Sometimes to draw to an open house, you need an open kitchen or an open bar.
In the heat of summer, brokers are trying to find ways to spice up their open houses — and that includes marketing more to the broker community.
For example, Nikki Scheuer, vice president for Prudential Douglas Elliman, recently arranged a 12-stop broker open house along Central Park South.
While the people milling around the 1,500-square-foot apartment at Central Park South and stopping to admire the full views of Central Park weren’t looking to buy, she was hoping they’d help her to sell the co-op unit at 210 Central Park South.
“Buyers can be fussier, they want a good product with the right price that meets their requirements,” Scheuer said.
Battling the heat wave, she included a catered lunch to entice more than 30 agents out on the tour. “We’re always looking for newer ways to bring both the public and the industry out,” she said, adding that sometimes they have live music, book parties or cocktail receptions.
Avi Voda, who heads the Voda Group at Prudential Douglas Elliman, notes that the broker open house “is the best form to be able to promote apartments. The tours help brokers bring the right customers to the right properties and not waste their time.”
In addition, a broker open house is the only way to get multiple exposure for certain high-end properties whose boards forbid public open houses.
Other agents are holding open houses for buyers, but at different times.
“This time of year is difficult. People leave for summer vacation or are gone for the weekends, so we shift open houses to Mondays or Tuesday nights, so people have a chance to go when they’re back from the weekend,” said Kurt Weyrauch, executive vice president at Brown Harris Stevens.
Besides summer’s East Hampton-rather-than-East Side factor, the recent inventory build-up in the Manhattan market is changing how companies market their properties. With inventory up 10.7 percent in the second quarter over the first quarter, and up 53.9 percent from last year, according to appraiser Miller Samuel, sellers are trying harder to woo buyers, who with more options are finding themselves with more control of the market.
“We try to get the community out there so they can describe the property to their customers,” said Barak Dunayer, president of Barak Realty, who notes that 80 percent of the firm’s transactions come through cooperating with other brokers.
In addition to targeting other brokers, he also noted the firm was holding more direct-to-consumer open houses.
“We’re holding two open houses per week, one on Sunday and one on a weekday,” he said. “We’ve definitely stepped up our game. Last summer, we could have gotten away with only one open house during the week because the people would still come.”
Dunayer did a quick study of eight of the firm’s listings on the West side, ranging in location from 44th Street to 106th Street. He reported an average attendance of about six people per open house for the properties, which ranged in price from $250,000 to $3 million.
Dunayer maintains that there is an increasing open house attendance at studios and one-bedroom apartments. Whether these shoppers are actual buyers or looky-loos remains to be seen.
“Last year,” he said, “they would make an offer right there, but now they come and come again; they’re taking their time.”