OpenHouse sends every open house sign-in into Sierra Interactive as a new lead. You connect once with your Sierra API key, and after that each visitor at the door posts to Sierra on its own, carrying tags, a note with the property address, and the buyer or seller lead type.
One detail matters more with Sierra than with most CRMs, and OpenHouse handles it for you: the visitor never gets a portal registration email. More on that below.
Connect it once
- In Sierra, open the gear menu, then Integrations, then Sierra Interactive, and copy your API key.
- Open the Connections page in your OpenHouse dashboard and paste it in.
- Send a test lead from OpenHouse and watch it appear in Sierra.
Sierra does not publish a public test account, so OpenHouse checks the shape of the key and then confirms the real connection when you send that first test and see it land. The key is stored encrypted and never shown back in full. Sierra's own developer docs are at api.sierrainteractivedev.com.
The registration email, handled
Sierra requires a password on every new lead because it can spin up a lead portal account for that person. Sent naively, that means an open house visitor could get a "welcome, set your password" email from a website they never visited. OpenHouse closes that gap: it generates a strong throwaway password server-side and sets the registration email flag off, so the visitor is never contacted by the portal. They signed in at your open house, and the follow-up stays on your terms.
What each sign-in becomes in Sierra
Every sign-in posts to Sierra's leads endpoint with the visitor's name, email, and phone, and the source set to OpenHouse. On top of that, OpenHouse sends:
- Qualifier tags so the contact shows the visitor type, timeframe, and financing at a glance.
- A note in plain English with the property address, interest level, and whether they have a home to sell.
- The lead type set to buyer or seller from the sign-in answers, so Sierra routes it the way you route those leads.
Once the lead exists, your own Sierra routing and action plans take over, exactly as they would for a website or portal lead.
It keeps working with no signal
The iPad and iPhone kiosk captures on the device, so a listing with weak Wi-Fi does not cost you leads. Each sign-in waits in a local queue, and when the device reconnects, it syncs and posts into Sierra. See offline lead capture for how that works.
You can also keep your tablet out of visitors' hands. Print the QR code sign-in for the sign rider, let visitors fill the form on their own phones, and the lead still reaches Sierra on its own.
Buyers who already have an agent
Some open house visitors already have representation. By default, OpenHouse marks those as represented and holds them back from Sierra, so your action plans never start following up with another agent's client. The record stays in your OpenHouse list and your export. If you would rather push every visitor, that toggle lives under Lead handling.
If Sierra is not your only tool
OpenHouse can deliver the same sign-in to more than one place at once. If your team runs a mix, see Follow Up Boss, HubSpot, Lofty, BoldTrail and kvCORE, or the full CRM export and delivery options. Whatever the destination, the leads stay yours to export at any time.