It’s no secret that residential real estate is an ultra-competitive job landscape. The Consumer Federation of America puts nearly half of real estate agents selling just one house (or none at all) in 2024. The problem? Too many agents for too few houses.
For one rookie agent in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the constant battle for attention led to trying out unique tactics such as lead-gen challenges that would allow him to stand out in an overcrowded market and prove his value to buyers and sellers.
Franky Armendariz, a REALTOR® with Coldwell Banker Legacy, received his license in 2024—a year in which he sought to host 100 open houses in 100 days.
Though he didn’t quite reach his goal in 2024, working 78 open houses, he decided to try again, creating a dedicated routine that incorporated learnings from the previous attempt. This time, he reached just 29 open houses before getting so busy with business, he had to stop.
The challenge may have failed, but the tactic helped him establish practices to bolster his business.
How it began
When Armendariz joined Coldwell Banker, the office’s CEO did a presentation on open houses, which included a video of a REALTOR® who attempted a similar open house challenge.
“I felt that as someone who was time rich, I could attempt the same thing,” he tells RISMedia. “My main goal with the challenge was to learn how to better myself in the world of real estate. I wanted to practice talking points, discuss new homebuyer questions, learn about all these homes and put myself in a situation where I’m forced to grow.”
On Mondays and Tuesdays he would prepare for the open houses that week, which were held on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays (he took one to two open houses per day), per a Reddit post. Armendariz also extensively documented his efforts on the platform, checking in weekly to bounce ideas off other agents and report on his experience.
When following up with open house visitors, he would first send a text, then a thank-you note. Third would be a personalized message (something funny or “I thought of you”). On week four, they were added to a drip campaign.
The effort, Armendariz believed, would easily show people the level of dedication he had for his business.
Getting into the lead conversion race
Having an abundance of open houses to pull from, however, doesn’t necessarily mean an abundance of leads converted.
When he first set out to achieve the challenge, Armendariz assumed he would be able to transfer his eight years of prior sales experience and “sweep clients off their feet.” Having to face open houses with zero leads or failed connections was among the biggest setbacks he faced in his first year in business.
“I had to adjust my entire mentality not only around open houses, but in regard to my entire view of real estate,” says Armendariz, who attributes most of his failings to a lack of confidence when first helping clients in open houses and being unable to communicate the value of his relationship to prospective buyers.
A year later, he’s walked away from the open house race with several best practices:
- Offer value and don’t chase clients. If you provide value, people will want to work with you. The secret to conversion is simply to give, give and give.
- You need the mindset of 100% accountability. You cannot control a lot of factors, so how can you blame those same factors for your downfall? You succeed because you work hard to do so, and there’s nothing more to it.
- The best way to convert open house leads is to not focus on the lead, but the people.
“I realized that initially I was so focused on information gathering that I came off desperate and my connections were weak,” says Armendariz, who adds that he now knows there’s more to success than numbers on a sign in sheet.
“The best piece of advice I can give when holding open houses is focus on educating, focus on giving and forget selling anything,” he adds.