+ Reply to Thread
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 33

Thread: Open House Rules

  1. #1
    Member zanna vaida's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    WNY
    Posts
    2,858

    Thumbs up Open House Rules

    Because not all real estate agents host open houses in the same manner, you can't always be certain who will answer the door. Could be the listing agent, a neighbor, a buyer's agent or even the seller.
    Does it matter for you?

  2. #2
    Chief Cat Wrangler WNYresident's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Buffalo, New York, United States
    Posts
    46,883
    It should matter. What if it's someone casing the house out to rob it later that night?
    Buffalo Web Hosting and Graphic Design
    www.onlinemedia.net - www.vinyl-graphics.com
    Web hosting / Web Design - Signs, Banners, Vehicle Graphics

  3. #3
    Member nickelcityhomes's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Posts
    1,519
    Rule #1: An open house is not a public restroom. Don't take a dump in the toilet. You'll have plenty of time to test the plumbing after the contract is signed.
    Most of all I like bulldozers and dirt

  4. #4
    Member CAugust's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    1,782
    Quote Originally Posted by WNYresident View Post
    It should matter. What if it's someone casing the house out to rob it later that night?

    They actually recommend letting the local police know you are having one, although I dont know a lot of agents that do this...

    Some require every person to sign in and show a photo id, if you require it for one person - by law you have to require it for everyone that enters end of story.

    NOW - onto the original question...........

    Quote Originally Posted by zanna vaida View Post
    Because not all real estate agents host open houses in the same manner, you can't always be certain who will answer the door. Could be the listing agent, a neighbor, a buyer's agent or even the seller.
    Does it matter for you?
    Who will answer the door? Any agent who doesn't have a licensed agent covering their open house for them isn't a very good agent imho. What is up now with listing agents having sellers doing open houses anyway???? That is ridiculous. If the agent can't do their own open house or have another licensed agent doing it for them, they should be fired.

    besides, rarely do open houses sell homes anyway - over 80% of buyers locate the home they buy on the internet. Open houses will "sometimes" help, but if an agent is doing their job with marketing, it's just an open invitation for the nosy neighbors to take a look at "suzies' house..............
    Colleen
    Realtor

    Visit My Website

  5. #5
    Member zanna vaida's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    WNY
    Posts
    2,858

    Thumbs up

    Nosy neighboords, by the way, is a part of a good marketing plan and should be included in it. Neighboors are people and it's natural for the people to talk. The best and low cost advertising is a word of mouth. Everyone knows that.

    The good neighboors who care about neighborhoods must be aware about the latest news in their community. It's good to have concerned neighboors.
    Many houses don't the open house marketing campaign because they are priced right at the right time. They sell fast.

  6. #6
    Member CAugust's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    1,782
    [QUOTE=zanna vaida;437267]
    The good neighboors who care about neighborhoods must be aware about the latest news in their community.

    It's good to have concerned neighboors.
    QUOTE]

    The good neighbors one would hope would be intelligent enough to realize the house is for sale by the for sale sign on the front lawn, and understand about the "news" in the community of the home being for sale.

    neighbors that go to an open house, are not concerned with anything other than what they can buy or ask for when their neighbor moves
    Colleen
    Realtor

    Visit My Website

  7. #7
    Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Posts
    3,166
    Personally, I don't like open houses. We just sold a new home back in May and didn't have an open house. Pictures of the home were on line. Parties that we interested, called our realtor to make an appointment. The house did sell.

  8. #8
    Member CAugust's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    1,782
    Quote Originally Posted by Anotherview View Post
    Personally, I don't like open houses. We just sold a new home back in May and didn't have an open house. Pictures of the home were on line. Parties that we interested, called our realtor to make an appointment. The house did sell.
    There you go!! Congrats on your sale............
    Colleen
    Realtor

    Visit My Website

  9. #9
    Member dgrzeb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Western New York
    Posts
    2,946
    Whenever my wife "holds" an open house , I go with her for safety's sake..........or whenever she just shows a house to strangers , I again go with her because of the safety factor............But even she says that very few homes sell via open houses..........esp. with the 'net being so prevalent now............
    And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15
    www.onlinemedia.net

  10. #10
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Posts
    4,050
    even so, its always nice to see the inside of other peoples houses... especially a neighbor.

    Hey for all you know there could be a gadget in the kitchen that you cant live with out.

  11. #11
    Member gorja's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Lancaster, NY
    Posts
    4,316
    Originally posted by dgrzeb:
    Whenever my wife "holds" an open house , I go with her for safety's sake..........or whenever she just shows a house to strangers , I again go with her because of the safety factor............But even she says that very few homes sell via open houses..........esp. with the 'net being so prevalent now............
    Hopefully, Colleen and Zanna bring protection. Remember these two incidents in 1988 and 1992.

    In 1988, Wolfer, then 45, operated the Wolfer Real Estate Agency in Arcade, New York, a town of 5,000 located 40 miles south of Buffalo. Answering a phone inquiry, Wolfer drove out alone to show property to find her prospective client sitting in front when she arrived.

    As they joined the property owner inside the home, the prospect, who was carrying a briefcase, asked to use the bathroom.

    “When he came out, he was wearing gloves and brandishing a handgun,” Wolfer says. “He ordered us to put our hands over our heads.”

    The man then tied and gagged the pair, and instructed Wolfer to sit on the floor in an adjacent bedroom.

    He then took the homeowner out to the barn and shot him in the head.

    Wolfer, meanwhile, managed to get a foot free and crawl to a phone in the living room and dial 911. She crawled back to the bedroom just before the man suddenly reappeared.

    “He shot me twice in the face and once in the neck and left me for dead,” she says.

    Bleeding from severe head wounds, Wolfer managed to crawl to the telephone again but collapsed before she completed dialing. Fortunately, police were already responding.

    Incredibly, six months later, at the Erie County areawide fair, Wolfer recognized her assailant. After a two-week investigation, which included a search of the suspect’s telephone records, police arrested one of their own: E. Beauford Cutner, a part-time mounted deputy sheriff. Cutner was convicted of attempted murder and is now in prison.
    On June 21, 1992, Ramona Bantale, then 33, agreed to meet a man at a vacant house in a remote area near her home.

    “Once inside, he talked about his family and about building a log house,” Bantale says today. “We’d been in the house about 30 minutes when I suggested we go outside to inspect a moisture problem.”

    As Bantale turned to walk out ahead of the man, he struck her from behind, knocking her to the floor. He then pounced on her, pulling out a knife.

    “I thought he was going to kill me,” she says. “He tied my hands and forced me to accompany him to an upstairs bedroom, where he tied my hands to the bed, spread-eagle-removed the lower half of my clothes, and raped and sodomized me at knife point.

    “I wanted to die.”

    The man stepped outside briefly to move his and Bantale’s cars, parking hers inside the garage, then returned.

    “He untied me from the bed and retied my hands behind me, led me to the top of the stairs and gave me a push,” Bantale says. “I rolled down the stairs and landed on the concrete floor below.”

    The man then took Bantale outside, stuffed her into the trunk of his car, and drove off.

    “I was hurting and trembling with fear, knowing I was going to die,” Bantale says. “But I thought if I could just get the trunk open, I could possibly save myself. I took a small Bic lighter from my blazer pocket and found and an “S” hook amid the debris, and I began trying to pry the trunk open.

    “It took me a long time, and I nearly gave up several times, thinking I would never get it open. But I kept trying. Suddenly, it popped open. I quickly decided if I was going to die, I would die my way, not his.”

    Freeing her hands, Bantale jumped out of the car when it slowed for a light.

    “I recognized where I was and ran toward a nearby trailer park,” she says. “When I looked back, I suddenly realized he was chasing me. But then, because of traffic, I guess, he turned back, slammed the trunk down and drove off.”

    Bantale made her way to a trailer, where she called some friends who drove her to the police station and then to a hospital.

    “It’s a small town, and I didn’t want anyone to know I’d been raped,” she says. “But the police told me that the hospital could secure evidence from me that would convict the guy when they caught him. So, I finally agreed to go.”

    Bantale’s assailant, David A. Graczyk, a former state corrections officer and volunteer firefighter, was arrested within three days and charged with eight counts of rape, sodomy, kidnapping and other related charges.

    Graczyk pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 57 to 112 years in prison because of the brutality of his crime. Bantale was so physically and emotionally scarred she continues to receive professional counseling a year after the crime.
    There are still nut cases out there. So be careful.


    Yes, there are FOUR on the town board

  12. #12
    Member CAugust's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    1,782
    I won't go into details, b/c this is a public forum, but once I did get a scary feeling from a client that I barely knew. I trusted my own instincts and moved on quickly. Could I have been wrong? certainly. But no amount of money is worth taking the chance. Most of my clients are personal referrals or friends of friends. Your point is very well taken and appropriate.
    Colleen
    Realtor

    Visit My Website

  13. #13
    Unregistered Cgoodsp466's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    8,321
    The last open house i had i placed undercover Voice activated tape recorders in different rooms. What a riot,some people are real putzes. Got some good info like lets offer him $. Then I worked a plan becuase i was prepared.

  14. #14
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    14

    My crazy open house

    True story. I was doing yardwork on a beautiful Spring day 2 years back and noticed a light on in my upstairs guest bedroom. I was confused, so I went into my house and saw a sign in sheet on my coffee table. I was again, confused. I called out "hello" and a very cheerful woman came down MY stairs and said, "oh, you are a bit early, but come on in. I am just setting up." (She must have entered when I was getting a trowel out of the garage). I told her that I was not early and that this was, in fact, my house and that, in fact, it was NOT FOR SALE!

    She then realized that she was supposed to be next door (you'd think the big For Sale sign on their yard might be a clue). She was incredibly apologetic and I was rather calm about the whole thing and later that evening I found a bouquet of flowers and an apology note on my front steps.

    Anyway, she was an unlicensed (and somewhat clueless) friend of a very busy agent in the North Buffalo area.

  15. #15
    Member CAugust's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    1,782
    Quote Originally Posted by Cgoodsp466 View Post
    The last open house i had i placed undercover Voice activated tape recorders in different rooms. What a riot,some people are real putzes. Got some good info like lets offer him $. Then I worked a plan becuase i was prepared.

    this is a very interesting idea................ you're always thinking....
    Colleen
    Realtor

    Visit My Website

+ Reply to Thread
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

     

Similar Threads

  1. open mics in buffalo
    By alicewaits in forum WNY Music, Bands and Entertainment
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: March 30th, 2012, 09:21 PM
  2. Another body found in a vacant house
    By Michele J in forum Morning Breakfast - Breaking News
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: January 7th, 2009, 12:23 PM
  3. Another Loepere St. Scam
    By moonshine in forum Morning Breakfast - Breaking News
    Replies: 86
    Last Post: July 14th, 2006, 04:21 AM
  4. Open House
    By SBUFFHOME in forum Events in WNY
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: May 4th, 2005, 01:21 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts