Barely a month old, this open house management solution for individual agents and hands-on brokers stresses data security and affordability, and it’s flexible for all mobile operating systems.
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OHGuests is software for managing open houses and tracking leads.
Platforms: Amazon app, Android, iOS; browser
Ideal for: All size real estate offices and teams, individual listing and buyer agents
Top selling points
- In-app social media promotion
- Brokerage oversight of all open houses
- Map view of open house activity
- Performance tracking
- Phone number verification
Top concerns
Although effective and consistent, the interface needs a visual overhaul. It’s clinical.
What you should know
OHGuests (Open House Guests) is available on all mobile device platforms, even Amazon’s Kindle. It can be deployed on a standard laptop, too.
It lacks the elegance and integrated sophistication of Spacio, but some leeway must be granted for its relative immaturity as software. The product is barely a month into market.
Like others in this space, OHGuests provides users a sign-in page and then gives agents access to the visitor data in the backend. We know how this works.
A few things that help OHGuests standout are its pricing, phone number verification and Broker Elite account level.
At $4.99 per month, the Agent Basic account provides plenty of features for an individual agent, allowing management of up to 10 events each month. You don’t get the extensive guest questionnaire or custom analytics, but it’s still a fully capable digital sign-in system.
I find the company’s pricing models strangely configured, as very little separates the lowest level from the highest. It might be easier to enable all features at each level while basing price escalations on the number of events or charging for extra open houses above a base subscription price. That’s not a comment on the software, merely an observation of its business model.
The software can roll out a simple “name and number” sign-in or a more advanced form that asks for agent representation status, mortgage qualification, expected timeframes to buy and other fundamental lead qualifiers. There’s also a manual signature field.
Guests providing a phone number will be texted a code to enter into the sign-in page to confirm their number is authentic. A nice touch.
I worry the look and feel of the more advanced form only perpetuates what buyers don’t like about open houses: the threat of being bombarded by agent pitches. This is where OHGuests’ front-end interface could use some overhaul. I wouldn’t fill out that form. The shorter version is more inviting.
But, should a person not worry too much about it, the agent will have the mirror of that data to look at in the dashboard. From there, they can update the fields based on follow-up calls, designate lead quality and export each event’s attendee list as a CSV for uploading into a customer relationship management platform (CRM).
This also worries me a bit. Agents and CRM maintenance don’t go well together, like garlic and peanut butter. The more manual intervention required, the less effective the database.
I envision a lot of users will let the leads live in OHGuests’ system, which is why I hope the company’s roadmap contains a route to partnering with some common CRMs. Until then, use an assistant to output the open house leads.
Speaking of maps, the Broker Elite model has a nifty map view of every open house happening under their purview, each day.
A slick future feature would be the ability to publish that map to the public under a brokerage-branded web page. Brokers can also peer into the performance of every event to gauge seasonal effectiveness, lead quality, who already has an agent and the expected timeframes of each prospect.
New open houses can be shared to social media accounts as they are created, a nice touch of automated time-saving.
The sign-in form shuts down access to the rest of the software once an open house has started, a security feature that can thwart unscrupulous agents or visitors who might try to seize a moment to poke around the system when the listing agent isn’t looking. The user’s password unlocks it.
This is an insightful bit of programming from the folks at OHGuests, as there’s no shortage of shady stories relating to open houses. Beyond the tales of creepy lurkers and general skullduggery, I’m sure there are plenty of agents who have snapped photos of sign-in sheets.
Right?
The central dash is easy to understand, and open house setup includes image and video uploads. A running list of open houses is tallied to viewer’s left, displaying a thumbnail of the listing, its address, price and open house attendee metrics. Each account can be branded to the user, as well.
Outside of some general interface issues and minor growing pains, OHGuests is a plenty capable and very affordable way to manage open houses and use attendee data in meaningful ways.
In other words, this doesn’t have to be an ancillary bit of tech for your business — it can actually be something more.
The next six months will be important for OHGuests. It has relationships in place with California Association of Realtors, Texas Association of Realtors and the Florida Association of Realtors. User feedback will come quickly.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
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