UK Landlord Forum / Life

I've only just heard of this practise. It's rather odd.

Hamptons do it. Foxtons do it. The Americans do it. It's when the estate agent rings everybody on their books who might be interested and invites them around for a party at your place; the idea is that people can have a wander without feeling under any pressure.

With the property market slowing down, gone are the days when vendors could hope to find a buyer without suffering the indignity of having legions of the public traipse through their homes.

Unfortunately, it's not all roses. Here's an interesting article on it here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml;jsessionid=5UD3O2SGECAQTQFIQMGSFFWAVCBQWIV0?xml=/property/2007/10/23/popen123.xml&DCMP=ILC-traffdrv07053100

QuoteHosting an open house two months ago proved a costly mistake for the owner of one three-bedroom terrace house in Bow, East London, after a crystal decanter worth £1,000 was stolen.

"The saddest part was that the estate agent didn't seem all that bothered. They had taken names and addresses of all who attended, but were reluctant to ring them up for fear of alienating potential buyers."

That's really quite bad.

LOL

i miss open houses. We use to go check houses out on weekends however from what I recall, They were never furnished/decorated. Newly built houses open for walk ins etc. are usually without any decor - the ones i've seen n e way. However, if you're checking model homes, then yeh there's a possibility they've got those all done up etc.

Yeah, I hear they're quite popular in America/Canada, I don't think they're that popular over here in the UK =/

After reading that story, it's probably a good thing that they're not so common.