There is a tradition in the Nashville area wherein sellers open their houses to the public on Sunday afternoons, usually from 2-4 p.m. These open houses present opportunities for the public to personally view these homes without the formality, or commitment, of an official showing with the listing agent or their own broker.

Consequently, even the serious shoppers that attend open houses are less committed than those that schedule showings, especially with representation by their own agent.

In the past, in the pre-Internet ages, the open house phenomenon served a more useful purpose than today inasmuch as the open house provided the only opportunity to view the interior of a home that was for sale. Now, each listing is featured on numerous websites with various assortments of photographic and video depiction of the features of the house.

And since, as Paul Simon sings, “everything looks worse in black and white,” Realtors have opted to include outstanding arrays of color images of these listings, many of which have been enhanced by eliminating such eyesores as bad wallpaper, questionable furniture placement and, at times, even appliances. Quite often, the photos of the home are as unrealistic as the listing agent’s headshot.

Visitors to these open houses can be divided into several groups, and the dynamics of the groups change as the houses age on the market.

The first week or two, a majority of the attendees consist of the nosy neighbor genre. These are neighbors that, for some reason, have never been permitted to gain admission to the house by the actual owners. As a rule, they find the décor disgusting if not laughable. They leave with the phrase “Good luck selling this one!” echoing throughout the house, their pompous arrogance and self-righteousness spawned and nurtured by their own insecurity and pain caused by owner’s failure to invite and welcome them into the home. These nosy neighbors are not great advertisements for the home or the neighborhood.

The second group is composed of people who attend open houses as a hobby. Each Sunday afternoon, they pile into the car, some married, others not, with and without children, and scour certain areas for no apparent reason other than the fact that they enjoy wandering through other people’s houses looking at other people’s things. They are harmless, for the most part, until little Erica breaks the antique vase. Like the nosy neighbors before them, they add no value to the event.

Then there is the dark side to the open house traffic. Among us exists a class of thieves that prey upon open houses. The most popular items are prescription drugs. Often when warned of the potential of the drug theft, owner’s scoff. “They won’t have much fun with my drugs, I only take them for my …”

The problem lies in the fact that the thief must act quickly, does not have the luxury of reading the label and usually lacks the knowledge to readily assess the recreational capabilities of the drug. The crook sees a drug bottle and grabs it. Only when the owner/patient needs the drug does he realize that it is gone.

These thieves often work in teams, one distracting the onsite Realtor while the other pilfers. These go more for jewelry and handguns, although there are stories of monumental heists. One story has the agent being dragged upstairs to be shown a life-threatening gas leak while the partner removes all of the presents from beneath the Christmas tree.

Next is the group of sellers. These are people who have their houses for sale and have been banished from their homes during their own open houses. They are comparing their homes to the homes in which they are standing. Guess what. Their homes are better and they are quite vocal about it, sending a message to the last and, by far, the smallest of the open house groups, that being actual buyers.

On occasion, buyers do appear at open houses. I had it happen this year, my first in more than 1,000 open houses. So, from personal observation, one in 1,000 open houses sell the homes. Let’s see, there are 52 weeks in a year, and a thousand open houses, hmmm. If open houses provided the only outlet to sell a home it would take over 19 years to sell the house.

Nevertheless, some sellers demand them and many Realtors relish the thought of meeting 20 to 25 new people, one or two of which might be looking for homes. With the Internet, open houses provide little value to the sales process. Almost 90 percent of the people that eventually buy homes saw the properties first on the Internet. More than 85 percent of sales involve two agents, one agent for the buyer and the listing agent for the seller.

Is the exposure garnered from an open house worth the critique of the nosy neighbors, the unsolicited comments of the competition, the possibility of theft or breakage?

Richard Courtney is a broker with Pilkerton Realtors and the author of Come Together: The Business Wisdom of the Beatles and can be reached at [email protected].