Is it common for your realtor to have someone else "do" an open house?

[grahamsmom98]

We have, after 3 straight months of preparation, finally put my late Dad's house on the market! It is 90 miles away from where we live and we have spent so much time, mileage and money (over $55,000) to make it ready-to-sell. Anyone looking for a really GREAT house in Spokane, WA?!

Anyway, I got a call yesterday from the realtor saying the planned open house had to be cancelled because another realtor in their group that was handling it called-in sick, and that it was being re-scheduled for mid-week.

First, I didn't even know they were doing an open house. Second, I would assume that the realtor I signed with would be the one hosting the open house, not some other person they work with. Am I wrong in this??

She called me, literally, as we were heading out the door to go to the lake, so I didn't ask her the above questions. I wanted to ask some other folks (you!!) before I brought up the subject with her.

Also, what else should I expect from my realtor? I mean, does she call me weekly to tell me if the house has been shown, or do I call her? Anything else I should be doing/knowing?

Thanks, for any advice or info you have!

[marimara]

It's not unheard of to have another realtor do the open house for you. It all depends on if your realtor has assistants or what not. As for showings, you can ask her to give you a weekly update, either by email or phone, if you want it.

[PapayaMom]

We had several open houses hosted by anther realtor in the agency. I was fine with it as it got the house more exposure that way.
So often it isn't the agent that you work with that actually sells the house anyway. Our buyers had their own agent, and our agent only showed the house 1 time. For me I didn't care who sold it as long as it sold

[Mpenny1001]

Our realtor will occassionally have someone else do the open house for him. If you think about it, most open houses occur around the same time frame and if the realtor has multiple listings it wouldn't be possible to be at them all.

[mightymoo]

It depends on the area. In MA, its uncommon, but in WA in my experience (selling 2 properties there, albeit in western WA not spokane) it isn't. Because in WA they don't let the agent sell both sides of the house, representing both the buyer and the seller, so there isn't a huge benefit to your listing agent to be the one sitting there, since any interested buyer would have to be referred to another agent anyway. It makes more sense to have another agent sit at the property, because then if a buyer walks in that agent can represent the buyer during the transaction. So agents plan open houses sitting in each others listings, because then they can represent the buyers and get the commission, etc.

Now, in MA (where we live now) realtors can represent both sides of hte transaction, so you don't find that so often because they would be giving up potential buyers to another agent that way.

[grahamsmom98]

Thanks for your replies.

This is the first time I've ever dealt with selling a house, and it's not even my house! I just want to know things are being correctly.

Thanks, again.

[LISSA~K]

Yep, my aunt is a realtor and she does it all the time. The primary objective for the non-listing agent during an open house though is to gain new clients, and they sometimes have fliers for other houses displayed as well.

[goldfinches]

I'm so sorry to hear about your father.

I'm a realtor, and Lissa's right - there's basically no value to an agent doing an open house but to gain clients. We usually let newer agents do ours so they can gain experience and try to get new clients. It may not be a well publicized fact, but rarely is a house sold through an open house. (I look at it as a way to show my client that I am doing work on their property.)

My MLS system allowed me to send updates to my clients on how many people viewed their house online. Plus, my office had an internal system that allowed me to e-mail my clients whenever a showing was set. Maybe your agent can do the same thing?

[PapayaMom]

good luck with the house selling. Our house was sold through an open house and the offer we had before that fell apart was an open house as well.

Our realtor has said that in our market more and more homes are selling during open houses, as clients don't feel any rush to buy a home due to the current economy they often will go out and leisurely look at places as they are open and buy when they find something they like.