Want to move homes faster and for more money?
Whether you want to rent or sell properties faster, for more money, or just boost your real estate brand, it can pay to deliver a good product. Not just a good product, but great housing that brings your clients’ dreams homes to life. So how do you accomplish this?
Trends, Misconceptions & Reality
Whether you are selling your own home, you are a Realtor moving properties for others, or you are selling your own investment properties, you want to maximize the sales price, and speed of implementation. This is increasingly becoming reliant on serving up a more personalized product.
This isn’t just true of the real estate industry, it is commerce in general. The more consumers are spoiled with personalized products, services, and gadgets, the more they expect that experience in everything they buy.
Far too many home sellers, real estate agents, and investors think that selling fast, and getting top dollar is all about the numbers. They attempt to achieve this through pricing strategy, justifying the numbers on paper, and sales pitches. In reality, this is rarely the winning factor. Obviously the numbers are relevant. If a buyer can only afford a $100,000 home, trying to pitch them a $1M property isn’t doing anyone any favors. Yet, the numbers frequently come second. Everyone wants to buy their dream home or rent their dream rental. Endless deals are lost, and countless buyers remain on the sidelines because of this gap.
Current Building and Design Trends
Everyone wants to buy or rent their dream home. So how can sellers better deliver on this?
- Smart home technology
- Green homes and building materials
- Sustainability
- Solar
- Rainwater harvesting
- Special signature focal features
- Designer label interior design
- Open floor plans
- Flexible indoor-outdoor spaces
- Multiple kitchen islands
Adding luxury features isn’t enough. It isn’t just about price, and it isn’t just about luxury or fashion. You’ve got to stay within budget limitations in order to see a profit. Remember, every property buyer is looking for something different.
You’ve Got to Get Your Buyers
Experienced real estate professionals know who their buyers are going to be before they buy. There may be some random exceptions to this, but most have (or should have) a pretty good idea of who is going to buy a property even before listing it. Hopefully even before buying it. You may not know exactly who, but you can design and market to match your ideal buyer profile. Some have even spec built or renovated properties for individual buyers. This was the case for an investor making over a home at 50 Charles Street in London, England for Gianna Versace.
You’ve got to know your buyers! Get to know the following:
- How old they are
- Have many kids they have, or not
- What they do for work
- What they do for fun
- Which social networks they use
- Which websites they frequent the most
- Which types of devices they are more likely to use
- How much they earn
- How much they have in the bank
- How is influencing their design tastes
A great example of this has been one of Lennar’s new communities. While the nation’s second largest builder is moving into the rental business due to finding a hard time selling new homes, they are still doing somethings right. One new community offering moderately priced homes offers green properties, with high tech houses including smartphone app controls and entries. The community offers a variety of features including shared fire pits, pools and a state of the art fitness center. The company’s new service line offers the ability to choose your own finishes and even have the property furnished. It rolls together many current trends, and may certainly appeal to many of today’s younger buyers.
Airbnb does this in another way. By providing short term stay options where digital nomads can experience living like locals, get onto Wi-Fi to do work on the go, book their next stay form mobile devices, and never have to worry about being tied down.
Getting the Message Out
Ultimately it still all comes down to getting the message out. You can have the best product in the world. But if your ideal home buyers don’t know about it, or don’t understand the perks, it won’t matter. It’s like having a cure for a disease but not being able to get it to those that need it. Or those that need it only associating you with having to have a needle stuck in their arm, and the long list of potential side effects.
You’ve got to reach them, and convey the features and benefits clearly. And if you make this concept a part of your real estate brand, and become known for it, it will be easier in the long run.
Solutions
Some Realtors, sellers, and investors may be cringing at the above. It sounds great. And we all know it makes sense. But it costs money to add more value and tailor real estate offerings. But there are many ways to do this more affordably. You can always adopt a minimalist style, or focus on lower end housing. Find more working capital and credit lines so you can get discounts on materials and buy in bulk when there are deals. There are also green stores popping up. And even free stuff in classified and on Craigslist which can be repurposed. What about home staging and virtual staging? How about pulling together third party concierge services? That doesn’t have to cost you a penny.
Get this right and your properties won’t just be nice. Or just more real estate eye candy. They’ll be the “have to have it” property. Show them how this property will boost their quality or life or income and wealth building potential, and the ticket price won’t be much of an obstacle.
