Grow your database and grow your real estate business with Jen Berbas’ systematic plan for goal-setting, open house hosting and buyer follow-up.
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You know that feeling when you’re packing for a trip but didn’t leave yourself enough time before your flight? You’re scrambling around the house trying to remember what you need, and yet somehow you wind up in a strange city with only pajama pants to wear?
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If you had a list of what you needed to bring, you would expend far less energy preparing for your trip. You’d move faster and panic less. Good planning helps you achieve great results with minimal stress.
You may wonder what vacations have to do with open houses. I promise there’s a correlation, other than the infamous “go out of town and you’ll go under contract” one. If open houses are part of your 2026 plan to grow your database, why not make it easy on yourself with a great plan that can also predict how much you’re making hourly?
Define success
First, you have to define what success means to you. This will keep you motivated and help you track outcomes and refine your goals for the following year.
When we set goals, we often can’t control the outcomes. Rising interest rates or pandemics are outside forces that can impact the final outcome regardless of how hard you work. Setting sales goals that make you vulnerable to market forces is demoralizing, so don’t set them. I never have.
Instead, set goals for activities you can control that will positively affect your business. Here are some examples of measurable goals that you can have full control over:
- Meet 10 new people a week
- Hold 30 open houses a year
- Meet 5 people at each open house
- Host 4 homebuyer seminars per year
Calculate your hourly rate
Before you start on an open house program, build a process around it. Know what your goal is so you can refine your program as you proceed.
If you can answer these questions, you can calculate how much you make per hour or open house (of course, we have a spreadsheet for this):
- How many people do you expect to meet at an open house?
- How many open houses will you host?
- How many hours for an open house? (Don’t forget to count travel time and prep time.)
- How many people do you need to meet to complete a transaction this year?
- What is the average price point you can expect?
- What is your estimated professional fee earned?
Will this change your outcomes directly? Probably not. Does it motivate you and make you feel in control of your outcome? 100 percent. And motivation is what will help you stick with the plan.
Select the right properties
Choose new listings that are presented well in the areas you’re targeting. Seek out a listing agent who presents homes well: good-quality photos, staged and an environment where you can host a gathering for the neighborhood.
Working with the same listing agents all the time is also helpful. You’ll learn from them, get good ideas and fall into a rhythm so it doesn’t feel like you’re starting all over with a new group every time.
Get organized
Think of an open house as if you’re hosting a party. Making an “open house kit” you store in a big plastic bin with napkins, a stack of business cards, sign-in sheets, pens, paper towels, a roll of toilet paper, Windex and even a vacuum makes the prepping a lot easier. (And don’t forget music.)
Leave a Post-it note in the bin with your checklist of items so you can make sure nothing gets missed. This ensures you have the same experience every time, making the process less stressful and more time-efficient.
Your buyer presentation
You should also have your buyer presentation downloaded onto an iPad for easy access. You’ll stand out and show people how you think, that you have a process. Most agents are not organized or well-prepared, and the consumer can feel that.
Share your data
Your value add is the way you see the data and what you can teach the consumer about the market. Talk about your thoughts on inventory in that neighborhood or that the overall citywide market may tend to be different. Tell them what may stand out about the home you’re holding open versus others that may have sold in the neighborhood.
Serve your client: the listing agent
When you hold an open house, your client is the listing agent. Consistently well-presented listings are rare. When you find an agent who maintains this high standard and you help them serve their seller, the relationship can be symbiotic and long-running.
The listing agent will also want feedback to share with the seller. We request that our hosting agents send us screenshots of the sign-in sheet along with visitor counts and feedback before they leave the property.
The listing agent also needs to be able to follow up with represented buyers’ agents, as this is in the seller’s best interest. Sometimes you may feel like getting that information is difficult, but this script usually does the trick.
“Thank you so much for joining us. The sellers have asked the listing agent to obtain the agent’s name for anyone who is already represented so they can get feedback from your agent. The listing agent wants to respect the seller’s wishes, so if you don’t mind, can you sign in and leave your agent’s name as well so the listing agent can contact them for feedback?”
Anyone who comes in unrepresented is your new best friend.
Now what?
Now that you have their contact info, our job is to serve people first, and the business will follow.
Here are some examples of how to serve your potential new clients:
- Add them to your postcard, newsletter and annual review lists
- Negotiate with a vendor for maintenance services for all your clients, and add these open house friends to the list of people who receive the offer
- Invite them to your next open house in the neighborhood (people love to come see homes)
- Start a monthly market search for them in their area
The bigger your database, the more business you’ll do over time. Motivating yourself to actively grow your database by setting measurable goals is a great way to get ahead in the years to come.
Jen Berbas is the team lead of the Berbas Group in Austin, Texas. Connect with her on Instagram and Linkedin.
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