The New Normal: Why You Should Be Live Streaming Your Next Open House

With the COVID-19 outbreak, many  industries were turned upsidedown. Meanwhile, as regulations are developed and implemented to help curb the sickness, businesses have also been forced to rethink how they conduct their daily activities.

This includes the entire field of real estate, and one of its key elements: the Open House.

Thankfully, technology comes to our rescue, and the answer comes in the form of Live Streaming Open Houses.

For those not yet familiar with how it works, here’s how it goes:

• The agent sets up a time and date that they will be at the showcased property. They will also provide a link for people who wish to view the property.
• On the scheduled date, the agent will be present at the property… by themselves (or possibly with one assistant). Using their video phone and the internet, they will then begin a live broadcast of themselves doing a tour of the property as one would at a regular open house.
• On the same date, interested buyers will click on the link that was provided beforehand, in order to view the agent’s live broadcast.
• During the broadcast, all the viewers can interact with the agent/s as they go through the property. They can ask or direct the agent to show them certain parts of the property, ask specific questions, focus on certain structural details, etc.

If you’re a technophobe, don’t worry. The process may sound complicated and technical, but trust us, it’s actually a lot simpler and more straightforward than it seems.

In fact, if you’ve ever taken a video recording using your phone, and/or you’ve ever had Skype or Zoom call, then congratulations! You’re already halfway there!

Now that you know what it is, here are just some of the key benefits of adopting this new way of conducting an open house during these extraordinary times.

What Are the Benefits of Live Streaming my Open House?

There are many benefits to live streaming your open house, many of which are still valuable even without the current pandemic.

• Since there won’t be any commute involved, more people will be willing — and able — to take a peek at what you’re selling. Let’s face it, there are just simply days when the prospect of having to get dressed, spend money on commute or gas, and show up somewhere, is completely unappetizing. However, with a live streamed open house, clients won’t have to worry about any of that, as they can now participate from the comfort of their own homes.

No need to worry about gas! Or getting lost on the way to the open house! Or finding some place to park! Or bad weather! All they’ll really need to do is get on their device, grab a drink, and tune in to your live stream.

• Being able to host an almost unlimited number of prospects at each open house. Instead of just having ten or thirty people attend your open house, can you imagine having dozens, hundreds, or even THOUSANDS of people checking out your property tour? This is entirely possible with live streaming!

The only thing that will limit you at this point, will most likely be how much time you’re willing to spend live streaming, and/or your ability to handle comments from everyone all at once (which is why we recommend getting an assistant).

• Sellers will thank you for it. Being able to host thousands of prospects at a time is great. But what’s even better is that you can do this without worrying that the healthy foot traffic will damage the beautiful floors you’re trying to show off.

• Even buyers overseas can join in! Since having to be physically at the address is no longer a requirement for them, prospects from other countries can also join your open house. This creates opportunities for you to market to international buyers, as well as citizens who are currently out of the country.

• Live streaming is super cost-effective. In fact, it’s FREE on a lot of platforms, including the big social media sites, Facebook, Instagram, and many others.

• It’s savvy. Besides being able to help keep everyone safe from infection, hosting live stream open houses also shows that you’re adapting to the current world situation. As a bonus, this modern approach is also attractive to the millennial generation of home buyers.

These are just a few of the many benefits of conducting open houses over live streaming. In fact, to help out our clients, we’ve recently rolled out a function that makes it easier for agents to announce their upcoming live streams! You can check it out by clicking here.

For tips on how to get started with live streaming, check out our blog post about it here!

Excited for your first open house live stream? Tell us about it in the comments!