Why should sellers consider scheduling a broker tour?

When a seller’s home is newly listed, the listing agent wants to get the property exposed to as many agents as possible as quickly as possible.

Individual town “caravans” are held weekly and are open to agents from all companies. There is a designated meeting place where agents gather and then go out to tour the new listings together.

Some of our local towns host “broker open houses” which are also held weekly. Agents have access to a list of new-to-the- market houses that are “open” for a designated amount of time on a regularly scheduled day of the week.

The agents can choose to visit some or all of the houses on that day.

Some agents may opt to have a broker open house on their own and reach out to agents via invitation.

The advantages of sellers consenting to make their homes available for tours or caravans is that the properties are being exposed to full-time, active agents who may have buyers that would be interested in viewing the homes, and, ultimately placing offers and purchasing the homes.

It also allows the agents on caravan to convey first-hand information about properties to prospective buyers that the buyers may not have been aware of by looking at the listings on the internet.

Also, the feedback that listing agents receive from other agents can be extremely valuable information for both the homeowners and the listing agents.

Feedback can range from price opinions to suggestions on what would make a house more marketable to a larger buyer pool.

There is some inconvenience to homeowners during the caravan/tour. The homeowners are usually asked to leave for a couple of hours and have the home in “show ready” condition. However, the benefits far outweigh the inconvenience.

Exposure is key to getting the house sold.