How Catered Open Houses Can Market Your Real Estate Business

November 8, 2021 ashley adamczyk

If you’re a top real estate agent in Los Angeles and you’re ready to take on more clients, marketing your business is your key to success!

How can catering help you achieve that goal?

You may just be surprised...Read on to find out!

Why Market Your Real Estate Business

Real estate is a business like any other, and part of your work is seeking out and reeling in new clients. Marketing is an important tool for any real estate business, and there are a few important marketing strategies you can employ to make connections with new clients.

In order to give your real estate business the best chance of being successful, you need to have a marketing presence.

This means not only advertising and making the most of social media, but also getting your face out there and making personal connections with people who may be seeking broker representation.

Best Ways to Market Your Real Estate Business

Here are a few marketing strategies for real estate:

Experiential Marketing (This marketing strategy involves engaging people in a unique experience in order to make connections that bring to your business. An example of this is staging a themed open house that is unique and attracts new potential clients, whether or not they’re in the market for the property you are showing. Or running a walking tour of a neighborhood where you are selling homes in order to provide a valuable experience for potential clients and make a connection on a human level.)
Social Media Marketing (Social media has become the most important mode of outreach for businesses. By advertising events and new listings on social media, engaging with potential clients, and providing useful or valuable social media content, you can market your real estate business towards a larger target audience.)
Content Marketing (Content marketing is the idea of attracting people with online content. This means creating search engine optimized blogs for your website, providing resources to potential clients, and generally boosting your businesses by including plenty of information related to the services you provide.)

Host Events to Get More Real Estate Clients

As part of experiential marketing, in which you sell potential clients on an experience rather than simply broadcasting marketing messages, events are really important. By putting on events that potential home buyers or sellers would be interested in, you can attract clientele and make a good first impression.

Here are some event ideas to help get new real estate clients:

Homeowner Seminar (One way to attract potential new clients is by hosting a seminar of some kind. This can be something as simple as “How to Improve Your House Before Listing It” or even multiple courses that help owners with DIY home improvement projects. By offering something of value to potential future clients, you increase the chances that they will come to your business when it’s time for them to sell.)
Community Events (Looking to get more family clients? Put up halloween decorations outside the office and make your place a go-to for trick-or-treaters. Then, include a pamphlet for parents about your services. Sponsor an event in the park, or invite a childrens’ musician to an open house to bring in your target audience and perhaps generate leads. This sets you up to be a trustworthy broker for clients with families.)
Open Houses (Open houses are a classic way to attract new clients. By opening the doors of a property you have on the market, you invite potential buyers in but also welcome in people who may not have a broker yet and may be considering buying or selling property in the near future. That way you can kill two birds with one stone by working to sell your current property and also making connections that may lead to your next client relationships.)

How to Turn an Open House Into a Marketing Opportunity

Open houses are great ways to show off your real estate capabilities! By putting together an impressive event to showcase a property you have on the market, you can attract both prospective home buyers and also potential new clients.

This is your opportunity to show people who walk through the door the kind of attention to detail you put into your work. Plus, it gives you a chance to show your face and interact with people on a human and emotional level.

If you make a good impression, when those people decide to sell or buy a home, they will think of you to represent them.

When planning your next open house, don’t just think of it as an opportunity to generate interest in a specific property, see it as a chance to market your business.

Open House Tips for Realtors

In order to show off the best of your real estate abilities in an open house, make sure to keep these things in mind:

Host open houses regularly (Since open houses are such perfect opportunities to drum up new business, you will benefit the most if you host them regularly. Consistency is actually the key to any marketing strategy because it establishes you as trustworthy and an authority. )
Help homeowners upgrade (Before showing off a property, it is important to guide homeowners through some basic upgrades. This means fixing things around the house that are broken or unsightly, and perhaps doing a series of DIY projects to take the property to the next level.)
Get information on the competition (Before hosting an open house, it’s a good idea to get a sense of what other similar properties are like. Attend other open houses in the Southbay Los Angeles area, check up on price points and features of properties listed nearby, and make sure to get all the facts straight so you can sell the property using your knowledge.)
Show off the best of the house (When staging a home for an open house, it is vital to show off the property’s best features. Highlight impressive lighting by throwing a twilight open house, serve treats in a large kitchen to bring the focus there, or invite guests out onto a patio that looks out on Hermosa Beach for refreshments.)
Stage the home (Staging a home to look its best is important when throwing an open house. This means encouraging the homeowners to tidy up, use fresh sheets, polish floors, decorate, and maybe even change out some furniture. The idea is to make the house look picture-perfect but also homey and inviting so that potential buyers can imagine living there.)
Use Social Media (Make the most of social media by advertising your open house and what makes it unique. Then, perhaps live stream the open house so those who cannot be there in person can still get a glimpse of the property and the event.)
Put out a sign up sheet (Not putting out a sign up sheet is a major missed opportunity. Simply provide a clipboard with a printed piece of paper that asks visitors if they’d like to get emails from you or be advised about future open houses. This is your chance to get contact info for future potential clients. You should also reach out to those who signed up a few days later to follow up while the open house is still fresh in their minds.)
Hire a caterer (Let’s face it, staging an open house can be a tiring endeavor. There is a lot of work that goes into hosting a perfect event, staging a home, and talking to potential clients. Take some of the stress out of the planning by hiring a catering company to take care of food and beverages.)

Catering Open Houses

Providing food and drinks during an open house is an important way to build on your marketing strategy for your real estate business and draw in new clients. Catering an open house allows you to showcase how you will go above and beyond for anyone you represent.

Not only does catering look more polished than setting out deli platters you’ve picked up yourself, it’s also far easier when you can leave one element of the event to the pros.

Catered food at open houses encourages people to stay longer, which gives you more time to convince them that you are the right person to represent them when they buy or sell their next home.

Plus, catered food fills the house with welcoming aromas and makes a property more homey.

Dessert Catering to Win Over Open House Clients

Dessert catering is a versatile complement to any event, and a crowd pleaser. By investing in dessert catering for your open house, you inject some personality into the event and make it memorable.

It gives people who are at the open house something to look forward to, wins over children (and, in turn, their parents), and can be the highlight of any real estate open house.

In the Orange County, San Diego or Los Angeles area, year-round pleasant weather means that cold sweet treats are always welcome.

By catering your open house with popsicles, ice cream, gelato, or alcohol popsicles, you provide guests with a unique experience that is always memorable and will bring them back to your business.