When should you post an open house in NYC?

[ryan_gz]

What are the best times and days to post an open house? Are Saturdays or Sundays better for open houses in NYC?

How many days in advance should you post an open house online? If I want to have an open house this Sunday, when should I post an open house by?

How many open houses should you post in advance maximum?

Lastly, if someone signs up for your Agent Assisted FSBO service on a Thursday or Friday, can you get it up in time for an open house on Sunday? Or should they cancel the open house and do it the following weekend?

[showtime]

Sunday is better than Saturday to hold an open house in New York City. Why? It's for religious reasons. Because of the large Jewish population in NYC who observe the sabbath on Saturday, you'll miss out on a lot of Jewish buyers and agents if you host an open house on Saturday vs Sunday.

Note that in the suburbs or in upstate NY, the reverse may be true. Because there are more observant Christians I presume in upstate NY who go to church on Sundays, Saturdays may actually be more popular for open houses in upstate counties of New York.

The standard open house time is 2 hours, anywhere between noon to 4pm. So for example, 12-2pm, or 1-3pm, or even 2-4pm are very common. Try to have your open house overlap with open house times of other listings for sale in your building or neighborhood to take advantage of crossover traffic.

In terms of maximum number of open houses to post in advance, I would say two. You really don't want to do any more than that because public search websites may not have enough room to show all of them. For example, I think StreetEasy shows a max of 3 open houses, and you have to click "more" to see the 4th open house if there is one. Furthermore, you risk confusing buyers thinking that your open house for next Sunday is actually this Sunday.

You should post open houses at least 2 or 3 days in advance. So if you're hosting an open house on Sunday, try to post it by at least Friday, or preferably Thursday. If you post it earlier in the week, it's even better. Monday or Tuesday is ideal if you can plan that far in advance.