Hi everyone,
I can’t give you the whole list here in a blog post, as it is against one of the many mls rules 🙂 But tomorrow there will be at least 15 Open Houses in Bryant. Many agents from different offices have gotten together to have their properties open tomorrow. Most from 1-4, but some for other times within that range.
Generally they are between 25th Ave and 40th Ave NE. Mine is at 6806 27th Ave NE from 1-4 and I will have a list and map of the other Open Houses at that location. A good opportunity to see a lot of properties within a short distance. They range in price from $479,000 to $850,000 with most of them $600,000 or less.
Agents are still sending me info, so I don’t have a complete list yet. But for those who like to view property, it’s a good opportunity to maximize the number of homes you can see in a short period of time, complete with a guide map.
If the NWMLS members participate in the Public Open House feature, you may display those Open Houses on your website:
http://searchingseattle.com/srch_mls/pickpage.php?mode=poh&multi_dsr%5B%5D=Bryant
Aack! The ‘system’ removed the brackets from that link! There should be square brackets after dsr and before the =.
Jan,
When I told the agents just to put the Open House in the mls the same way they do the Broker’s Opens, most of the agents said they could not do that and that field was not even an option on their mls menu. I was very surprised that a field would be blocked out like that to mls member agents.
I wonder what the rationale is for those Companies who don’t permit public viewing of Open Houses on all of the sites? What could the advantage be?
I’d guess that most of the houses are advertised online, in the Seattle Times/PI ads, as well as on real estate company websites, as well as the good old fashioned way – in the PAPER! 🙂
Bryant is a small enough area, that just driving around should identify which houses are open. Have a fun day! I’ll be showing houses up in Shoreline.
I’ve never paid much attention to the NWMLS open house schedule section, since it’s my understanding that no agent can advertise a public open house, except in the agents only comments.
And, I believe the reason that they wouldn’t let the public opens be advertised to the public is because some members were worried that agents at open houses would nab their buyers – during the multiple offer years it wasn’t uncommon for some buyers to be told at open houses that they needed to “write up an offer right now thru me or you won’t have a chance to get this house”. Disgusting, but today’s market shall weed out agents like that.
“I’ve never paid much attention to the NWMLS open house schedule section, since it’s my understanding that no agent can advertise a public open house, except in the agents only comments.”
Why would the system be set up to hide open houses from the public? Don’t listing agents want the public to come to open houses?
Anyway, if this is true, Redfin has somehow gotten around this and their site lets people see which properties have upcoming open houses. Of course this only works if sellers (or their agents) put the information into the system.
That’s the problem, Lax. Some companies have made it impossible for their agents to put the information into the system. They have blocked that data field from their agents so that the Open House can’t show on the Redfin site.
Those same companies show only their Open Houses on their own site, don’t show other open houses entered into the mls system on their site, and don’t permit their agents to use the mls system to enter open houses. In fact agents who work there may not even be aware that the data field exists for other agents in other companies. It is invisible to them.
Basically it is to force more eyes on to their site and hopefully to use their agents. So to get the Open Houses, you have to know which companies block the info, get those Open Houses on their site and add them to the ones that appear on Redfin and other sites that don’t have the block.
The mls system is written by a National Company, but some fields are blocked by vote for all Members, and some are blocked by various companies only for their agents.
Seems very odd to me. Wouldn’t it be better for their clients if the Open Houses appeared more and most broadly? Wouldn’t one source for all Open Houses on the Internet be of value to both buyers and sellers? Why fight progress? Who would want to be know as the Company that fights progress and technological advances, especially here in the Seattle Area? Seems counter-productive.
Uh oh! More red baiting from the Rain City Guide.
What is “red baiting”?
Google is your friend:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-baiting
Can I get the list of open houses, Ardell?
I apparently have a message trapped somewhere, but try Google–that will answer your question.
biliruben,
I emailed those to you.
Kary,
I pulled it from the spam bin. Now I’ll click the link 🙂
I thought it had something to do with McCarthyism. I don’t get it really.
The post is not baiting anything. The comment stream just flows. Jan says you can get them on public sites. I say no you can’t unless you add the companies who block the info from the public sites.
To get a list of Open Houses, this is unfortunately how you have to do it. Just printing the facts. If I’m “baiting” anyone, it is those companies who block the data. Maybe they don’t realize that they make it more difficult for the public to access Open House info from one source.
Clearly one of the purposes of blogging is to reveal issues that should be changed for the betterment of the public. If that’s “red baiting”, oh well. I guess one could view “the common good” as “communist”, if your mind is twisted enough.
Hi Ardell,
How did all the open houses go today?
Mine and Kim’s went well. I barely had 10 minutes a couple of times in three hours where no one was in the house. Most times there were at least two couples at a time and most were serious buyers with check lists, though none were in a big hurry to buy.
One couple stayed for 45 minutes and discussed which child would go where.
I don’t know how the other Open Houses went, but it didn’t seem that anyone came with one of the maps to all of the Open Houses, though everyone who left mine had a map of the others.
The people loved the idea of having a map and a list with prices of the Open Houses. Only one person had their own list of Open Houses that they made on their own before going out today. Most just follow the signs.
One nice couple were clients of Craig’s 🙂