How to get more buyers to your open homes with a simple three-step CRM strategy

Buyer enquiry is dropping.

Across his coaching sessions, Aaron Shiner is hearing the same thing from agents around the country:

“A few months ago, we were getting 20 people through our open homes. Now we are getting one, two or three. How do we get more buyers through the door?”

Waiting for the property portals and hoping enquiry improves is not a strategy.

With the right real estate CRM software, you can identify interested buyers, target them with the right message and actively drive more people to your open homes.

LockedOn co-founder Aaron Shiner is Australia and New Zealand’s leading real estate coach. Before becoming one of the industry’s most in-demand coaches, Aaron listed more than 200 properties a year for three consecutive years, with the majority of those sales coming from his database.

Today, Aaron coaches some of the country’s best agents and teams. When he shares a database strategy, smart agents listen.

Organic buyer enquiry versus self-driven buyer activity

There are two main types of buyer enquiry.

Organic buyer enquiry comes through the major property portals. These buyers may not know you or your agency until they discover the listing online.

Self-driven buyer activity comes from the buyers already inside your CRM. You use your database and follow-up to put the right property in front of them and invite them to inspect it.

Portal enquiry remains important, but it should not be your entire buyer strategy. When it drops, your database becomes a competitive advantage.

Step 1: Send a dedicated open home invitation on Wednesday

Create a beautiful, dedicated open home invitation using LockedOn. This is not a cluttered newsletter filled with just-listed properties, just-sold results, market updates and unrelated widgets.

As the old saying goes, a person with one watch knows the time. A person with two watches is never quite sure.

Your email needs one clear purpose: show buyers the properties you are opening and encourage them to click through. One message. One action.

Aaron recommends sending the open home invitation at 10:00 am on Wednesday. This gives buyers time to plan their weekend and your team time to act on the engagement before Saturday.

Step 2: Retarget the buyers who clicked on Thursday

On Thursday, open your LockedOn dashboard and review the engagement from Wednesday’s email.

This is where most agents stop.

They look at the numbers and move on. But viewing data does not create results. Acting on it does.

LockedOn shows you who opened the email and, more importantly, which buyers clicked on each property.

You might discover that:

• 30 buyers clicked on Property One.
• 40 buyers clicked on Property Two.
• 20 buyers clicked on Property Three.

Those clicks give you a targeted group of buyers to remarket to based on the property that caught their attention.

On Thursday afternoon, send a tailored SMS to those buyers. Do not send a generic message to all 5,000 people in your database.

That is the difference between buckshot marketing and sniper marketing.

Suggested SMS

Hi [First Name], [Property Address] is open this Saturday at [Time]. I thought it may suit what you are looking for. Would you like me to send you the details?

Keep it short, relevant and personal, and always communicate within each contact’s current permissions and subscription preferences.

Step 3: Create your call list and personally invite buyers on Friday

On Friday, use LockedOn to create a focused call list. Start with the hottest 20 or 30 buyers and personally invite them to the open home.

Suggested call dialogue

Hi [Name], it’s [Agent] from [Agency]. I wanted to personally invite you to inspect [Property Address] this Saturday at [Time]. I think it may be worth a look based on what you are searching for. Would you like to come through?

This is where technology and human connection work together. The CRM identifies the opportunity. The agent creates the conversation.

The complete open home buyer strategy

Before the open home, your targeted buyers may have already received three meaningful touchpoints: the email, the SMS and the personal call. They are no longer arriving cold.

They recognise your name and why the property may suit them, making them more likely to engage. Not every click becomes an attendee, but this strategy creates opportunities instead of leaving results to chance.

Want to see exactly how LockedOn turns buyer engagement into targeted follow-up? Book your one-on-one LockedOn demo.

Your CRM should drive action, not just store data

A CRM should not be an expensive digital filing cabinet. The best real estate CRM software turns information into action, simplifies the practical work and helps agents create more listings and sales.

LockedOn is an all-in-one real estate CRM, automation and marketing platform made for agents, by agents. It gives your team the tools to:

• Create professional, client-facing open home invitations.
• Track email opens and property clicks.
• Segment buyers by the properties that interest them.
• Send targeted communications and create focused call lists.
• Manage buyer criteria, notes and activity in one place.
• Repeat successful follow-up systems every week.

It is powerful enough to run a high-performing real estate business and easy enough for agents to use every day.

The best CRM is not the one with the longest feature list. It is the one your agents actually use to create conversations, appointments and sales.

Are you in a bad CRM marriage?

Too many agents know their current CRM is not working for them. It is clunky, difficult to use or disconnected from the client-facing work agents need to do, but they stay because changing systems feels uncomfortable.

They tell themselves moving the data will be too difficult, the team is used to the current system or they will look at it next year. Meanwhile, the database remains underused and opportunities quietly disappear.

Here is the hard truth: staying because switching feels difficult is not a business strategy.

If your CRM is holding your team back, see what better looks like. A demonstration is not a commitment to change. It is an opportunity to compare your current system with one built around the way high-performing agents actually work.

Stop waiting for buyer enquiry. Start self-driving it.

Your next buyer, seller or listing opportunity may already be sitting inside your database.

Does your CRM help you find that opportunity and take action, or simply store the name?

BOOK YOUR LOCKEDON DEMO

See how to create targeted open home campaigns, track buyer engagement, build focused follow-up lists and turn your database into a genuine sales asset.

Stop hoping buyers turn up. Start driving the activity. List and sell!

Frequently asked questions

How can real estate agents get more buyers to open homes?

Send a dedicated open home invitation, identify who clicked each property, follow those buyers with a targeted SMS and call the most engaged contacts. This creates several relevant touchpoints before the open home.

Why should agents target email clicks rather than only email opens?

An open shows someone saw the email. A property click is a stronger signal of interest and allows agents to make their follow-up more relevant.

What should a real estate CRM do?

A strong CRM should manage buyers and sellers, track activity, identify opportunities, automate communication and turn database engagement into follow-up action.

‍

‍