Open House Memories There was the apartment where the strainer in the sink was full of nasty food bits. Or the "2" bedroom fifth-floor walkup with angry pregnant girls (angry about climbing all the stairs) and their husbands pleading, "but, honey, it'd be perfect!!!" Or the large two bedroom with a zillion people including a woman wheeling a monster stroller around the place because that is what people do. Roll strollers through homes.
Baked cookies is a good idea. It makes it smell wonderful and you get cookies. That said, some realty agents hosting open houses need to work on basic human skills. We had one who became a bit confrontational with us over not having a reservation or something to attend the open house (even though there was a sign announcing the open house on the front door of the building and it was listed all over the internet).
Open House Strategies!
Wear Comfortable Shoes At least here in NYC you'll do a lot of walking and climbing stairs and running around.
Bring a bag You'll want to keep all the show-sheets that list the details for the apartments, but you also need to bring a few snacks and water and supplies for your day of trekking around the city looking at places.
Print out your list I always tried to just use my phone to track where we were going, but Mrs. Robot would just print our itinerary with the maps and times and we'd always use that.
Be Nice. Dress Nice. You never know who you are running into at these things. Be nice to the realtor. Be nice to the doorman. Don't dress like a slob. C'mon. You're a grownup now.
Throwaway Email Addresss Create a secondary email address that you won't feel bad about shutting down after it's all over. The realtor folks always have a sign-in sheet and request an email - so Mrs. Robot had a secondary email address that we ended up using for everything because there may be a need for the realtor to actually contact you *but* you don't want to necessarily live the rest of your life getting updates from them.
