Selecting a home is not a logical undertaking for most buyers. Most buyers are very swayed by the initial emotions they feel when they first walk through the door of a potential new home. Almost instantly, the home either feels right or feels wrong.
Rarely do people warm up to a home. They receive a first impression and in short order they believe a home is "it" - or it's not. That first impression can be the beginning of a sales success, or it can be a prohibitive factor that you'll find hard to overcome.
I remember hearing my mother tell the story of helping my grandmother find a home to buy. They had looked at a number of homes before they walked into one that my grandmother liked. In fact, within two minutes she was dancing around the house saying, "This is the one I am going to buy. I want to buy this house now." All logic went out the window the moment she found the comfort, warmth, and space for her large dining room furniture.
It didn't matter that the home was next door to a car wash with loud air blowers (fortunately, my grandmother was hard or hearing). It didn't matter that it was about 100 feet from a major street with extensive traffic. It felt right to her, and she bought it that day.
Good first impressions, feelings, and emotions control the sale, and logic takes a distant second place in the decision process.
A home has ten seconds to make a first impression. All the senses are in play, and either a home passes or fails the initial test.
Use this advice to positively engage all the senses in the first moments of the buying experience:
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Scent. Fill the home with smells that invoke feelings of comfort, warmth and calmness. Suggest that the sellers bake cookies or bread or with something that fills the home with a warm honey-like aroma prior to presentations. If your clients aren't quite Martha Stewart types, suggest that they put a few drops of vanilla on some aluminum foil in a warm oven. Or, create a positive aroma with potpourri or incense.
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Sound. Play soft, soothing music that is considered pretty-much universally acceptable, such as classical pieces with limited instruments or even just piano music. Gangster rap would be unadvisable. If the home has sound wired throughout each room, your music selections also give you an opportunity to demonstrate a feature of the home.
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Ambiance. Ask the sellers to create a visually inviting environment. Suggest that they prepare a nicely set dining room table. Suggest that they place flower arrangements in various rooms. Even recommend that they build a fire in the fireplace.
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Brightness. Open all the blinds and draperies to let in natural light and make the home appear larger. Also turn on lights in corner areas to pull the eye to the perimeter of the room and provide a sense of expanded space.
OH and Here are a couple more tips:
1. Stand outside, in front of the front door to the home. Look up and around, what do you see? Spiderwebs? Dead bugs? Dried Dog Doo Doo? How clean is the window on the storm door?
This is exactly what the buyer will see for THEIR FIRST IMPRESSION!
2. Be sure to arrive before your clients if you are the Buyers Agent, and if someone is still living in the home. This gives you a few moments to run around and put down toilet lids, throw something in the closet thats lying in the middle of the room, pick up some trash or dirty towels that the kids left on the floor? OR like I discovered a few weeks back: dried up dog doo in the basement lower level (guarantee the seller never ran down there to check before the showing LOL
3. Always carry a FIRST AID Kit; if you will and I don't mean just band-aids (though that could come in handy) how about toilet paper? air freshener or spray? couple of doggie treats (in case you encounter grumpy dogs or barking dogs in cages) and a roll of paper towels and windex or some sort of spray cleaner. You never can tell when these items come in handy FOR YOU. Remember you are not doing these ER tips and tricks for the Selling Agent; you are doing this for YOU and YOUR BUYER. If the FIRST IMPRESSION BOMBS and you could have pulled off a simple "save"; then shame on you; you should have been more prepared.
ONLY MY OPINION OF COURSE
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