I recently took a listing for someone that I've known both professionally and personally. They own a beautiful home and when it was built had all the bells and whistles included.
In marketing their home, I felt the best way was to build up the best feature of the home, the backyard. It is magnificiant and we tried that for several weeks. Sure, we had showings and even a couple of 2nd showings, but no offers.
I have always been proud of my listening skills and even though I heard them when they told me about all the extras they had added to the house, I admit, I kinda poo-poo'd their input. Thinking that all these little things that people can't actually see as obviously as granite counter tops wouldn't really make or break a deal. Or would it?
We are competing with a model match down the street. Sure it has a pool, but our listing has a pool, spa, built-in BBQ and gas fire pit......why wouldn't that set our house apart and warrant more money?
When they told me again about this list of extras and I was talking to my husband about it, he said 'jeez, women look for closet space and a great kitchen, but men want a place they can call their own too'. It dawned on me that these 'little' things are what men dream of........A custom garage set up with more than 5 power sources, custom cabinets and not just one custom workbench, but 2.......how about custom electrical for your holiday lights on the eves? Or Hot and cold water on the built-in BBQ? Or surround sound in the backyard!!!! Wow!!!
I just didn't have any room in the description to talk about a long list of extras. So, I began to think about how I could market these extras. I created that long list and put into a PDF file to download it to my MLS listing. We hadn't had any showings in about a week, and already I've had 3 calls for showings since adding this yesterday.
The moral of the story is that even with all our training, education and experience, homeowners know the things that they love about their home and can have just as much of an impact on the marketing of the home as us 'expert realtors'.
I love when I learn something new.
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