Everyone who attends an open house is a potential buyer, even if they do not know it yet. Hence, the real estate agent or house owner must diligently record details of all the attendants of an open house using an open house sign-in sheet.
An open house sign-in sheet is a document that has basic information about the attendees of an open house. This information includes their names, contact addresses, and phone number. And depending on the preference of the homeowner or real estate agent, it can be customized to contain certain other information that is of interest to the home seller.
In real estate, when someone is looking to buy a house, they often get to see pictures of the house and get a general idea of the house’s dimensions using imagination. However, this house purchase method shortages both buyer and property owner, as it requires explaining details and the use of imagination.
An open house, which entails opening a house on sale to the general public, trumps the virtual presentation of the house and its details. The potential buyer gets to view the details of the house physically and ask their questions in real time. This helps the buyer to engage with each part of the property and decide if it is worth purchasing. For the purpose of record-keeping, visitors in an open house should fill their details in the open house sign-in sheet. This helps the real estate agent to filter for the list of potential buyers and follow up on their interest in purchasing the property.
This article should help you, as a property owner or real estate agent, to draft an excellent and workable open house sign-in sheet.
Free Sign-In Sheet Templates
Given below are open house sign-in sheet free templates:
Why You Should Use an Open House Sign-in Sheet
Very often, you do not get to meet each potential buyer in the open house, so other than having the contacts of every potential buyer, you can have a feedback on the buyers’ general view of the property, and the sign-in sheet becomes a major interface between you and the potential buyers.
Asides from these benefits, other uses of an open house sign in sheet include the following:
Serves as a medium for personal requests
The open house can be a busy event, with endless traffic of visitors and potential buyers. And so, the sign-in sheets can have a column where the visitors can tender requests such as personal tours of the property or a meeting with the house owner.
Serves as a marketing tool
The real estate agent or property owner can have customized sign-in sheets, which highlight certain assets of the property that would be of interest to the potential buyer. This can be a watermark on the sheet or other graphics. This is a valuable marketing strategy.
Helps in following up with potential buyers
The information on the sign-in sheet helps the agent to communicate with the potential buyers and offer similar properties in their real estate portfolio. It also helps the real estate agent or property owner to build a network of potential buyers for other available properties. It may also help the agent obtain feedback on the value of the property.
Free Templates for Word
How It Works
In creating an open house sign-in sheet, these are important steps that you must include:
Conduct an open house
In conducting an open house, the property must be clean, organized, and tidy. A clean property puts the seller in good light and takes off the potential buyer’s mind from any potential faults in the house. Hence, they will be more open to purchasing the property at the asking price or close to it. You must also be respectful and professional in your conduct as a real estate agent or property owner. This increases the open house visitors’ faith in you and makes them feel safe enough to consider purchasing the property.
Choose an appropriate template
Creating an open house sign-in sheet can be laborious without a guide, and this is why you need a template. A sign-in sheet template is available to help guide you when creating yours, and you can use ideas from several templates to create a unique design that suits your preferences. On this site, you will find several different templates that will help you save time and effort as you prepare yours. It is also helpful to know that you can use these templates multiple times.
Add property address and date
Including the property address and date on the open house sign-in sheet confers professionalism to the document and helps the potential buyer to mark the exact location of the property. This will help describe the property to other potential buyers or locate the property in the case of a second meeting.
Create columns for attendees’ information
The attendees’ information should include basic details such as name, phone number, email, home address, and an additional column for requests and feedback. The open house sign-in sheet should be visible to all the visitors and potential buyers.
Add links to your real estate landing pages
As a real estate agent or property owner, you must see every open house event should be a medium for improving your network of potential buyers. And so, you should be sure to add links to your real estate landing pages to the open house sign-in sheet. This helps you to use the sign-in sheet as a marketing tool.
Print, use and save
After creating the sign-in sheet, you can save it on your device and print out copies. Then, use the sign-in sheet for an open house and improve on the sign sheet based on the visitor feedback.
Call or email potential buyers
Make sure to follow up with potential buyers after the open house. You must be courteous and respectful while propositioning potential clients. This should be a day after the open house and can be an email or call addressed to each client. The call or email should also include a request for feedback or personal requests.
Types of Open House Sign-in Sheet
Based on the property on sales, or the preferences of the property owner or real estate agents, these are the types of sign-in sheets available:
Basic open house sign-in sheet
This includes only basic information such as the attendees’ names, contact information, and email address. This is the most common type of sign-in sheet and is practical when you are expecting a large group of open house visitors. In addition, it includes the open house date and location of the property at the top of the sheet and a notice at the bottom that informs the potential buyers that you will be sending a follow-up email after the open house event.
Physical address open house sign-in sheet
This is an upgrade from the basic sign-in sheets in that it has an inclusion of a physical address. This gives you more information on the potential buyer and makes a one-on-one conversation about the property possible. Although this improves the ability to follow up, it is more time-consuming, and the buyer may be unwilling to divulge personal information.
Hence, it will be best to put on a great first impression that makes the potential buyer comfortable enough to include their personal information, such as a physical address, as part of the sign-in information.
Detailed questionnaire
This involves detail about the potential buyer’s knowledge of real estate and their interests and preferences in the market. It would involve lots of time to fill and will help you to handpick only buyers that are interested in your own niche of real estate.
Digital sign-in sheet
This is helpful to real estate agents that use a customer relationship manager in organizing their potential buyer network. It saves time, helps the real estate agent to recognize potential buyers, and leads with ease using artificial intelligence.
Special Considerations
When preparing for an open house, these are important considerations that will aid in the smooth running of the event:
Ask visitors to sign in first
It is normal for people to avoid committing to what they feel is optional. And so, if you leave open house sign-in sheets on the table without informing the guest about the importance of signing, they may not sign them. Therefore, meet them personally and explain why it is important to sign in the sheets and what you will do with their information.
Respect the guest’s privacy
Respect the guests’ privacy and ask for their permission to utilize the information they have given to you. Do not coerce anyone unwilling to divulge personal information, and build rapport with each guest by being courteous and friendly. Be professional in dealing with the guest and offer honest answers to their questions without being too forward to force the property sales on them.
Add open house visitors to your CRM
Add each lead and potential buyer to your customer relationship manager. This will help you save time and automatically start all necessary follow-up activities. In addition, artificial intelligence sends personalized messages to each of your leads, cutting down your workload and organizing your network of potential real estate buyers.
Final Thoughts
An open house sign-in sheet serves as both a record and marketing tool in real estate. It should serve as the first interface that promotes your brand and aids you in sorting your network of potential clients. You can download free sign-in sheet templates for your open house that serve you to create your unique brand.