Friday, March 6, 2020

Halstead Open House Index - report from weekend of March 1, 2020



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!

PS: Do not forget to check my reports on my blog at https://halsteadopenhouseindex.blogspot.com/. A great suggestion from one of our readers: write in the comment section how many visitors were direct buyers and how many came with brokers. Also, write here if your exclusive is on StreetEasy or not. Those of you comfortable, you can write here the exact address of your exclusive, so it becomes visible to all. Also, check the link to dataset. (In the comments section you will find interesting data, such as addresses of properties or if there was a price drop, etc.) 

Best regards,

Fritz Frigan
To Sign Up to Receive Halstead’s Open House Index Report Click Here









No comments:

Post a Comment