Office how-to · Lead generation

Open houses: your guide to getting started

Open houses can be one of the best ways for a new agent to gain experience, practice conversations, meet potential clients, build a database, and create future business. But your first step isn't finding a house and hoping you figure everything out when you get there. Learn the process. See it in action. Then host one yourself.

Step 1 — Learn the basics

Before hosting your first open house, complete both of these training opportunities.

Attend Stacy's Open House class. Taught once each month at the Market Center — find the next session on KW Training MyWay or the training calendar. This class covers the Market Center's expectations, local practices, and what you need to know to properly hold another agent's listing open.
Complete Coach Carla's Open House Mastery Workshop — inside your Coaching Hub. This goes beyond the mechanics of holding a house open: you'll learn how to build an open house system that generates conversations, leads, appointments, and future business. Inside you'll also find resources for planning, promotion, visitor registration, conversation dialogues, follow-up, and an open house shopping list.

Why both? Think of Stacy's class as learning how we hold open houses here. Think of Coach Carla's workshop as learning how to make open houses work as part of your business. You need both.

Step 2 — See open houses in action

Shadow an experienced KW agent. Post in the KW Rock Starz Facebook group and ask if an experienced agent would let you shadow them at an upcoming open house. Tell them you're a new agent and would like to observe how they prepare for and run it.
Visit open houses yourself. Search the MIBOR BLC for open houses happening this weekend (our MIBOR guide shows you how) and visit several. Don't just tour the house — pay attention to the experience the agent has created.

What should you notice? Look for things such as:

How easy was it to find the house? Where did you first see a sign, how many were there, and where were they placed?
What did you see when you first approached the house?
Was the agent positioned to greet visitors easily — and how did they greet you?
How and when did they ask for your contact information?
What information or materials did they have available?
Did they immediately start talking about the house, or first learn something about you? What questions did they ask?
How did they let visitors move through the home, and how did they handle multiple groups arriving at once?
What made the experience feel professional — and what would you do differently?

The goal isn't to decide which agent did it "right." You're learning what different approaches look and feel like so you can begin developing your own professional open house system.

Step 3 — Find an open house to host

Once you've completed your training and observed other agents, it's time to find an opportunity to host. You do not need your own listing.

Search the BLC for Keller Williams Indy Metro listings that would be a good fit, then call the listing agent directly and ask: "Hi, this is [your name]. I'm a new agent in our office, and I'm looking for an open house to hold this weekend. I saw your listing at [123 Main Street] and wanted to see if you and your seller might allow me to hold it open."
If they're open to it, confirm the details: the date and time, that the seller approves, how you'll access the property, alarm instructions, any showing or property-specific instructions, signage expectations or restrictions, whether the open house will be added to the MLS (in connectBLC it's attached to the listing — the connectBLC knowledge base covers how), and how the listing agent wants feedback communicated afterward.
Treat the relationship professionally. The listing agent is giving you the opportunity to use their listing to build your skills and your business — make it easy for them to say yes again in the future.

The goal is not to wait for someone to offer you an open house. Search. Call. Ask. Schedule.

You are representing more than yourself

When you hold another agent's listing open, you're representing the managing broker, the Market Center, and the listing agent. Treat the property, the seller's information, the visitors, and the listing agent's relationship with their seller accordingly.

Be careful about conversations with the seller. If the seller is present before or after the open house, be friendly and professional — but remember that you are not their agent. Do not:

Discuss pricing or recommend a price change
Discuss the listing agent's marketing or strategy
Interpret feedback from buyers for the seller
Give advice about offers, negotiations, repairs, staging, or other decisions
Make promises about what you or the listing agent will do
Discuss the listing agreement or the seller's relationship with their agent

If the seller asks a question that belongs with their agent, a simple response works: "That would be a great question for [listing agent]. I'll make sure they know you asked about it." When you're unsure, direct the question back to the listing agent.

Before the open house

Confirm everything with the listing agent before the day of. Know how to enter and secure the property, alarm instructions, the hours, important property information, seller instructions, sign requirements and restrictions, how visitors will register, and how you'll communicate feedback afterward.
Get your signs. Open house signs may be available through the Market Center — contact Wendy Rhodes. You can also purchase simple signs from Amazon, Menards, or Lowe's; a recommended shopping list is inside the Open House Mastery Workshop in your Coaching Hub. Check sign ordinances and any neighborhood restrictions before you place them.
Know how you'll collect contact information — before the first person arrives. The workshop includes resources for setting up your sign-in and registration process, and Command generates an official Open House Sign-in Form that flows visitors straight into your Contacts (keep a paper sheet as backup, and keep the consent-to-follow-up line — that's what makes your calls and texts legal). Don't wait until someone is walking through the door to figure this out.
Practice your conversations. You don't need to memorize a long script, but you do need to be prepared to talk with people. The Resource Library and the Open House Mastery Workshop in your Coaching Hub include conversation dialogues you can practice — and Conversation & Dialogue Practice is the place to say them out loud.
Make a safety plan. Tell someone your location and hours, know the exits, keep your phone on you, and use FOREWARN on any visitor you'll meet with later. Meeting strangers is the job; walking in blind isn't.

During the open house

Arrive early enough to be completely ready before the advertised start time. Walk through the property and make sure it's ready for visitors, then set up your materials, registration system, and signs.

As visitors arrive:

Welcome them, and ask them to register with their contact information
Start a conversation — find out what brought them to the open house
Learn whether they're already represented by a real estate agent
Listen more than you talk
Answer appropriate questions about the property; direct questions you can't or shouldn't answer to the listing agent
Take notes that will help you give the listing agent useful feedback and follow up well with unrepresented visitors (the 60-second log between groups works)

Your goal isn't to pressure every visitor into becoming a client. Your goal is to create quality conversations, identify opportunities to help, and earn the right to continue the conversation.

After the open house

Secure the property. Follow the listing agent's instructions for lights, blinds, locking doors and windows, removing your materials and signs, resetting alarms, and returning keys or access devices. Leave the property exactly as instructed.
Follow up with the listing agent — a concise report. Number of visitors or groups, general reactions, common questions, property-specific feedback, any issues, and anything that needs their attention. You're reporting what visitors said — not interpreting the feedback for the seller or advising the seller what to do next.
Follow up with unrepresented visitors immediately. Don't wait several days and hope they remember you. Use what you learned during the open house to continue the conversation and see whether there's an opportunity to help. Get each one into Command with your notes (add a contact right) — the Open House Mastery Workshop in your Coaching Hub includes the full follow-up system.

Your first open house is practice, not a test

You don't have to know everything before you host your first open house. You do need to be prepared, professional, and willing to learn. Afterward, ask yourself: What worked? What didn't? What will I change before the next one?

Open houses become powerful when they stop being isolated events and become a repeatable system. Learn the process. Shadow someone doing it. Host one. Follow up. Learn from it. Then do it again.

Your open house resources

Market Center Open House class with Stacy — offered monthly; local process and Market Center expectations.
Open House Mastery Workshop with Coach Carla — in your Coaching Hub: training, workbook, dialogues, shopping list, visitor registration resources, follow-up system, and more open house tools.
KW Rock Starz Facebook group — find an experienced agent to shadow.

Last reviewed: September 2026. Built with Coach Carla Higgins — the deeper open house system (planning, promotion, dialogues, follow-up) lives in her Open House Mastery Workshop, and the local process is taught live in Stacy's monthly class. Reminder: calls and texts to prospects must honor consent and Do-Not-Call rules (TCPA) — the consent line on your sign-in is what makes follow-up legal.

Where to next

Add every visitor right — the capture half FOREWARN — before any follow-up meeting The Launch Plan — open houses live in weeks 3–6