance Group. I’m calling because we’re holding an open house at your neighbor’s home, the Joneses. They live just around the corner from you. It’s this Saturday from 2-4pm, and I’d like to personally invite you to attend. Even if you don’t have any real estate needs right now, we all want to know what’s happening with the market. I’ll be there personally to answer any questions. Can I count on you to be there?”
Now, 999 times out of 1,000, they’re going to say no, and that’s fine. A handful of the people within walking distance will think about it Saturday afternoon and go, “Hey, that open house is going on. Want to walk over real quick?” We all love to see the inside of our neighbors’ homes. It’s the sneakiest way to find out how our own home compares.
How do you build the neighbor call list?
Pull the 100 closest owner-occupied homes around the listing before you dial. My team does this with GeoLeads™: drop a pin on the listing or draw a boundary around the neighborhood, and it returns the homeowners’ names and phone numbers for the closest homes.
Two filters make the list dramatically better:
- Owner-occupied only. You want the people who actually live near the listing. An out-of-state landlord is not walking to your open house.
- Seven-plus years of ownership. Seven years is the average length of ownership before people buy a new home. Filtering for it stacks your list with the neighbors most likely to be thinking about their next move.
One compliance note before you dial: REDX recommends agents avoid calling numbers on the Do Not Call list, and GeoLeads cross-checks against it. If you want the full rules, read the agent’s guide to the DNC list and TCPA before your first session.
What do you say when neighbors say no?
Ask one more question: “Do you have anybody keeping you up to date on your home in the current market?” This single line is what turns open house marketing from a one-day event into a database-building machine.
Prospecting is finding the gold amongst the dirt. Most of the neighbors you call will never attend your open house, and that is expected. But every friendly conversation is a chance to add a homeowner to your database:
- Ask: “Do you have anybody keeping you up to date on your home in the current market?”
- Follow with: “Would you mind if I kept in touch from time to time? Is a text or an email better? I promise I won’t spam you.”
- Add them to your database immediately, tagged with where you met them and which listing you called about.
The “from time to time” phrasing matters. It’s non-confrontational and requires no commitment, which is why people say yes to it. Don’t expect your prospect to do your job for you: nobody has ever walked up to me and said, “Are you an agent? Because I need someone to keep me up to date on my home.” Not once in almost 20 years, which is exactly why you have to ask.
What happens after you add someone to your database?
Provide something of value within 72 hours. If a neighbor agrees to hear from you, send a market snapshot for their address or neighborhood within three days. Then keep a regular rhythm: quarterly updates at minimum, graduating into your weekly database email.
A database only produces business when you engage with it. If you’ve got 20,000 people in there and never communicate with them, the reality is you have zero people. Consistent engagement is what builds a sustainable, predictable, profitable business, and it’s why I treat every open house as a database event first and a showing second.
How do you layer ads on top of the calls?
Run targeted social ads to the same neighborhood during the same week. The phone call is the personal invite; the ad is the reminder that keeps the open house in front of neighbors as Saturday gets closer.
My team uses Ad Builder for this because it pulls the audience straight from the same lead lists we are calling and launches from a pre-built open house template in about a minute. A neighbor who got your call on Monday and sees your ad on Thursday has two reasons to walk over on Saturday. That combination of a personal touch plus a visual reminder is high performing, low effort.
What results should you expect from these open house marketing ideas?
Expect a fuller room on Saturday, a happier seller, and a bigger database, in that order. Set your expectations with real numbers so one quiet weekend does not shake you:
- Roughly 1 listing appointment per 125 to 140 neighbor connections. Those are the numbers I see with geographic prospecting. The appointment is a bonus; the database is the prize.
- According to the NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 81% of sellers speak to only one agent before choosing who to hire. The agent who called, invited, and followed up is the one who gets that call.
- Your current seller notices. When neighbors mention “your realtor personally called me about the open house,” the goodwill with your client goes a long way, and “I personally call 100 of your neighbors” becomes a powerful line in your next listing presentation.
Your one week open house marketing plan
Here is the whole system as a checklist you can run for your next listing. Print it, tape it to your monitor, and work it top to bottom:
- Monday: Pull the 100 closest owner-occupied homes around the listing with GeoLeads. Apply the seven-plus years of ownership filter.
- Monday: Launch your open house ad to the same neighborhood audience.
- Monday through Wednesday: First calling pass. Use the invite script word for word.
- Thursday and Friday: Second calling pass for everyone you missed.
- Every call: When they decline, ask the database question and the “from time to time” follow-up.
- Within 72 hours: Send something of value to every new database contact.
- Saturday, 2-4pm: Work the room, collect contact info, and book the follow-up conversations.
Memorize the script until it is second nature, because that is how a script becomes a skill. Run this plan on your next three listings and watch what it does to your Saturday attendance, your database, and your listing presentation. That is the agent the whole neighborhood already knows before the sign ever goes up.
