If you're selling your investment property, you need to make sure you get the highest possible price - and one of the easiest ways to do this is to play on people's emotions.
Blogger: Bernadette Janson, The School of Renovating
We’ve all done it, stepped in the front door and felt that little flutter of excitement when you are faced with a home you love.
Renovators need to be able to trigger that little flutter because it is what lifts the lid on the price.
At the risk of oversimplifying a very complex process, the brain has two main parts that take a role in everyday decision-making:
The primitive Limbic System, which, among other things, is home to emotions and the Neocortex is where the logic and rational thinking happens.
When emotions are triggered, the path of decision-making can be short circuited to bypass the more rational Neocortex straight to the LimbicSystem, which makes decisions very quickly and without logic.
It is important for a renovator to trigger that emotional decision in order to cover the many hidden costs of renovation that are hard to sell .
Here are 6 ways to help buyers to emotionally connect with your property:
1. Make Sure Your Buyer Is An Emotional Decision Maker
It’s pretty straight forward, Renovate for an owner-occupier and not an investor. If your buyer is looking for a home to , live in there will be plenty of emotion at stake. If your buyer is an investor, decisions are made with logic.
2. Be Clear About What You Are Selling
I had the good fortune of meeting with Mark Bouris some time ago where he told the story of Kerry Packer teaching him that his product wasn’t mortgages but peoples hopes and dreams. Similarly when someone comes to consider buying your house, it is a better life they are looking for, their hopes and dreams. Your job is to give it to them. That is why styling is so fundamental, the home must connect with your buyers deepest desires and the cheapest, easiest way to do that is to style/ stage it.
3. Manage The First Few Minutes of Their Inspection
The decision will subconsciously be made within a few minutes of stepping in the front door. They will either feel the love or they wont. The street appeal and entrance are important but once they are inside make sure buyers are directed straight to the best, most impactful room in the house, the hero room. In most cases the hero room will be the kitchen/ living or a room with a view.
4. Create A Focus in Every Room
Once you have wowed your buyers in the first few minutes you need to build on the experience. You want to present each subsequent room in the best light possible.
Do this by creating a focal point in each room. If you are starting with a plain canvas of neutral walls and floor you can select a feature to accentuate with colour, scale or drama.
For a bedroom you would usually choose the bed as the focus, using colour and texture in the soft furnishings to build the appeal.
If your entrance was lacking, you might replace the entrance with an oversized door or pair of doors for grander scale and impact.
The cheapest way to add drama is with lighting, external eaves lighting and garden up lights will add magic that is on show 24/7. Try an oversized pendant over a dining table or cluster of pendants in the staircase.
5. Engage The Power of Story
Every property has a history and story to tell. Stories help create connection. Spend some time formulating your property’s story. Research previous owners and previous improvements; often neighbours are a good source of information. Then share the story with your agent and weave it into the marketing material.
6. Prepare A Property Fact Sheet
The agent has only a very short window to share all your property’s many good points.
Prepare a fact sheet with the property’s general features and then the specifics for each room. The fact sheet gives the buyer something of substance to pour over at home, discover more of the properties attributes, and keeps it top if mind.
By implementing these tips you are creating an environment where a buyer may make a decision to your property is based less on price and more on emotion. This will give the best chance of achieving your dream sale price.
About Bernadette Janson
Bernadette Janson is a lover of renovating and the director Of The School of Renovating.
She knows that women get a raw deal with superannuation and the majority are facing a poorly funded retirement, particularly those on the wrong side of forty. he average superannuation payout for an Australian woman is $37,000 which is a fraction of what she makes on just one project. Her mission is to inspire, motivate and empower women to rise above the statistics and create for themselves a brighter financial future.
Bernadette’s passion began as a hobby twenty years ago while raising her four children when she discovered her flair for turning very ordinary houses into stunning family homes that are beautiful both aesthetically and functionally.
Bernadette teaches renovating as a powerful and flexibility way to fast-tracking your retirement savings while keeping risk to a minimum. To find out how renovating could fast track your retirement visit http://www.TheSchoolOfRenovating.com
