Good morning
Halstead Open House Index aficionados!
First Sunday
in March and first weekend after coronavirus was finally detected in
New York City. I was wondering last week if the virus scare will have
an effect on the attendance. Well, it seems it didn’t – the numbers from last weekend were
not bad. I am curious what are you guys doing at your open houses?
Anything different? Do you shake hands? Do you offer sanitizers? Do
you sneeze intentionally when you notice obnoxious buyer? (just
kidding).
The average
in NYC dropped to 4.77 per open house last weekend. This is indeed a
large drop from the weekend prior (5.62), but Feb 23 weekend was
exceptionally good. 4.77 per open house is stronger than the weekend
of Feb 16 (4.19) or Feb 2 (4.20) or Jan 19 (4.17), where no one was
yet paranoid about the coronavirus in NYC. Manhattan, Queens and the
Bronx recorded actually stronger attendance this past weekend, then
on February 23rd. Last year, on March 3rd, 2019 weekend, the NYC average was 4.35.
31 open
houses reported zero traffic. This is 11.5%, creeping up, but truly
slow weekends are those when this percentage is 15% or more.
The most
visited open house mention goes to Amelia Gewirtz and Andrew
Phillips of Halstead. They reported 54 parties at their first
open house for their new exclusive at 265 Riverside Drive, a 2BR
for $895K. Here in Amelia’s own words: “5 offers, highest and
best today @ 1200. We are very, very methodical with everything. What
makes this home unique from others in building or on block 100. Title
is everything, lead photo is key. Put on web with NO
ACCESS minimum a week prior. Everybody wants what everybody
wants, nobody wants what nobody wants. Try to get 90 percent buyers
in door within 48 hours so u r clear market feedback. And NEVER EVER,
unless snow storm or monsoon, do a second open house next week. YOU
ARE TELLING THE WORLD NO ONE WANTS ME. Would you put a full price
offer in on Thursday if you saw open house? No open house for two
weeks hints action happening and forces buyers hands if on fence.
Also we priced it aggressively, it was MINT. And we sent sellers away
w/baby for a week so easy access. Also we were told our presentation
just with the brochure and information was refreshing from most
brokers. You are selling a feeling, the feeling should feel WORTH IT
including the paper stock you use to describe home.”
There were
5421 open houses held last weekend in NYC and approximately 6844
prospective buyers were hopping from open house to open house. Here is the dataset. Let’s check the
action in each borough.
Manhattan – the average went up to 4.70 per
open house, a tiny increase from 4.65 recorded the weekend prior. The
winning neighborhoods were Gramercy Park (7.29), Central and West
Village (7.20), Washington Heights (6.75), Soho & Tribeca (6.17)
and UWS (5.95). Each of these areas, except Soho & Tribeca,
recorded an increase in traffic from the weekend prior. Midtown West
was dreadful (1.70), Midtown East not far behind (3.08). See the rest
below. We received 210 replies from Manhattan. Last year on March 3rd, 2019, Manhattan recorded 4.06.
Brooklyn – the average dropped from stratospheric
12.94 recorded on Feb 23rd weekend, to 5.53 last weekend. This
is the worst Brooklyn average since January 19, 2020. Park
Slope/Prospect Heights above the average with 10.40, so was
Williamsburg (6.56). Slower elsewhere, see details below and beware
of small sample sizes. Check first open houses reported from Dumbo,
new area that replaced Bushwick. We received 36 replies from
Brooklyn.
Bronx – the average climbed to 4.10, from
3.85 the weekend earlier. 10 open houses arrived from the Bronx.
Queens – the average climbed to 4.33, from
3.40, from just 9 open houses that arrived from Queens.
Staten
Island – back on
the charts with 3.00 average reported from two open houses. Could
some of you please send your buyers to Norma Wolfe in Staten Island
to buy her listing at 10 Bay Street Landing, a 1BR for $425K?
Size – Multi-unit buildings were in
demand with 9.00 attendance, and so were the townhouses with 5.75.
Among apartments, 2BR units were most attractive with 5.45 average.
4BRs and studios on the bottom of appeal with 3.00 and 3.66, respectively.
Price - $500K-$1M range was most visited
with 5.42. The least traffic at $3M+ open house with 2.65.
First Open
House – 250% more
traffic at first open houses (9.45), than at the “stale” ones (3.78).
By
Appointment Only – just 27% more traffic at the “normal” ones (4.85),
vs. those described as “by appointment only” (3.81). This is not
normal (not to myself to check the data).
This is all
for today. Here is a suggestion on how to increase the number of open
houses in our survey. Those of you brave enough, show this report to
your managers, owners and sales directors. Encourage them to share
your company’s internal data with me, so that the report will truly
gain in value with 500-700 data samples each week! Another idea:
those of you who appreciate this weekly recap and find it valuable,
please forward it to two other agents who will be holding an open
house this coming weekend and ask them to participate. Deal?
I want to
share a situation that many of you may be becoming more and more
familiar with. My agent showed her exclusive to one of these 1% firms
(they promise the buyer 2% rebate after the closing). At the first
showing the agent was in the apartment’s corner, texting, totally
absent, while my agent was answering the buyer’s questions. Second
showing happened by accident! The buyer met my agent in the lobby by
chance, because no appointment was made, but the buyer thought his 1%
agent did it! My agent spent one hour in the exclusive, alone with
the buyer, answering the buyer’s questions, info about the market,
condos procedure, you know – the things the buyer’s agent should have
been doing. How do you feel about this? At which point we say to a
co-broker: “You better be at every appointment, and you advise and
communicate with your buyer, if you want to earn you 50% of our
commission!”. How do you handle situations like this and where do you
draw the line for the buyer’s broker to truly work and earn their commission?
How do you handle buyer’s brokers not coming to your open houses and
shipping their buyers to you? How do you handle buyers’ brokers who
have no idea how to prepare the board package for their customers and
expect you to handle most of it?
“Not-on-StreetEasy”
concept is spreading. I see more and more listings coming in with
this title in the subject line and on the web. Feel free to share
with me your ideas on how you are pushing your listing outside
StreetEasy and particularly success stories. Which web sites worked
well for you? Does co-broking 7-15 days before you post your
exclusive on StreetEasy works? How are your open houses visited if
your exclusive is NOT on StreetEasy? (You can indicate in the comment
section if your listing is not on StreetEasy). This includes rental
and sales. Share and collaborate is my message to you!
Best of luck
at your open houses this weekend. The weather forecast is sunny and
warm. I'm sending you a friendly elbow-shake today! Also, don’t
forget to wash your hands! Where I come from (Croatia), people eat
two heads of garlic each day. It doesn’t kill the viruses, but for
sure there’s no one closer than 6 feet from you!
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