9 Things You Can Expect to Happen at a Real Estate Open House

At some point while house hunting, you’ll need to back away from the online listings and check out some properties in person, and attending open houses can be a great way to do that.

But if you haven’t been to an open house before, you’ll need some clarity around the rules of the road and how these events typically play out. Who will be there? Are you free to wander anywhere? How can you make the most out of your time touring the home?

Not to worry. Let’s talk about what happens at an open house so you know what to expect.

1. The listing agent will host — you likely won’t meet the sellers.

If you were hoping to meet the current owners of the home at the open house so you could ask them questions about it…sorry, but you won’t get that opportunity. Sellers don’t usually hang around during their own open house. It’s considered rude to do so. Without the owners there, visitors can feel free to check out the place and visualize it as their own.

You will, however, meet the listing agent representing the property when you attend an open house. Whether you bring your buyer’s agent to any open houses is up to you, but you certainly don’t need to have your agent there to pop in and check out a house that’s open to the public. Plus, buyer’s agents are fine with their clients visiting open houses without them.

“I love when my buyers go to open houses,” says Jeremy Zucker, a top agent serving the White Plains and New Rochelle areas in New York who specializes in helping buyers. Zucker says he not only appreciates buyers’ initiative, but he also asks for their impressions of any homes they’ve toured and checks out the properties himself if he hasn’t already.