FW Real Estate – Documentation
Open House
An open house is the cheapest viewing an agency ever runs: one trip, one hour, several buyers at once. The hard part is filling it. The Open House add-on solves that by sending an automatic alert to exactly the people who already told you they want this kind of property — users whose saved search matches a property about to hold a viewing.
Use Cases
- Filling a Saturday viewing without ringing round.
- A launch weekend for a new development, with slots across two days.
- Knowing who is coming. The RSVP list tells you whether to expect two people or twenty before you set off.
- Browsing by open house. Visitors can search specifically for properties that have a viewing coming up.
Scheduling Open House Slots
Once the add-on is enabled, the property form gains an Open House card. Each row is a slot with a start time and an end time. A single property can hold as many slots as needed — a Saturday morning and a Sunday afternoon, or four consecutive weekends.
Slots are structured data, not a free-text line, and that distinction is what makes the rest of the add-on work. Structured slots allow the listing to order and filter by them, the property page to surface the next upcoming one, and the alert to know exactly what is coming up within the next seven days. Slots can also be prepared in a spreadsheet, since they are stored as a CSV column.
Past slots stop showing on their own — there is nothing to tidy up after an event has passed.
RSVP
Visitors can register for a slot directly from the property page. The admin sees the attendee list per slot, giving a clear picture of expected turnout before the viewing takes place.
The Open House Alert
The alert is sent automatically by the site's scheduled job. It goes to users whose saved search matches a property scheduling an open house within the next seven days, and only to those who have alerts switched on. Two conditions must be in place for it to reach anyone: the scheduled job must be running, and the Saved Searches add-on must be active — the alert is aimed at people who saved a search, so without saved searches it has no audience.
Alert Settings
Configure the alert under Configuration → Add-ons → Open House alerts.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Subject and body | The text of the alert email sent to matching users. |
| Per-event row template | Controls how each individual open-house slot is rendered inside that email. |
Front-End Display
- The next open house appears as a badge on the listing card (subject to the Fields screen configuration).
- The full schedule with RSVP control appears on the property detail page.
- An open-house filter in search lets visitors find only properties holding an upcoming viewing.
The entire Open House card is subject to the Fields screen, so it can be unpublished or restricted to a specific access level if needed.
To install this addon, open the Add-ons panel inside FW Real Estate. See Getting Started → Add-ons for details on free addons, paid addons, and site verification.
