One of the common mistakes homeowners, landlords, and estate agents make when advertising a home is to assume that buyers can easily see what they see. As the owner of a home, you are familiar with the best features of your property and may take it for granted that those features are evident to others.
But you have this knowledge because you have lived in the home for a long time or seen the property often. As an estate agent, it might be because you see several properties and have gained the ability to compare homes objectively.
But the average person you are marketing your home to does not have this advantage.
Your prospective buyer or tenant has probably lived in their current home for a long time and has fixed ideas about how an incredible apartment should look. Additionally, they have expectations and fears that cloud their judgment.
They will be looking at your home and interpreting what they see through the eyes of their experiences.
That is why two people can look at the same apartment and come to different conclusions. One person may feel the room is cramped, while the other person will think that the space is cozy. It is all a matter of perception; people make buying decisions based on their perceptions and not reality.
When buyers and renters view your home, they will see its features but may not necessarily understand it. That is why buyers routinely pass over a great house for an average one. Most buyers need some help to see the potential of a home even when they are standing right inside the property.
Show don’t tell
If you are building your marketing strategy on the assumption that your prospective buyers or renters can and will make objective decisions about your home, you will struggle, warns KRS Holdings in Alexandria. People do not care so much about the facts you throw at them when you market a property.
What they care about is how the home makes them feel. Buyers may not care about a granite countertop, but they will love a kitchen that makes them desire a cup of warm coffee when they step into it. They want a living room that makes them feel like curling up in front of the TV.
That is the most important factor when marketing a property; you must generate powerful positive emotions in your audience. Any strategy that helps you achieve this will help you sell your home faster and for more money.
What is the best technique for getting this kind of result?
Home staging – a potent marketing technique
Home staging is a strategy that focuses on amplifying the home’s emotional appeal instead of merely presenting bare-boned facts about it. Rather than market the property as a house or apartment, home staging transforms it into a home that can capture the buyer’s deepest desires.
Professional home staging aims to identify what motivates the buyer in terms of the features they desire most in their future apartment. Home staging then implements those ideas into the home as a way of showing the buyer what is possible with the property.
Instead of leaving the buyer to determine if the home has the qualities to satisfy their dreams, a professional home stager shows them that it does. The effect of doing this is that the buyer falls in love with the home and becomes very keen on owning it.
Professional home stagers do this by strategically using interior design ideas and principles, such as paint colors, lighting, furniture, and décor. Staging also uses the principles and practices of photography, and most professional stagers are expert digital marketers.
That makes home staging the ideal visual marketing technique for real estate.
Why home staging works
1. It gives clarity to the buyer’s desires
Professional staging gives form to buyers’ desires. Most buyers cannot articulate what they want in their future because those desires are subliminal. However, they can identify it once they see it, and a professional stager can help them see it.
2. It shows the potential of the home
Just as most people will misjudge the dimensions of a room when it is empty, most buyers cannot see the potential of a bare home. Professional staging helps the prospective buyer see what is possible with the property; it highlights the best things about the house.
3. It creates viral marketing images
Photos of professionally staged homes are highly clickable; internet users are motivated to share them. It helps the house gain more exposure and increases the odds that the home will catch the attention of the perfect buyer.
4. It helps the home sell for more money
Buyers who view a professionally staged home are more likely to become attached to it. When potential buyers become attached to a home, they will often make higher offers to fend off competitors. That is why staged homes often sell for a lot more than unstaged homes.
