With so many more houses coming on the market, I am starting to visually name the houses I show in order not to forget which one is where, and what did it have in it.  Some are called the Barking house (because it's a dog) or "the home where the Buffalo Roamed" meaning really beat up or there was the Electric Blue house (meaning you couldn't forget the paint job)

Debbie -

LOL - You're killing me!  That is exactly what I meant.  Wouldn't it be great if all these houses were known by location?  Like the Main Street house?  Really - isn't that supposed to be the most important thing in real estate?

Location, location, location NOT condition, condition, condition - Or is it?

I have actually started "naming" the house for my clients. The idea is to be realistic and tell a story with the name.

I have one listing that is known locally as the "Tornado House" and I've begun to use it in my marketing of the house. The house has a stairway that goes to the attic, an odd feature in this small 1-story house. Well the story is that when the house was being build in the 1960s a tornado hit while they were completing the second floor and wiped it right off the house. The owners didn't have the money to rebuild it so they just finished it as a one-story house.

Has it worked? I don't know yet. I just started using it and will keep you updated.

It goes back to "creating" a realistic image and getting the buyer to focus on what we want them to focus on -- one that will have them wanting to buy the home.

I worked on a house that we named the Kleenex house...they had dozens of dirty tissues hidden behind everything!

Great post.  I try to tell sellers that one person's decorating taste is not anothers.  I tell them to pack up the clutter.

Good point though.  I'll be calling you when I get a listing like that.

We want buyers to recall the house and it's features not the seller's possessions! Great post Kimberly - I know that cat pee house and the doggy doo one too!

Kim, You are such a great spokesperson "for the cause." I'm just doing a little day dreaming here but I think that when (not if) we are able to form the National Staging Association or whatever its name becomes you will be one of the officers who helps bring the industry to such huge proportions we will forget we were once a (can I say the "C" word?) cottage industry. Hum, good pun --so I'll say I intended it.

Yvonne, I'll vote right now for Kimberly to preside over the National Staging Association. 

Kimberly - That is so funny - when I do my realtor presentations I have pictures of the ____________ houses.  I have the one called the library, rooster house, neon paint house etc then I show them the afters.  It really makes a big difference.  I always tell realtors and homeowners if your house has a nickname - it needs some help.  This always gets a big response from the realtors - they begin to discuss past homes - remember the gnome home, panda house, moose lodge - you get the picture.  I think everyone who looks at a bunch of homes makes up nicknames for them - What are they calling your listing?

Hey Steve, you are correct, Kim has the "right stuff." You are one of those wise builders who gets it.

Toby- I can see how that would work if it were positive, or had historical reference, but I think you'd have to be really careful with that.

Lucie- Do you ever wonder if they are listening when you tell them you will be moving their furniture?  Especially teenage boys. EWWWW

Ronda- The more they like it, the more a buyer will hate it.  It can be hard to get them to see that, though.  I'll be waiting for your call!

Karen- cat pee, dog poop, ferret droppings, pony hair, Birds - you name it, it sure stinks up a house!

Yvonne -Wow, thanks!  I sure would like to be involved, but I don't know if I'm officer material....Could you write a letter of recommendation to some local builders for me? ;)

Steve - Maybe I could just preside over staging your vacant listings instead?

Maureen - Dawn and I have a presentation in the morning, I think I will bring that up!

Kim - I have really large photos of some of the nicknamed homes.  I tell the realtors we are going to play a game called Nickname that listing.  There are fabulous prizes of course.  What are they you may ask? Cookies - what else.  I like to keep things light and fun when I do realtor presentations.  No one wants to sit through a really boring speech. Then I tell them I try to make the home staging experience as much fun as it can be for the homeowners also.   I have a life rule - if it is not fun - I don't participate, if I can help it. 

A fun post, Kimberly, with a serious message., I often name homes to myself when showing them (not to my buyers) but also encourage buyers to do the same as a way of remembering them when seeing a series in one day. The ones based on ugly features or odors can be humorous, but inevitably are NOT the ones the buyers decide to buy, and the names are usually indicative of a problem that needs to be resolved. I've had The Curry House, The Cabbage House, The Trashy House, The Dump, etc. Humorous, but not really. If the sellers only knew...

Jeff

Kim,

It really does make it more fun when your buyers get into the "name" game!

I had a listing once that WAS the cat pee house.  You could smell it from outside the house!  I wrote in the listing remarks how "crappy" the house was.  Other agents would call me up and laugh about what I wrote.  It did sell after a few months.  Just goes to show you that anything will sell for the right price!

Lucky :)

I haven't named a house yet, but I have labeled buyers and sellers.  Usually by characteristics.  I don't think that any have been offensive, but I've  only shared them with my wife.  Good point in your blog, though.

I had a listing a couple of years ago which I dubbed "The Royal Palace." It didn't earn the name on it's own merits, but rather because I had named the seller "Her Royal Highness." I did have one other listing that was named...the "Mold House"...and you can guess what a fun transaction that was!

Hi Kimberly,

I always look for something about a home that stands out...good or bad and then I can remember it years later.  I often tell stories about properties from the past to my current clients...either to make a point or get a good laugh.

When I have been out with a client and seen a bunch of homes, I do in fact give the ones that make the list some type of a merker or name so that they can be remembered!

Thanks Kim!  Great post! Can I copy it and show it to my sellers?!

Keeping track of properties is always hard to do. Visualization is certainly one way to remember a home. At the first Brokerage that I worked at they kept the files alpahabetically by Selllers last name. When more than one last name came up we then learned the first name and or the subdivision. ( That Brokers philosiphy was that real estate is a people business not an address business )

One would hope that the aid you remember the home for would not be the the "Cat Pea House "

When I have a long day of house-hunting planned with my clients, I encourage them to name the houses because it brings them back to memory easily.  Just yesterday we had, "Small Kitchen", "Funky Pantry", "Perfect But..." and others.  We viewed almost 10 houses that day and the naming helped at the end of the day to review them all. 

Great post - I never thought of it like that - but you're right. Now you've got me thinking!

Very enjoyable read. Adding personality to a home is one thing if the name game helps in determining what needs attention works it is win/win to agents and sellers inthe long run.

Kimberly, another terrific post.  Unfortunately, the home can get "stuck" with a name very easily (and will stay with it after the issue has been addressed!).  Maybe calling it by the street name or the one positive feature it DOES have (it must have ONE:)

Hi1

We had a house and everyone called it the rooster house. Roosters everyehaere, figurines, wall paper, borders. They are gone and we still haven't sold it Thanks for your article

Kieran Loughman

I usually give a hand-out when I take the listing that deals with different issues, one of them being that they need to box away many personal items and de-clutter.  The personal items are usually still there.

Thanks, everyone for your comments - I guess this really struck a cord!  Naming houses can be fun and a great memory booster.  My point is what are the listings being remembered for?  When you think about your listings, what are your buyers saying about them?

My buyers do it all the time.  It makes it easy to remember and then discuss.  Nothing is real until you put a name on it.

I remember one agent describing a house as "The Elvis Is Alive" home.  I guess you know what those sellers collected!  LOL

I have two that need help "the kennel" and "the dog stink".    Both of which are residential homes.. and neither offer any "animal" services.

The've been told and told about the issues and just don't seem to "get it".

Yes, one of the agents in my office had a seller like that.  The house was so full of clutter you couldn't get through it, and they kept their dogs in the basement - and the entire house stunk to high heaven, but they wouldn't listen to any advice.

Pet owners can be like that.  My mom would never agree that the dogs smelled either.  I never really noticed it until after I moved out and then came back home...the stink!  was! awful!  Like smokers...they don't smell it either, and they think you're nuts. 

Hi Kimberly...."Been there done that".  It amazes me people willl wash and detail their care when they go to sell but many sellers put little effort into detailing their home which has much more equity than a car!  I also heard a little about staging but being a member of Active Rain has really opened my mind to staging sn the power of it. Have a great day.

Funny timing on this blog.  I have been working with a great first time buyer and we have been naming properties as we see them.  Fortunately it hasn't been anything bad but primarily by colors of paint in the house.  Red kitchen, blue bathroom, brown living room.   I did have a house once that I was showing that had a loud parriot that became the "shut up house" as that is what the parriot said everytime the dog barked.  Cute!

Kim, your post is right on!  In my pre-staging days, I had a seller that was a heavy smoker, he had moved out, but the "essence" of him remained!  I kept getting feedback from agents about the smoke smell and I spoke with my seller about it numerous times.  Finally one day he called and said that the smell had been dealt with. The next agent that had a showing scheduled called me to let me know that she was unable to show the home because when she opened the door the smell of Lysol was so strong everyone's eyes began to burn and they couldn't go inside!!  That home is forever known as the "eye sore", pun intended!

It might be a good idea for agents to pick up an air purification filter of some sort to put in the home to clean out the smells...we had one in our home that would eliminate odors within a couple of hours and leave behind a nice clean smell.

Sadly, it died.  But it's something to think about... 

Kimberly,your post made me smile. Yes, I'm sure we have all had houses that had special names with not only ourselves but also with buyers. They are memory grabbers...and yes, many could use stagging!!

Kimberly:

This was just GREAT and funny too.  I had been naming homes and I didn't even realize it or consider that my buyers might be naming them too.  Thank you for bringing this up. 

I once e-mailed about a dozen listings (with photos) to one of my clients for their review...

They were all sent based on matching criteria to what they were looking for in a house, and I never even looked at the photos on the MLS.....

About 1/2  hour later, the client called me and said that he and his wife wanted to see several houses, including what he called the "Pizza Hut" house that i had sent them....

Being confused by what he meant, I asked him to which house was he referring to as "Pizza Hut"...

He didn't have the address in front of him, but said that I could tell which one he was talking about by the photo on the MLS...

I went back and reviewed the listings that I had sent him, and when I opened the MLS listing to the house he was talking about, I started laughing and could barely stop...

The MLS photo that the REALTOR had on the site made the home look just like the old Pizza Hut restaurants of the 1970's..... funny roof, etc...

We did look at the house, and it did not look half bad up close and in person..

My client did not pick this house to purchase, as it wasn't exactly what they were looking for. But from then on out, whenever we talked about it, my clients and I always referred to it as the 'Pizza Hut" house...

On a side note, it took almost a year for the "Pizza Hut" house to sell...

I always wondered if the MLS photo had any effect on its desirability....

The REALTOR probably never even realized it....

Funny stuff, I've done the same thing for years, realtors, I've worked with do too!

It seems like this is a very common thing, but people actually use it for  different reasons.  I've mostly heard it used in critical forms.

You guys have such creative naming abilities - I'd love to hear more.  I did a presentation this morning and when I mentioned this they all started laughing - they all do it, too!

I think the ability to use humor in a presentation is a great way to bond with the audience.  I'm glad to hear it worked out!

Gumption! THAT is the PERFECT word. Realtors are AMAZED at what we "get away with" saying to clients and potential. 

I think that homesellers GET that we are REALLY on their side. It is for this EXACT reason I stress that a stagers site should have many many many exmple photos of properties they have staged.  When a seller SEES that the stager has come across many many homes that need help... the stagers credibility rises.

REMEMBER... people are VISUAL. More stagers need to USE THAT FACT to thier advantage.

Stage It Forward...

Me

Kimberly, you nailed it on the head.  Buyers often see so many houses, there is often 'something' that sticks out.  Stagers help to make sure that "something' is a positive thing.  As a realtor or a seller, I'd much rather my listing be referred to as the "designer house' or the "homey House" then the "Cat House!"

This is a great point because if realtors are naming houses, then they need to start calling stagers so they can call their listings THE STAGED HOUSE, YOU KNOW THE ONE THAT SOLD!!

Phyllis Pafumi

I love your article.  it is so so true and I think it was something I always knew but never took the time to think about. All of my buyers end up with names for the houses we see.

I have just starting including staging as a service in my listings and you make such a good point.  Everyone 'names' their listings.  I will encourage my sellers to go for the primo names by making their homes memorable in a good way!  ;)

Great post.  Very funny.

I love this post. So funny. I have done this for years and never even really thought about it! It is so true. 

You nailed this Kimberly! When you're showing 10 houses in a day you have to come up with a way to keep them straight. Day care house, a river runs through it, and smelly old man house are some of my favorites but obviously not my buyers favorites. "Our favorite" is the name you're looking for.

Kimberly, you are right on on this one.  As a Realtor I have buyers who do label and name the properties we view when I am showing them homes to buy.  The tree house, the kids house, the messy house and on and on.  Most buyers want to have pride in what they buy and want it to be better than what they are leaving.  Clean, even if they are not, Light, even if they draw all their drapes, etc.  We are visual beings and visualizing spaces for us and our things is essential to their decision to buy.  And of course much more, but that's another topic.  Thanks for the post.