Visual Marketing

Consider this scenario. A prospective buyer (a couple) visits an in process housing development. They have a modest budget and are interested in a one-bedroom starter home. They actually have enough financing to get a larger place, but they have decided that they will stick to their budget and will trade-up in the future after they reach their next pay grades in a few years down the road.

They are shown into a model home since few of the units are finished. The model unit is stunningly decorated. It’s so glamorous that it looks like it comes right out of the pages of a million dollar home magazine shoot. The couple ooohs and ahhhs. They see how beautiful it is and think that maybe they should just grab this deal before its gone. Let’s get another bedroom; maybe we should add an office. How incredible the finishes are, sparkling fixtures, stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, stone tile in the kitchen, hardwood floors everywhere else.

They begin to justify spending more money. We’ll just get it all now, and then we won’t have to bother with the upgrades and disruption later. After all, it’s a good investment they tell each other. In a flash they go from buying a modest 1-bedroom starter home to a 3 bedroom, complete with all the upgrades. How did that happen so quickly?

Consider that new homebuilders in large developments spend 10’s of thousands of dollars to have their model homes professionally decorated. The leather couches, expensive drapes, oriental rugs, gorgeous bedding, and crystal vases full of roses do not come with the sale of the house. The house is 2 by 4’s, sheetrock, wiring, plumbing, flooring, a roof and windows. But building materials are not at all sexy. You are buying the building, yet ironically it’s the décor that does the heavy lifting for the sale.

People are always attracted by the professional work of the interior decorator. Only the tradition and training of a culture or experience in a trade field will help them to see beyond the Sensurround they are brought into. That is why model homes are so stunningly and expensively decorated. The builder is creating the environment of luxury, glamour and beauty.

Beauty appeals to emotion, and minus other factors, a lot of people buy on emotion. How a buyer feels about a property can be more important to them at the moment than practical considerations. They consider the measurable variables to a degree of course, but leave feelings to do the rest. Any highly marketable product must speak to the love inside of us, and appeal to our sense of urgency to get it before it’s gone. That’s why shoppers will fight over the last Elmo doll available at Toys-R-Us on Christmas Eve. We have a built in primordial desire to compete for the rare or the scarce.

As a homeowner, if you understand this human encoding, you can utilize your home’s assets to appeal to buyers from a sense of beauty as well as practicality. Buyers are distracted by all the family photos on your mantle and they forget to notice the fireplace. The point is to arrange your space in such a way as to draw every ones eyes to the wonderful features of your own home: a spectacular view, a luxurious bathtub, a manicured lawn skirted with beautiful flowerbeds. As the homeowner, your job is to help the buyer not to see your old house, but their new one. Help them to visualize their family (not yours) living in and enjoying that space.

Below I’d like you to see samples of one of the many beautiful renovations my husband and I did on our own homes. This level of work and investment is not necessary for everyone. I can teach sellers many free, easy and affordable things that they can do to prepare their home to appeal to the most number of buyers possible. A savvy or ambitious seller will benefit from learning about what drives today’s sophisticated buyers and how getting the right staging strategy will help you get a sale more easily in this challenging market.

Case Study

These before photos reflect how this house was presented to us during the realtor showings.  The owners didn't even have the ancient rug cleaned.  Yuck!  The after pictures (post renovation) are how we marketed it for our sale.  Granted, a lot of the difference was due to the renovation and remodel work, but relatively inexpensive staging made a huge impact.

Before:	After: