Joe Wilson's Silicon Valley Real Estate Blog

I've been thinking about this lately because I've been holding open houses for the past few weeks and meeting a lot of prospective first time buyers.  After they've had a chance to walk through the home I'll usually engage them in a conversation about their home search requirements, their financing pre-approval status and how long they've been looking.  What I've noticed is that many first time buyers are savvy enough to have gotten pre-approved and they've been doing internet searches to find listings, but the listings they're looking at are only the ones that are open on Saturday or Sunday. Many of these buyers haven't yet hooked up with an agent and seem to be reluctant to do so because they "haven't found the right home yet". Here's the problem with this strategy: 

1) The best homes at the best prices will almost always sell quickly, sometimes before the first open house.

2) Only a small percentage of the available listings are held open on any given weekend. Some are never held open due to seller restrictions.

3) Great listings at competitive prices that do have an open house will usually draw offers on the Monday or Tuesday after the first open house.

So, if you're only looking at homes that are held open, you'll miss out on the majority of the available inventory and if you do find a great home at a competitive price at an open house, you're very likely to run into competition from other buyers when you submit your offer after the weekend. What's the solution?

1) Rather than waiting, partner with an experienced Realtor as soon as you begin your home search. Your Realtor will help focus your search and set up an automated listing alert to notify you of all new listings meeting your search criteria. 

2) Review the daily new listings as soon as they hit the market. If any look particularly good, then schedule a tour preferably within a day but no more than two days.  Your Realtor will schedule a personal showing for you on your lunch hour, after work or on the weekend. If you're too busy to see the home right away, your Realtor can preview the home for you and even e-mail you a video walkthrough. 

3) After touring the home, decide if you want to make an offer as soon as possible...ideally, before the first open house.

4) If it's a great home at a competitive price, make a good offer and try to lock it up before the competition sees it. You still have financing, appraisal and inspection contingencies so if you find something you don't like or the seller won't correct, you can cancel. Likewise, your lender won't let you overpay...if the home doesn't appraise, you can renegotiate the price or cancel.

So, while open houses are fun to walk through and they can help you decide what you want or don't want, focusing on open houses as a home buying strategy is inefficient, frustrating and unlikely to yield the results you're hoping for.