How effective are open houses by appointment only in NYC?

[showtime]

I've heard both good and bad things about them. Are there any statistics around the effectiveness of open houses by appointment only in NYC? Know it's likely only some coops that require open houses to be by appointment only, and posted as such.

[aslan]

Open houses by appointment only in NYC are a curse for those unlucky coop apartment sellers whose strict coop house rules prohibit regular or normal open houses to be held.

A broker just emailed me this regarding a summary of open house traffic the previous weekend.

If you can, avoid open houses BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. Last week 70% more traffic at “normal” open houses than on those labeled “By Appointment”.

Across 90 or so open houses that they had statistics for, roughly 85% were traditional open houses. Regular open houses had average attendees of around 5 people, whereas open houses by appointment only had an average attendance of roughly 3 people.

Frankly, I'm surprised that their stats showed that open houses by appointment only actually had that many people show up. In my experience, listings with open houses by appointment only are usually pretty poorly attended vs regular open houses.