Agent Quick Start Guide

Get The Most Out Of Your Premium Membership!

Thank you for upgrading to a Premium Membership on Open Houses Direct! 

We’re absolutely thrilled to have you in the Open Houses Direct family.

We're here to help you grow your business through open houses and want you to know we are here every step of the way.

Our goal is your success!

Please ðŸ“• bookmark this guide so it's handy when you are ready to run your next open house.

We do live training on our YouTube channel so be sure to subscribe for additional training on how to maximize lead generation and conversions at your Open Houses!

Step 1. Create Your Profile

Complete your profile information:

  • Profile Image
  • Name
  • Email Address
  • Cell Phone (This Links To Your Direct Call Button)
  • Office Phone
  • Broker Information
  • My Market Details (Zip codes you want to be notified in for broker opens)

Step 2. Add Your Listing

Question: When do I have to add a listing?

Answers:

  • If the listing is coming soon and is not yet active in ARMLS, or if you are not a member of ARMLS (Arizona Regional MLS).

  • If you're holding an open house for another realtor for a listing that isn't your own, and it isn’t active yet in ARMLS.
    If the listing is already in ARMLS and you are a member of ARMLS, you would go to the "My Listings" tab and enter the MLS number and the listing will auto-populate.

  • If you try and syndicate an Active listing from ARMLS and you get an error message it means that the brokerage you are syndicating from hasn’t opted into Open Houses Direct.

How to Add a Listing:

After adding a Coming Soon listing or syndicating an Active Listing, Coming Soons will always show up in "Other Listings", Active listings will show up in "My Listings."

If you are not a member of ARMLS or the listing is not currently Active in ARMLS, then you would go to the "My Listings" tab and click on "Add a Listing."

If you are holding your own listing open and the listing is already active in ARMLS, then the details will automatically show up under “My Listings" and you should not have to enter anything at all, you will just have to Add the Event.

If your listing is Active and you are a member of ARMLS and your listing is NOT showing up in My Listings and won’t syndicate, then your brokerage has not opted into our platform. This is done in your broker's ARMLS Broker Distribution preferences. They must check all three boxes to authorize Open Houses Direct to syndicate their listings automatically.

If your listing is not active in ARMLS yet, then you will have to manually add your listing. If you have an active listing in ARMLS then it automatically shows up in your "My Listings" tab if you are the listing agent or you can enter the MLS number and it will auto-populate all of the listing information directly from ARMLS. Again, your listings will only populate if your broker has opted into Open Houses Direct in their broker preferences.

When adding a listing manually, you MUST select the city from a drop-down. This will auto-populate the state. The zip codes will then populate that are associated with that city. The only reason the SAVE button will not illuminate is if the city and state were not selected from a drop-down menu. This may take a few seconds when entering the city and zip. Enter the first half of the city or zip and wait for the list to populate, this will usually help. 

When entering an address so that the Global Mapping System can map it correctly:
Enter the Direction as an abbreviation (E, W, N, S)
Spell out all Street, Avenue. If you abbreviate these your property may not map properly.

Step 3. Creating Your Open House Event

You must create an Open House event on your listing in order for your listing to be published on the website and mobile app.

Go to My Listings and click on the "Add Event" button. 

1. Select Date / Time

2. Select Event Type: 

  • Open House: This is a regular Open House. This can be created on Active or Coming Soon listings. Active will show up as Teal and Coming Soon will show up as Purple.  
  • 72 Hour Home Sale: 72 Hour Home Sale is a patented selling process. You must be an Affiliate of 72 Sold to use this Open House Type.  
  • Broker Open House:  This will show up as a Grey Open House Tile.  This will only be available to be viewed by Realtors and Brokers and will be automatically emailed to every registered Realtor who has selected that Zip Code in their profile

Once your event is created it will now show up in your "Guest Book" tab.  

Your Open House Event is also immediately distributed to all registered users who have searches saved with criteria matching your listing.

Notifications are sent via email and ping notifications on both the web and mobile app.

NOTE: Be sure to download the app and log in to your agent account to ensure that you receive ping notifications from leads and know how to access your messages.

Once your Open House Event is created it is live and immediately accessible on the app and website, allowing consumers and Realtors access to the instant messaging feature and the direct call button on the mobile app. Be sure that the phone number in your profile is the one that you will want potential leads to call.

Step 4. Managing & Marketing Your Open House Event

Go to your "Guest Book" tab and your Open House will show up in the "Upcoming" tab. Note: On the mobile app if your open house does NOT show up as Upcoming you may have to move the map around so that the map above is set to where your open house is located.  

Managing your Open House Event

  • To edit your Open House Event click on the three dots on the right-hand side of the event and select "Event Detail." 
    Here you can edit the time, details, Open House Agent, and/or cancel your Open House. Any changes you make once the Open House has been published will be sent to anyone that has saved your Open House. This will instantly notify anyone of a cancelation or time change, etc. 
  • To cancel your Open house Event click on the three dots on the right-hand side of the event and select "Cancel Event."

Marketing Your Open House Event

Since the Open House is branded exclusively to you, you can click on your Open House on the website, mobile app, or by going into your "Guest Book" tab and clicking on the Property Address Detail and selecting "Property View." This "Property View" page is your Open House Event landing page and is what consumers are directly pointed to on the app and website.

To Market Your Open House Landing Page from the Website

Click on the white box with the arrow in the upper right-hand corner and scroll down to where it says "Get A Sharable Link". Copy the Sharable Link and then Paste into a post on your social media platforms or in a text or email. 

Option 1. Email The Open House Event

Option 2. Go down to "Get Shareable Link" and it will copy the link to your clipboard. This link can be shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Email, texting, and any other digital marketing other than Instagram. (Instagram won't allow you to copy/paste a link).

To Market Your Open House Landing Page from the Mobile App

Click on the white box with the arrow in the upper right-hand corner and select where you would like to share the Open House to. The link will automatically populate photos and all Open House information. You will just need to add a title and hashtags or @ tags. In FB you will use the @ sign. If you select @openhousesdirect, Open Houses Direct will be able to share it with our 75,000+ followers on FB, so be sure to tag Open Houses Direct. 

Option 1. Email The Open House Event

Option 2. Click on the white box with an arrow and select your icon on your phone as to where you want to share: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Email, texting, and any other digital marketing other than Instagram. (Instagram won't allow you to copy/paste a link so you cannot share on Instagram).

 

If you do not use the share URL, the post will still work but the photos of the home will not be used as the thumbnail image. You must use the "Get Shareable Link" feature to share your landing page.

Step 5. The Guest Book

The Guest Book is the digital Open House Guest Registry that allows you to check guests and verify their name and phone number via your phone, tablet, or laptop. The Guest Book can be open on multiple devices at one time using the same login which allows for multiple devices to be checking in guests at the same event. All of these devices communicate in real-time making it easy to take notes and check-in guests from wherever you are in the home.  

  • Go to the "Guest Book" tab and click on “Run Event" 

How to access the Guest Book on Your Computer

  • Go to the "Guest Book" tab and click on "Event Summary" 
  • Go to the upper right-hand corner and click on the "Guest Book Mode" button which will turn your laptop into a Digital Guest Book Registry.  Here you can take notes on all guests upon check-in which makes for easy follow-up after the open house. 
    NOTE: Realtors who check-in will show up as "already having an account" since their emails are already in our database so you would enter their email addresses in that section of the Guest Book. 
  • Taking Notes: To take notes on your laptop after checking in a guest, you would click on the back arrow to get out of the "Guest Book Mode", then go down to the list of Checked In Guests is (lower right-hand corner of your screen) and click on the "notes" icon. Here you can take as many notes as you want on all guests. At the end of the open house, these notes will be available here in Event Summary, or under My Leads where all of your checked-in guests will appear. 

How to Access the Guest Book on My 📱 Mobile Phone or Tablet

  • Go to the "Guest Book” and make sure the open house is on the map.
    The only time this won’t happen is if you are trying to access the open house event prior to the day off since you will be geo-code located to the event on the day of.
  • Once in the Guest Book tab, and Open House is appearing on Map, click on the TEAL “Upcoming" button. Do not select the Open House Icon on the map or it will bring you to the consumer landing page. You must click on the Upcoming button & select your Open House by clicking on the photo. This will bring you to the Guest Book.
  • Once in the Guest Book, click on the "Guest Book Mode" button to enable Guest Book Check-In.
    This will turn your phone into a digital Guest Gook Check-in Registry.

NOTE: When checking people in via the Guest Book, the open house guest will be sent a text upon check-in with a FOUR DIGIT verification code. Once you enter this and click verify, they are checked in. If you don’t get a code for some reason, the override for the phone number verification is 1234.

Taking NOTES on ALL Visitors:
For easy follow-up, be sure to take notes on all open house visitors.

  • Once you have registered guests, while in the Guest Book, click on the number of guests tab.
  • Go to "Check-Ins” and click on the "notes" button next to the name of the guest.
  • All of these notes will show up in your app in the guest book and are also automatically syndicated to your "My Leads” CRM at the end of the Open House making it easy to follow up with all of your leads.

NOTE: The Open House Event must be in the map view in order to show up as Upcoming.

Question: 

Where can I access my leads once they have checked in at my Open House Event whether it was via the Guest Book or QR code check-in?

Answer:

  • Leads that are checked in via the Guest Book or QR code check-in can be found in the "My Leads" platform which can only be managed via the website. 
  • You can instantly message your Open House guests who have registered via the QR code by selecting their name and clicking on the message button. This can be done on your phone or mobile device
 

PHONE NUMBERS ARE VERIFIED upon Check-In, so be sure to ask for the Verification Number from the Open House guest to verify that their phone number is correct.

In order to be checked in, your guest must download the app and create an account. You can assist with this manually via the Guest Book Screen, or with the QR Code Check-in Process. Either method will enter the lead into your "My Leads" tab immediately.

Step 6. The QR Code

How to check people into your Open House Event using the QR code:

1. On the day of your open house event, put up your QR code check-in sign in front of the house.

  • You can print an 18" X 24" sign on foam core and place it on an easel in front of the house or the entryway of the home.
  • You can print 8 1/2" X 11" signs and tape one to the door and place 2 within the home in acrylic stands.
  • For guard-gated neighborhoods print out the 8 1/2" X 11" signs and attach them to the MLS sheet or on an informational sheet and give them to the guard gate to give out to Open House Guests upon arrival.
  • For gated neighborhoods, print out the gate codesign and put it on the keypad at the gate.

How to Use the QR Code in Your Marketing to Direct 100% of Leads to You

1. Hang a sign-rider on your for-sale sign to Pre-market your Open House Event to people who drive by as soon as your Open House is published on Open Houses Direct. 

2. Put the QR code sign on any marketing materials distributed in the neighborhood such as flyers, door-hangers, or mailers.

See PDF links below

NEW SIMPLIFIED VERSION (Portrait Oriented)

Download Dark Background QR Sign

Download Light Background QR Sign

Download QR Code For Any Use

Gate Code Sign (Coming Soon)

Step 7. Instant Messaging System

Guests who download the app and create an account have full access to the messaging feature.

You can instantly message your leads via the website or mobile app by clicking the "Message" button.

  1. On the mobile app to access your messages click on the "Messages" tab at the bottom of the screen.
  2. On the website to access your messages, just click on the "Mail" button.

Guests receive an instant ping notification when receiving a message from you.

 

If there is a yellow dot on your messages button, it means you have a new message.

Step 8. Managing My Leads

Open House Guests who check-in via the Guest Book or QR code will be accessible in the "My Leads" platform which is only accessible on the website. 

NOTE: Guests who register as having an agent do not show up in the "My Leads" platform, they will only show in your Guest Book.

Question: Can I export my leads into my CRM?

Answer: Yes, you can export your leads into your CRM by clicking on the "Export CSV" button.

NOTE: Leads are sorted by Open House address making it easy to follow up.