Countrywide’s next Open House set to be largest yet

Countrywide has kicked off its latest national open house event which, despite recent branch closures and operational streamlining, is set to be the biggest yet.

This will be the 15th time the company has run the event since launching it in 2010, the most recent one being in March earlier this year, and before that last September.

“We can’t tell for sure how many vendors and tenants will sign up to include their properties within us until the last moment, but it’s shaping up to be big this year,” a spokesperson told The Negotiator.

“The good thing about this event is that it takes places across a vast range of properties – owners of million pound mansions throw their doors open for our Open House as well as homes from the rest of the market.”

During the most recent Autumn event 29,000 viewings took place at 6,000 properties available to buy or let over the weekend of 25th-26th September. This means on average nearly five people attended each open house.

During the inaugural Open House, during December 2009, Countrywide’s brands booked 27,000 viewings across 11,000 properties.

This Autumn’s Big Open House is taking place on the weekend of 30th September-1st October and, a company spokesperson said, the company was preparing for it be the biggest to date.

Countrywide says the event requires vendors and landlords to register their properties to be included in the list of open houses taking part, which are listed on the company’s Propertywide website.

Big Open House

All the company’s 50+ agent brands taken part in the event, although it is up to individual branches whether they participate. Also, vendors and landlords can choose whether their open house is supported with staff from the nearest participating branch.

Claims made for the event in the past include that it helps sell properties faster than the national average of 66 days, that in some instances it prompts multiple offers for the same property.

“It takes a national average of 11 days to receive a first offer on a property and the Open House Event is a great way to speed up the process by having potentially multiple viewings in a short period of time,” a Hamptons branch manager in Brighton recently told the local paper.

“All of our estate agents, covering our brands across the UK, are on hand before, during and after the course of the weekend to arrange viewings and give our customers the best opportunity to sell and buy their dream home.”