Open houses. Love them? Hate them? A waste of a Sunday afternoon, or a great way to get people in the door? Many home buyers and sellers, and agents, too, have strong opinions about them.

We talked to Jack and Doranne Strama of Jenny Pruitt & Associates. This husband-and-wife team loves open houses, so much so that they're known as the company's "open house gurus" and teach a class on open house marketing. "It's a legitimate business builder," Jack believes, "and shows clients that you're willing to do something others might not.

Christopher Oquendo/Special (ENLARGE)

Twyla and Lee Strasburg created a 'Bulldog' room in their new home.

Christopher Oquendo/Special (ENLARGE)

LaDonna and Randy Lagod quickly snapped up this home in Marietta after attending an open house.

"The house doesn't have to be beautiful to be a good open house candidate," he says. "An ugly duckling house might be just the ticket for someone who is looking for a house to renovate and make their own."

Simone Hoffman from the Cobb office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage agrees. "Remember that buying a house is a very subjective process. It's not always about finding the perfect house. Sometimes it's about finding what you need where you want to be. Open houses can be a great way to get home buyers and other agents in the door."

Let's meet two home buyers who found their homes through an open house.

AN OPEN HOUSE SELLS TO THE NEIGHBORS

We had just finished redoing our home: Twyla and Lee Strasburg love their Kennesaw neighborhood of Legacy Park. "There's a great pool area, tennis courts, baseball fields, a town green, an amphitheater where we have movies and concerts and walking trails all in the center of a circle of 10 subdivisions," says Twyla. "We wanted to stay in Legacy Park and had thought about moving, but in looking around, we didn't see anything we wanted, so we had just redone our home and were planning to stay there."

The open house sign lured them in: "We definitely were not looking. But we always liked this particular street in the Bellingrath subdivision and so few houses ever went up for sale. This house was one of my favorites, and when we saw the sign for the open house, we just thought we'd check it out. When we walked in, we knew we had to buy it."

What they bought: They traded their three-bedroom, two-bath ranch for a home with four bedrooms and four baths and a finished basement with windows all across the back. They've taken advantage of that basement space and created a "Bulldog" room as well as a media room and bar area.

An open house sold their old home, too: "Of course our old house wasn't on the market," says Twyla, "so we had to get it ready for sale quickly. We used the same agents that had the listing on our new house and they held an open house for us the next Sunday. The house was under contract by the following Tuesday. It was just amazing. Everything happened so quickly."

AN OPEN HOUSE 'IMPULSE' BUY:

It happened one Sunday afternoon: LaDonna Lagod got a call from her sister-in-law, "There's thirty minutes left at this open house. Let's go." Lagod remembers, "I was so tired and I didn't want to go, but another neighbor had told me that it was a great house. When I walked in I was just in awe. The house had everything I wanted. But we weren't really looking!" Still, she called her husband. "I asked the agents if they could give us just a few more minutes so my husband could come look at it." The agents agreed, and four days later the Lagods had made an offer.

Where they bought: The Lagods had been in Marietta's Riverhill subdivision for 11 years. They loved the neighborhood, but with three children, had outgrown their house. "We had looked at houses before, and even made offers but never found just the right one. And we definitely wanted to stay in our neighborhood." Their new house in Hampton Farms subdivision is part of the larger collection of neighborhoods that shares swim and tennis facilities with Riverhill.

What they bought: Their two-story "salt box" has three bedrooms and three baths on the second floor, a bonus room in the attic and a main floor with kitchen, dining room, living room, den, guest bedroom and full bath. "And we even got a basement we could finish. There was so much space here. We love it. Buying this house was the best decision we ever made," says Lagod.

SIX TIPS TO GET THE MOST OUT OF VISITING AN OPEN HOUSE

1. Be upfront with the agents you meet. Explain where you are in the home shopping process even if it's just day-dreaming or just that you always wanted to see the inside of the house. The agent will respect your candor and gladly share their information with you.

2. Take your time. There's no reason to rush. Take notes for future reference. You want that visit to have ongoing value for you.

3. Young children and open houses don't mix. It's hard to focus on the house or your questions when you're trying to cope with young kids in an unfamiliar environment. Take turns watching the kids in the car or outside.

4. Registering at an open house is a courtesy to the owner and addresses safety concerns for an agent. Don't be afraid to leave your name. Just tell the agent you don't want to be contacted for follow up. Any good agent is not going to waste his time calling you if you don't want to be called.

5. Visit early in the open house to make sure you have enough time to see that house and get your questions answered. Arriving at the end can present problems for the agent who might have an appointment or for the seller's family that's returning home.

6. Plan your open house tour. Information on open house schedules can be obtained from classified and open house ads in the paper, real estate company Web sites, or on national Web sites like realtor.com. Signs are often posted early on the weekend and can guide you. Organize your route and make it productive time.

FOR THE SELLER: FIVE ADVANTAGES OF HOLDING AN OPEN HOUSE.

1. Open houses provide extra exposure to buyer's agents and neighbors. A lot of agents will run in because it's convenient. They don't have to schedule an appointment but they need to see what's available in the area. The neighbors are curious, they'll all want to see the house and don't forget that they are your biggest supporters. They're the ones who will recommend your house to their friends, family and work colleagues.

2. Open houses may catch the eye of someone who missed you in an Internet search. In today's Internet-driven home search process, it's easy to miss a home that doesn't match a couple of the buyer's search criteria, yet that house can turn out to be just the right property for that buyer. They wouldn't have seen it if they hadn't come to your open house.

3. Open houses provide a chance to override someone's initial search criteria. A buyer might have thought they were looking for a house in outstanding condition, but when they see your keeping room and the way it opens the kitchen up, they might decide they can handle a few repairs to get a family eating area they really love.

4. Open houses generate buzz. Sometimes it's the extra signs or the ads used to promote the open house, but putting your house out there gets it noticed.

5. Open houses create a fear of loss. When a buyer sees your open house sign go out on Wednesday, they know that on Sunday, anybody who comes into that house might put in a contract. Open houses can convert an interested prospect into a buyer if they're afraid someone will scoop up the house first.

FOR THE BUYER: SEVEN ADVANTAGES OF VISITING OPEN HOUSES

1. It's a great way to ease into the market. You can check out a variety of homes to see what's on the market and how houses are priced. Maybe you don't want to commit to an agent because you're not ready to see houses on a regular basis. This is a great way to do some research and get a feeling for what's out there.

2. The chance to spend more than a few minutes inside a home. When you're working with an agent, the average house visit is 7-10 minutes, primarily because you probably have lots of ground to cover. With an open house, you can stay in that house for as long as you need. It's the chance to sit in every room and really understand that house.

3. A chance to talk with the neighborhood expert. Listing agents are generally true neighborhood experts. Usually they live in the neighborhood or the school district so they know about schools, recreation, churches, traffic patterns and convenience. A buyer's agent usually covers a lot of territory, so take advantage of this chance to talk with someone who knows the area well.

4. The prospect of meeting a variety of agents. Going to open houses will introduce you to how the agents handle themselves, how informed they are and how they represent their clients. If you have a house to sell, this will give you a chance to compare agents, and if you really like an agent, they may be an accredited buyer's agent as well.

5. A convenient way to visit lots of homes. You don't have to make appointments and you don't feel you're imposing on someone's (seller or agent) time.

6. A look into current decor trends and staging tips. Three-quarters of people visiting open houses are making a change from one home to another, and it's a good idea to see what they need to do to make their current home more marketable when they're ready to put it on the market.

7. The opportunity to collect information on prices and features. Seeing what's on the market is a great way to figure out how your current home stacks up.

HOFFMAN'S TIPS ON GETTING READY FOR AN OPEN HOUSE

1. Make sure the house is clean and the toys are put away.

2. Hang nice towels in the bathrooms and make sure everything looks fresh.

3. Put away as much as you can so the house looks open and spacious.

4. Get the yard in good condition with fresh mulch and blooming flowers leading people right to your front door.

5. Put away your valuables so you don't have to worry about what will happen when people come in.

6. Turn on the lights.

7. Get rid of your pets.

8. Bake something fragrant just before the open house, or light a fragrant candle so everything will smell homey.

9. Offer refreshments like lemonade and cookies.

10. Leave the house.

How many open houses should you have? Some sellers believe that in a slow market, the more open houses the better, but Hoffman says that depends on your location. Open houses near main streets and in popular walk-around areas get more visitors than those held in the back of a subdivision on a back road. "I usually feel that if you have one open house and it doesn't draw a lot of people, you probably shouldn't have any more," Hoffman says.