Jerry Maquire walked in the room and their eyes locked.  He said, "Hello".  Their future was secured in that split second.  Even though he babbled on, none of his subsequent words even registered with the girl.  The famous film sequence is immortalized with the sentence, "You had me at ‘Hello".  Highly emotional?  Yes.  Highly adrenaline charged?  Likely. 

 

Recent research by John Gottman of the Gottman Institute suggests that in periods of high adrenaline, parts of the brain actually shut down.  His research discovered that the flooding of the brain with adrenaline during an emotional exchange can impair an individual's ability to reason rationally and can lead to confusion.  On a less dramatic level, mini adrenaline flooding happens to each of us every day.

 

On a balmy, summer day I took my mother on a day trip to the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  It would be her first time at the gardens and we planned on spending the day together walking, talking and enjoying the sunshine.  We were chatting and laughing as we approached the entrance when she stopped to notice the overwhelming effect of the first gardens.  Words could not express her impression of the experience - she just stood and cried at the sight of the deeply saturated beauty of the garden.  Highly emotional?  Surprisingly so!  Highly adrenaline charged?  Absolutely - we actually had to find a place for her to sit down for a while!

 

Could it be that first impressions are a function of surging adrenaline?  It makes sense.  I was horrified to read a Dear Abby column years ago where Abby advised a reader to pay for chin surgery to become more physically attractive instead of using the money for more lofty pursuits.  Abby stated that first visual impressions must be taken seriously; she said it is a fact of nature.

 

Using the power of first impressions is one the most important tools to recognize when marketing your house.  "Honey, stop the car.... This is the one" is what you want to hear echoing in your driveway when a potential buyer stops to write down the phone number on your For Sale sign.  Now, that's a successful first impression.  The happy surge of adrenaline just might carry the buyer joyfully through the entire transaction. 

 

Create the best first impression possible by taking inventory of your home's visual impact starting at the curb.  Look at the property as if you are the buyer, but if you think your own judgment is clouded, then get a trusted and outspoken friend to do it for you.  Is the mailbox straight and clean?  Is the driveway clear, freshly topped with sealer?  If the buyer and her Realtor will park in front of the garage doors, then the garage doors are part of the first impression, too.  The finish on the doors should be clean and even. What about the walkway to the front door?  Are bushes crisply trimmed or are they flopping over the sidewalk making it appear narrow?  If you are like me, we use our garage entryway more than our front door, so it's easy to ignore the cobwebs, leaves and grit that collect on the front porch.  Spend a moment there just standing and staring.  This is the time that the buyers will either notice the wasp nest growing in the corner of the porch ceiling or say to each other - "How lovely!  Our swing will fit perfectly here." 

 

If you've set the stage and they are giving each other lingering glances of hopeful expectation before their Realtor has even opened the door, you have properly created the environment of sales success.  That's the confusing little adrenaline spark that plants the seed of hope in your buyer's hearts.  Now they look forward to opening the door as if your house is a gift to them, wrapped with a glossy bow.  What could be more promising for them as the buyer and for you as the seller than an expectant, slightly excited prickle of destiny-realized as they enter your foyer.  Do you see what they will see?

 

Just in case this seems too schmaltzy for your practical side, here are a few real life examples:

 

A new house, still under construction, was on the market but getting little attention.  The builder was advised to grade the front yard, remove the piles of debris and equipment, but before he could do it a snowstorm hit and covered all the imperfection in the front yard with a romantic blanket of rounding swirls of snow.  A consumer drove by - fell in love with the house and bought it that day.

Two houses in the same neighborhood were entering the real estate market last year at the same price.  House Number One was beautiful inside and out, but the outside entryway housed a nest of barn swallow hatchlings whose parents swooped and threatened potential buyers as they neared the front of the house.  Adrenaline surges caused by attacking birds are not the kind of confusion that aids in sales.  In addition, the waste from the nest as the birds grew older was obvious all over the porch.  The owners of House Number Two installed a new front door, erected a new mailbox, planted flowers, scrubbed the front porch and topped the driveway with sealer.  It's no surprise that house number two sold for a higher price in less time than house number one.

 

This spring, as you prepare to put your house on the market, set the stage.  Use human nature as your tool to entice your future buyer from the curb on in.  From the moment they see your house from the comfort of their Realtor's sedan, make them say, "You had me at mailbox."

Originally printed in McHenry County Woman Magazine