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\n <\/div>\n \n Step one: Talk to an expert!<\/h3>\n
Selling your house soon? Connect with a top agent near you to get an expert opinion on how much your house will sell for, what to fix before listing, and the latest local housing market trends.<\/p>\n \n
The history of open houses<\/h2>\n
Open houses are one of the oldest real estate marketing tricks in the book. The long-standing tradition<\/a> began in the 1910s as a perk that came with signing an exclusive contract<\/a> to sell a home.<\/p>\n Prior to the dawn of open houses, anyone could be a real estate agent, so you didn\u2019t need to have a broker\u2019s license to sell a home. As competition among real estate agents became more fierce, exclusive contracts allowed agents to bind themselves contractually to a family and their property to guarantee they would make money off the sale.<\/p>\n With this exclusive representation, agents started to label homes as \u201copen for inspection\u201d and invite the public to tour the home. The first open houses would last days or weeks and were primarily used to sell new homes that would pique the public interest in the developing architectural styles of the time.<\/p>\n Today, a real estate open house is a marketing event held for a short period of time (usually 2-4 hours on the weekend or in the evening during the week) for the general public to pop by and view a house for sale. Open houses differ from home showings in that they\u2019re not appointment-based and anyone can show up<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s the definition of an open house today?<\/h2>\n