GAAR is excited to announce that we are sponsoring our first Greater Albuquerque open house event for our REALTORS® on April 18th and 19th.  

To help drive as much traffic as possible to your open houses, we are advertising extensively during Albuquerque REALTOR® Week and through the open house weekend.

Because we are driving more traffic to your open house, safety is a top concern. GAAR is working with the local police departments to help increase vigilance around the open houses, but members should still take these steps to stay safe:

1. If possible, always try to have at least one other person working with you at the open house.
2. Check your cell phone’s strength and signal prior to the open house. Have emergency numbers programmed on speed dial.
3. Upon entering a house for the first time, check all rooms and determine several “escape” routes. Make sure all deadbolt locks are unlocked to facilitate a faster escape.
4. Make sure that if you were to escape by the back door, you could escape from the backyard. Frequently, high fences surround yards that contain swimming pools or hot tubs.
5. Have all open house visitors sign in. Ask for full name, address, phone number and email.
6. When showing the house, always walk behind the prospect. Direct them; don’t lead them. Say, for example, “The kitchen is on your left,” and gesture for them to go ahead of you.
7. Avoid attics, basements, and getting trapped in small rooms.
8. Notify someone in your office, your answering service, a friend or a relative that you will be calling in every hour on the hour. And if you don’t call, they are to call you.
9. Inform a neighbor that you will be showing the house and ask if he or she would keep an eye and ear open for anything out of the ordinary.
10. Don’t assume that everyone has left the premises at the end of an open house. Check all of the rooms and the backyard prior to locking the doors. Be prepared to defend yourself, if necessary.

As the weekend nears, we will be posting more details, tips and resources for your open house. We will also have a quick online form where you can enter your name, open house times and the MLS number of the property you would like to show. We will pull the address, map and photo from FlexMLS into a very-friendly Open House Tour page for homebuyers to view and plan their weekend.

We urge you to take advantage of this free marketing opportunity sponsored by GAAR. Our goal is to make this a fun and informative event for homebuyers and to boost the exposure of our REALTORS®.

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