20+ visitors and at least one offer.As a team, our objectives were to streamline open house registration, increase data accuracy, improve follow-ups with leads, and simplify our seller reports. There are a few features that differentiate Open2Close from other open house apps:

• It’s super easy to use.
• Open2Close has seamless integration with Howard Hanna and other solutions I use in my business, like Top Producer and social media apps.
• It offers the ability to customize the registration platform.
• I’m a big fan of Open2Close's mobile companion app feature. I love being able to set up my iPad for open house registration and immediately see the information that the visitor has entered -- directly on my phone! This allows me to focus my time on serious buyers who are not currently working with an agent. I also enjoy being able to add notes on my phone, as this helps me to remember who I need to follow up with and what we had discussed.

I had been on the hunt for a good open house registration system, so when I discovered Open2Close at a convention last fall, I was excited. When it launched, I immediately tried it at my open house the following weekend, and I was very impressed with the solution. The automatic follow-up email. For me, it’s important to immediately connect with people who have visited my open house, as they are more likely to remember me when I call to follow up a day or two later. The automatic email also gives them my contact information so they can easily connect with me if they have any questions about the property.

Also, I learned that our finance manager automatically follows up with any visitors who indicated that they would like to get pre-qualified through the registration platform. That was a nice surprise! I love that all of my contacts are stored on the cloud and organized by property. This makes it much easier to search through contacts when I want to follow up with someone.

For example, I have an open house that I will be listing on the same street where I held an open house a few weeks ago. Open2Close will make it very easy for me to reach out to the people who came to the last open house, so I can let them know about my new listing on the same street. We use Top Producer, and my next project is to dive into all of the integration features that it offers I think that I will do a better job of following up with visitors, particularly beyond the initial response. I also love the seller reports in Open2Close. This is a great tool that allows me to quickly generate a report for the seller that outlines the success of the open house. To me, the perfect situation is selling the house myself and obtaintaining one or two buyer or seller leads in the process. However, the ultimate goal is to sell the house, so I would consider it a success if we find a buyer, regardless of whether they have their own agent or not.

I customize my Open2Close registration questionnaire to ask the visitor if they are working with a realtor and to share their agent’s contact information with me. This way, I can follow up with the visitor’s agent directly and let them know they will be honored. Interested buyers are very good at finding open houses. Online advertising, physical signs at high-traffic intersections, and sending “Open Sunday” sign riders out a few days ahead of the open house will typically result in a pretty good turnout.

I try to hold an open house as soon as the property becomes available on the market or has recently adjusted their price, since that’s when I get the best traffic. This is my new digital open house routine:

• I run Open2Close on my iPad for guest registration
• My laptop has browser windows open to the MLS, Realist, and county auditors’ websites so I can show visitors other homes that are on the market, and answer questions they may have about a specific property
• I also have the Open2Close app open on my phone, so I can view the registration info that was just entered by each visitor and add my own notes to each visitor’s profile

Howard Hanna is a family-owned, full-service real estate company with 270 offices, and more than 9,000 sales associates and staff across the United States. Established in 1957, Howard Hanna Real Estate Services ranked as the 3rd largest real estate company in 2015, and the largest independently-owned brokerage. Howard Hanna specializes in residential and commercial brokerage services, mortgages, closing and title insurance, land development, appraisal services, insurance services, corporate relocation and property management.