Getting Creative with a Twilight Open House

The concept of a twilight open house is used to show and sell your properties to those who find weekend open houses too difficult to attend. Busy lifestyles and hectic schedules may prevent qualified buyers from spending their weekend hours house hunting, and the weekday twilight open house idea can be the solution.

A twilight open house should be just that, opened at twilight. Although there are no set rules of operation, you want to have your property ready to go just before sunset and start locking the doors no later than 8pm. Effective twilight open housees should therefore run about 6-8 or 5-7pm, depending on your area and the observance of daylight savings time.

The twilight hours concept is fairly new to the real estate world, and the clients may be unaware of the industry's new game plan. So you will need to make a valiant effort with your marketing campaigns to make your prospects aware of the new times for your open houses.

1. To get the word out, you may opt to call or mail a postcard to everyone on your prospect list, giving them at least one week's notice before your twilight event. And be sure to clearly state the hours the house opens and closes to prevent stragglers from coming in at the last minute.

2. Keep your twilight open houses highly visible on your web site, whether you have an event scheduled or not. Your prospects need to know that you provide this convenient showing time on a regular basis. Once they become familiar with your site, they know they can depend on you to open a house that meets their scheduling demands.

3. Walk through the house and test all the light bulbs and switches to ensure there are no dark corners in the house. All lights should be on, including the garage and outdoor lighting for the front and back yard. You may also wish to keep a few spare light bulbs in your trunk for an emergency.

4. Never hold the twilight open house by yourself. It doesn't matter if you are male or female, a lone person in an empty house at is a sitting duck. You may opt to bring your assistant or a real estate colleague and split the commission on the sale. And two Realtors are better than one when the twilight open house becomes crowded. Your guests will have many questions and they don't like to wait in line for the answers.

5. To provide maximum service to your twilight open house guests, have a loan officer set up a station in the living room or kitchen. He or she should have plenty of loan informational flyers and ready to go with a laptop to crunch the numbers for the enquiring buyer.

The twilight open house venture has brought much success to diligent real estate agents, but the concept has not completely caught on. And although new to the industry, this marketing tactic works best in higher-end homes that are situated in good neighborhoods, which are less stressful for both buyer and agent to come out at night.

About the Author:

Joe Cline writes articles for Austin Texas real estate. Other articles written by the author related to Austin real estate and Round Rock real estate can be found on the net.