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When it comes to real estate in Beenleigh and Eagleby, there’s one name you need to know: Benjamin Waite. As a trusted expert with deep local knowledge, proven results, and a passion for helping clients succeed, Benjamin is the go-to agent for sellers, buyers, and investors in the region. Worth the Waite is more than just a podcast—it’s your insider guide to Beenleigh's property markey, offering valuable insights and strategies designed to position you for success in the property market.
From understanding local trends to maximising your property’s value, each episode equips you with the tools and knowledge you need to make confident Real Estate decisions. With a friendly yet professional approach, Benjamin shares real-world advice, stories, and tips, making complex real estate topics accessible and actionable. Whether you’re planning your next move or simply want to stay informed, tune in weekly and discover why working with Benjamin is always Worth the Waite!
Looking to stay ahead in the Beenleigh and Eagleby property market. Want to get local insights from someone who knows this community inside and out? Then you've come to the right place. I'm Benjamin wait, and welcome to Worth the Waite Beenleigh and Eagleby's Local property podcast where we'll be diving into everything you need to know about real estate right here in our beautiful region.
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Worth the Waite Beenleigh and Eagleby's Local Property podcast. If you've never sold a property before, the idea of strangers walking through your home can feel well, maybe a bit weird. So today we're lifting the curtain on what actually happens during an open home.
What sellers should expect, what the agent does behind the scenes, and what to prepare for ahead of time should you stick around or stay away. Will your cupboards be open? Do you have to hide everything? What kind of feedback will you get afterwards? We're covering it all with Ben, wait from LJ Hooker Beenleigh, and as always, it's all based on what's happening right here in our local market.
Ben, welcome to the show. Thank you, Adam. Excellent. How many open homes would you have done in your time?
Oh, yeah. Lots. Lots. That would be hard, wouldn't it? Yeah, lots. It's look it's the fun. That's the job. The yep. The job is open home. That's the opportunity for us to see buyers mix in with the community and the public. Answer all the questions, help people out. That's, honestly, that's the fun part.
Yep. How long they typically go for? It's about 30 minutes these days, isn't it?
We, look, it's up to the agent, up to the individual. I find that you need to have a timeframe there.
If you have it open too long, it loses its urgent urgency. So 30 minutes seems to be a sweet spot. It allows you to get multiple in during the day. A lot of buyers out there are running through, so you don't want to you don't wanna hold them up either. Yeah, 30 minutes seems to be the sweet spot.
Okay. Might be my and
time of day. How do you decide on that?
Yeah. Different for different markets. Yeah. I will say and this is something that, you know, that a good agent should think about. We think about that where the, it should be suited to the demographic,
right?
Gold Coast. I find when I'm selling, 2 million plus dollar properties and we we don't, we sell, we do sell down there.
That demographic is, are typically middle to senior executive or they own their own business. Sure. So they've got a bit more flexibility with their time and their day. Yep. So they can pop out for a 10:30 AM open home or a four o'clock open home. During the week. During the week. Okay. During the week they can do that.
Yep. Whereas, and also a Saturday and a Sunday, whereas in the Beenleigh Eagleby, in the Logan market, typically a little bit more blue collar or entry level positions. Sure. So they can't just go, I'm popping out to open home. They're a little bit more nine to five and they're yep. So they're entry level, so you need to accommodate that.
If you trying to have an 11:00 AM Tuesday open home, you're gonna get poor numbers. Yep. So we feel that in the low and based on, and I've done all of it. So based on the experience we feel that the Saturday morning between kind of nine to two o'clock seems to be the, seems to be a good time.
Seems to be the, yep. Anything longer than one o'clock, two o'clock, there's, you need to get lunch in there. People's decision making starting to wane. Especially if you're at the, if you're, towards the end of the day, they may have already seen five or six properties. Yeah. And they're just, they're exhausted.
So they're not taking any information in. You wanna have a really good conversation with them, but they're like they're not taking it all in. Yeah. So I find that having in the earlier, earlier in the Saturday. Also that's that allows your your vendor, so if it's an owner occupied property, they can accommodate that.
They can pop out for a coffee and then come back. Or if it's tenanted again, they can go for a walk and come back.
Sure. Okay. So well on that, a lot of homeowner someone selling their home maybe for the first time. Wonder, should I stick around? Should I be there or should I don't
stick around 'cause I'm cracking your beers in the back.
No, I'm definitely not doing that. No. We always offer you the choice. Okay. It's your home. Do you get asked
this a lot? All
the time. Yep. All the time. And it's your home, your choice at the end of the day. Yep. Our recommendation would be for you to not be here. So it provides an unencumbered experience for a buyer.
Yep. As a buyer wants to walk through the home, we want to allow them to have that experience. That a free experience. They don't open cupboards. That's my next question. Do they open cupboards, drawers and wardrobes? No. Look,
some, what's the protocol?
No, some of them do. I will say because they might wanna see what storage is and if that is a benefit or a feature of your home, you should let them do that.
Okay. But if it's a standard home, and especially with tenanted properties, it's a bit difficult because look, we're they're letting us into their life. Yep. You own the home as a, as the landlord, but it's their house. Yeah. Or the other way around. You own the house, but it's their home.
So we've gotta be respectful and a lot of the time when I'm in, when I'm conducting open homes for tenanted properties, I will say that, look, this is a tenant property. Please be respectful for their belongings. Yeah. And also we also. Ask, say to the tenants, you are welcome to be being here.
Yep. We we check everybody in. Every agent should check everybody in. Yep. We will turn somebody away if they don't want to give us their details. Yep. Why would we let someone into your home Yep. If we, they're not willing to give their details away. Sure. If they're genuine in buying a home, they're gonna give us our details to sign a contract that or put an offer forward. Yep. So you're gonna
question their motive if they're not willing to give you their details. Yeah.
And I get the whole, don't wanna be spam big brother thing, or big or the spam thing. There's a lot, there's a lot of that out there. But at the end of the day if you're not super motivated.
Yep.
So I've turned people away. That can be sometimes an uncomfortable conversation, but but that is what it is. Sure. We're, you are, we're, we are representing you, you've given us that authority to be able to do that, represent you and the property. Yep. We're obviously wanting to look after that.
Yep. So that gives you security and confidence. It also gives the tenant security and confidence if it's a, if it's an investment property, you will typically have one or two or even three agents there, depending on the agent and the size and their team and so on. Yeah, it's it's a unique situation, but it's the best way for for us to be able to create an environment where we can.
Create the competition. Yep. And negotiate from, we want multiple people through the home at the same time answer their questions, but also there's a perception that that a real estate agent, assist in the campaign. Sure.
Okay. What about personal items and valuables?
What are the do's and don'ts? Should they be locked away? Should you take them off site with you? What do you do there
if you're worried? Take it away.
Yep.
Don't have it there anywhere if you're worried. I've never had an issue. No. Touch wood, but we take everybody's details down, but, they could give us fake details.
You have insurance, but if you're genuinely worried about it put it outta sight or take it with you.
Okay. Nosy neighbors.
Yeah.
I'm guilty of being one of those. Yeah. Yep. I live in a complex and I see one's open and, i,
you wanna see what I'm guilty? Yeah. John and Jude down the road.
Yeah. So what have they done? So
how should sellers feel about this?
I think that they might have a friend that wants to buy in the neighborhood.
Yep.
What's wrong with that?
Okay.
They're look, it's an open home, so you can't say, it's difficult to say no to some people and Yes to others. I think that you are selling, you are moving away.
So is it gonna have a real impact?
Yep.
And that's only, you can answer that, right? I don't know what the, the the relationships are in the street. But at the end of the day, they're probably having a look because they might know somebody who wants to buy. Yeah. They I've had lots of neighbors buy properties.
They love the street so much. They wanna buy an investment property in Yeah. They're renting somewhere close by load and Yeah. Loads of, they want their kids to move in, they want their friends to move in. So they're, sometimes they're the best some of the best leads because they don't need to sell the area.
Yep. They've, the area's sold. We just need to sell the home. So I think that they're very strong leads. We have had situations where there might be like there might be a domestic violence situation or there might be a neighborhood dispute where, so you be careful. Yeah. Yeah. So we get it, we get a list and in the contract and in the form six where there is areas where we can highlight that.
And a lot of the time, the, our clients will say, look, X, Y, Z down the road, we've had a few run-ins. He might want to, be a little bit vocal yeah. So we just manage that. I've had I've gone over to those people and introduced myself, try to build a rapport from them.
So then, we break down that barrier a little bit. Sure. So that they, it humanizes me as the agent rather than, they want to and they're. Build a relationship there rather than them maybe wanting to do something to the owner. But we've also had a list of people that we can't let through as well.
Sure. It's very rare, but it does pop up.
Okay. What sort of feedback should a seller expect after? You've just had an open home for them?
Yeah. Great question. And this is one of the questions. We've had a podcast on listing presentations. Yep. This is a great question for them because you wanna be able to understand the communication flow.
The way that we do it is we will text we will text them. So we set up a WhatsApp chat. A lot of agents now doing that. It's a very efficient use of for use of communications. Yep. And also opens my clients up to my team. Yep. We'll send them through a quick a quick text message on the number of groups that came through.
We will then do all of the work and call the buyers back over the Saturday. Typically, you probably want to get a conversation from your agent on Saturday or Sunday. It'd be nice if the agent gave you some expectations around when they'll call. Yep. So you're not wor waiting or worrying.
Yeah. Is it gonna be this afternoon or has he got another three opens? How'd it go? What's it going on? Yes.
And the agent, if you've picked a good agent, they will have more open homes. Yeah. They, you've picked someone good who's in demand but also they're bringing those buyers through from the other ones that they've got as well.
So that's a good thing. We, at our agency, we we have we have an expectation with all of our agents where no vendor or no client goes to bed on a Saturday night wondering what happened. Love that. I love that. Yeah. I just think that's, that should be just best practice. Yep. But there's a lot of work that will happen from the open home.
To get feedback, to gather offers, to be able to have a constructive conversation with you, our client. Sure. You want to be able to give the agent some time to be able to, get that to then speak to you. So I've had age, I've had vendors where I've spoke to 'em on nine o'clock on a Saturday night.
Yep. '
cause it's taken me a while to just get some feedback.
Yep.
Or I've texted them and said, Hey look, I, I just didn't catch everybody. I'm gonna call 'em again tomorrow. I'll give you a call tomorrow, but at least you're not, yeah. Gonna bed wondering. Yep.
So I suppose if we look at the polls here of what can happen at an open home the worst scenario is no one turns up that you don't get anyone through.
Yeah. Through to someone begging
you. That's not the worst scenario. The worst scenario might be the, I've had a situation where there's been, we've had an open home and next door the police have been called and there's been a big argument and police and everything's there. I think that's probably worse than having no one rock up.
That's probably
okay. Despite something extraordinary happening around the open home, yes. The worst thing be I've had a snake, I've had a
python. Come through the backyard in an open home before as well. Wow. That was yeah, there's it's fun. Lot lots can happen. Yes.
Right through to someone probably begging you to be able to buy it right then and there at the open home.
Yep. And everything in between. But what is the next step after an open home at, in both those scenarios, no one's come through and someone's begging to buy it.
For the agent, for the vendor. What? What? What's the what?
Alright. How would you handle communicating to a, oh, a seller that no one came through?
The process is exactly the same. Yeah. We'd send a text saying that zero people came through. We will do the open homes. We'll then, so the funny thing is, again, with, so a situation like that I might have other open homes. Yep. And they might have a couple of people through.
Yep.
So I'll cross promote your property.
Them to your property. Yep. So I've quite often gone back to your home or if it's tenanted or if it's vacant or I'll text you, go, Hey look, I brought some other buyers. Can we come back?
Yep.
So the day's not done.
Day's not done just because no one shows during that, that's
right.
Half hour window.
That's right.
That's, that can quite, that can happen. Alright. The current market is, we haven't had zero people come through very often, but it does happen. Yeah. At
the other end of the scale, how quickly have you seen from open home to someone offer and bang at the open home? I've, at the open home,
I've helped people put offers in the line waiting to get in.
Right.
Yeah. Wow. Fantastic. And that's a great, that's a great situation to have. Okay.
Thanks Ben. Again, look really solid. Look at what goes on behind the scenes during an open home. If you are planning to sell in Beenleigh or Eagleby. Just knowing what to expect can take a lot of the stress outta the out of the process.
And having an agent who knows how to manage the flow of people, ask the right questions and gather real feedback, really does make a difference. So look, if you are getting ready to sell. Or want to understand how a local expert like Ben runs his open homes, you can reach out to him at LJ Hooker Beenleigh or via his own website, benjamin waite.com au.
And look, if you have found this episode helpful, please do share and and hit that subscribe button because when you're dealing with real estate and Beenleigh and Eagleby, it's always Worth the Waite. Fantastic. See you on the next episode. Nailed it.
Thanks for tuning in to Worth the Waite. If you enjoyed the podcast, please be sure to share with a friend and don't forget to hit that subscribe so you won't miss an episode and all my local property tips, updates, and insights. Until next time, I'm here when you need.