Even for the most experienced real estate agent, planning an open house can be tricky—especially when it comes to luxury home auctions. Nevertheless, an open house is an essential tactic for drumming up interest and finding the perfect buyer for your listing.
There are countless details to consider when preparing for a luxury open house. Fortunately, you can masterfully execute open houses for your luxury auctions with a bit of careful planning and strategic marketing.
Below is a comprehensive guide to help agents plan a stellar open house for luxury home auctions.
Coordinate With Other Agents
Fellow agents are not your rivals—they’re your allies. Collaboration amongst agents can expose your listing to a wealth of potential buyers you may not have otherwise had access to. Contact other local agents during the initial planning phase and ask if they’re planning any open houses for similar properties in the same neighborhood. If so, you can coordinate and promote an open house day together. This allows you to pool your resources and create a larger, more attractive open house event. Having more than one open house in the same neighborhood can help draw in more buyers.
Create a Website for the Property
Luxury auctions are not a standard real estate offering. For standard real estate listings, social media marketing and brochures are fine. However, for unique listings and luxury properties, it’s vital to go the extra mile when it comes to marketing. Buyers of high-end real estate have come to expect a fully-immersive experience and there’s no better way to provide that than with an exclusive website.
A website for your luxury listing will provide a platform to tell the story of the property and convey its ultra exclusivity to potential buyers. Put your marketing team to work and ask for the highest quality copywriting in addition to captivating photos and videos. Drone technology can help film expansive aerial views of the property. You can also use a program like Asteroom to capture realistic scans using your phone to create 3D interactive tours and floor plans. If you want to take it a step further, you can create a 6D rendering of the property.
Utilize Multiple Marketing Channels
The demand for luxury homes soared in 2021 as more buyers searched for places to invest their funds. Still, how you market your open houses will ultimately determine the success of your luxury auctions. A dedicated website is a necessary marketing tactic in the current marketplace, and social media is just as important for advertising your open house.
Share your high-quality photos and videos of the property on social media, and outline details of your open house. You can design a targeted ad to share on Facebook and geotag an Instagram post. Partner with local influencers to share your content. Invite them to your open house, so they can experience the event and possibly post about it live. Doing this will broaden your audience and reach new potential buyers in the area.
Furthermore, you can work with a company, such as Luxmark, to create an interactive digital storybook to showcase the home. A storybook like this is helpful for international buyers or others who cannot physically attend the open house. You can distribute the storybook to your clients along with a personalized invitation to the open house.
Create a Luxury Open House Experience
Luxury buyers expect an open house to be a high-end event. You should be serving champagne and delicate hors d’oeuvres to highlight local chefs and restaurants. You also want to provide entertainment, such as a musician or DJ.
Recruit a few local artisans to do demonstrations and share their work. Hire a distillery to offer free tastings. Invite a local chef to cook onsite. This can all help create buzz around your listing.
When your guests leave, provide a goody bag, including items that were on display during the open house. Be wary of making your goody bags too cheesy, though. You want to refrain from giving guests “swag” or branded items. Edible items, like jams and honey, are nice treats to take home.
Make Your Guests Feel at Home
Your open house should ultimately make potential buyers feel like they’re already at home. Staging the property with high-end fixtures and furnishings can help you create this atmosphere.
You can rent luxury items to strategically place around the house. Buyers love to see high-end brands in the homes they’re looking at. Displaying Chanel, Hermes, and YSL bags in the closet and a Lamborghini or Porsche in the garage will do the trick.
Additionally, you want to make sure there are no hiccups in moving guests from one room to the next. You don’t want anything disrupting the flow of the home. Guests should be able to effortlessly move throughout the home without running into clutter or feeling disjointed.
You can ease this process by having a streamlined digital check-in process to get them in the door. Once inside, potential buyers should be greeted with refreshments and small bites—and there should be staff collecting empty glasses and plates.
Interested in Hosting an Open House for a Luxury Home Auction?
Chad Roffers is Chairman of the global luxury real estate auction firm Concierge Auctions. Chad and his marketing partner, Laura Brady, have led the company’s growth to over $2 billion in real estate auction sales. They’ve also broken world records for the highest-priced homes ever achieved at auction and garnered activity across 40 U.S. states and 28 countries. The firm owns the most comprehensive and intelligent database of high-net-worth real estate buyers and sellers in the industry.
If you have any questions about the luxury home auction process, contact Chad today!