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What to post before, during, and after an open house

An open house is a date on a calendar. The posts around it are how anyone who is not already in your phone finds out.

Most agents make one flyer the night before, post it once, and hope. Then the day-of story is a different template. Then Monday is silence, or a “thanks to everyone who came” in a third look.

Three posts. Same listing. Same look as just listed. That is the whole sequence.

Announce (three to five days out)

This is the open house graphic. Date, time, address, your name. Same type and colors as the just-listed post so a seller scrolling your feed sees one listing, not two brands.

On the graphic

• Open house (same words every time)
• Day and time (Saturday 11–2, not “this weekend”)
• Address
• One photo — usually the same exterior you used for just listed
• Your name and brokerage

Not on the graphic

• A map nobody can read at phone size
• Every amenity
• “Refreshments provided!!”
• A new color palette because this one is “an event”

Put the square in the feed. Put the story version up the same day as a saveable reminder. Caption: the date, how to get there if parking is weird, and how to book a private showing if they cannot come.

If you do not have a date yet, do not post a fake open house graphic. Wait. A just-listed that is still up is enough.

Day-of reminder (morning of)

This is a story, not a new feed post, unless your market lives on Facebook more than Instagram.

Same graphic family. If anything changes, change the time, not the design. Crop for story. Put “today” or the hours where the date was.

Post it in the morning, not at noon when people have already made plans. If you have a second window (lunch, last hour), a second story is fine. A second design is not.

Do not film a ten-minute walkthrough and call that the reminder. A walkthrough can be extra. The reminder is the time and the address, still looking like you.

If rain or a lockbox problem kills the open house, say so in a story with the same frame and a one-line caption. Do not leave yesterday’s “Saturday 11–2” sitting there as if the door is open.

After (same day or next morning)

The after post is not a victory lap. It is a close of the event and an open door for the people who missed it.

You do not need a crowd shot. You do not need a number. “Busy open house” with three people in the kitchen is how agents get a reputation.

What works:

• Same house photo, or one interior that actually showed well
• “Open house is done” or “Still available — private showings”
• Your name
• How to see it this week

If you got an offer, you still do not owe the internet a play-by-play. When the status changes, that is a pending graphic, not a redesigned open house.

If nobody came, do not post a post-mortem. Take the event graphic down from Stories when it expires. Keep the listing story moving with the next true event.

Same type and colors as just listed

This is the part agents skip because they found a “cute open house template” with balloons.

Balloons are not a strategy. The seller already has a just listed on their phone. If Saturday’s post does not look like that one, you taught them that each event is a one-off.

Match:

• The font
• The color of the label (Open house / Just listed / Sold)
• Where the address sits
• Where your name sits
• The photo treatment (same crop style, same filter or none)

Open house graphics in the pack are built for that match. Announce and day-of are in the pack on purpose. You should not be in Canva at 10 p.m. on Friday inventing a new look.

What not to change every weekend

If you host often, the temptation is to “keep it fresh.” Fresh is how you get five different open house styles in a month.

Do not change:

• The words “Open house” to “You’re invited” to “Come see it” week to week
• The color of the banner
• Your logo placement

Do change:

• The photo (this house, not last week’s)
• The address
• The hours
• The caption

Buyers who follow you should recognize an open house from you in one second. That only happens if you repeat yourself on purpose.

Broker tour vs public open house

If Sunday is public and Thursday is brokers, you still do not need two brands. One graphic, two captions. Or one graphic with the public hours, and a private text to the agent list.

Putting “brokers welcome 10–11” on a consumer graphic is fine if your market does that. Putting a second, louder design on top of it is not.

A sequence you can reuse

• Just listed, day the listing goes live — how to announce it
• Open house announce, 3–5 days out
• Open house day-of story
• After, if there is something true to say
• Price change, pending, or sold when those are true — not because you need content

Skip a step if the listing does not have that event. Do not invent an open house to fill the grid.