The Only Way to Sell a Home
Let’s talk real estate—specifically, how to make properties move off the market. The majority of real estate professionals who focus on selling homes (representing the property owner) tend to forget that at our core, we are marketers. Our responsibility is to service the client by facilitating a successful transaction, but the majority of brokers fail to do what’s needed to reach that point. A property can sit on the market for years, only to sell to a buyer who leverages the lack of interest during all that time to make a lowball offer. Often, the seller (the broker’s client) is disappointed, resentful of their broker, and unsure as to what went wrong.
A HOUSE THAT SELLS ITSELF
The truth is, most brokers still foolishly believe that by simply throwing a listing on the market with little care and thought put into marketing the home, buyers and renters will come flying in. Most of us operate on the notion that the home will simply sell itself. We somehow believe that the customer will see the value on the surface of what we’re offering, but how can that possibly be? The average customer is not a real estate expert, nor are they the owner of the property in question, so how can they understand it as well as the person selling it on behalf of the owner?
Take the example of any great hotel across the world. Nobody understands how to curate the most wonderful and meaningful experience for the guest as well as the hotel owner, who put years of hard work and creative thought into making that experience a reality. However, the hotel owner cannot reasonably expect a potential customer who is sifting through basic online photos of the grounds, the accommodations and the amenities, to trust that if they chose to stay at this hotel, their money would be well spent on a great experience. As human beings, we tend to judge with our eyes. When we book travel, or have a travel agent send us a list of hotel options to choose from, the way that a hotel website shares their experience with us visually is what determines the level of our desire and interest in going there. Yes, with great service, beautiful scenery, a great breakfast, a comfortable room and great shower pressure, the hotel sells itself—but only once we’re there.
It’s the same with selling homes. While it may be true that a house can often sell itself, this only occurs once the buyer is through the door. So the question remains: how do we get the buyer through the door? Let’s not kid ourselves into believing that the robust nature of the current residential real estate market will last forever. There are moments in time when buyers are aggressively spending money, as well as moments in time when inventory is limited, when buyers are nowhere to be found, and when inventory is in surplus. That is all they are, though: moments. There are always swings in the market, but through the ups and downs, there is always one indisputable fact: there is no market in which we can’t do business.
Value is extracted from experience. When I say experience, I’m not referring to the length of time someone has invested in their career. I’m referring to the consumer experience—generally in person, but equally online. It’s the visual experience of the person who is considering buying what we’re selling. Understanding and focusing on this is the key that opens the flood gates for not just any buyer, but the right buyer.
According to Forbes, customers are likely to spend 140% more money after a positive experience. It’s simple, really. A positive experience stimulates the part of the brain that makes us see the value in paying for whatever is being marketed. In the context of real estate, an impactful visual experience (a potential buyer looking at an online listing) is what pulls them through the front doors of a property for sale. Without a compelling visual experience, the buyer is never going to set foot on the property.
When we, as salespeople, marketers and service providers focus on curating a meaningful experience for the customer, we are rewarded: the phone rings, buyers line up, and we are able to deliver the success that we promised.
In that moment, we feel the satisfaction of our client, as well as the satisfaction of delivering the “better than expected.” In that moment, our client feels on top of the world, grateful for our service, and happy to pay us for it. Our reward is also a meaningful experience. It is our “why.”
Applying this school of thought, how an experience is shared with the world through effective marketing methods determines the value of the customer who takes interest in what we have to offer. This is where the most money is made for our clients and, in turn, for us. The better the quality and strategy of the marketing, the higher the value of the customer, especially in real estate. Luxury is attracted to luxury.
In the opening
months of 2022, my team generated a lead on a penthouse in Chelsea, Manhattan, that had spent nearly six unsuccessful months on the market with another broker. Six months is the average listing tenure before a broker’s exclusive expires, so the opportunity was there to pitch the seller to make the switch to my team. This has always been and remains my niche in real estate sales—taking over after another broker couldn’t get it done. Most often, the issue is in the marketing. Of course, an overpriced property rarely sells, but a property is never really given its best chance if the marketing is poor, regardless of price.
When meeting with the seller, we made clear in our pitch that the list price of $3,250,000 might be a bit ambitious for this property (I thought it was worth $2.8 million). However, it was never given a real chance to even come close. In over 180 days on the market, the property rarely received a request to show. The lack of interest and turnover yielded from the online listing created the perception in the market that something was wrong with it, and so the listing had gone stale, when the real problem was actually a lot simpler: not enough people clicked the listing, let alone saw it in the first place.
You can see what the property looked like in the listing by the previous broker (see the three inset pictures), as well as the photo that the previous broker was using as the leading image (see the inset on the next page) for the listing:
At first glance, the photos didn’t seem terrible. I also hadn’t seen the apartment in person yet. These photos made the space look large and modern, but on the darker side. On top of that, the floor plan on the listing was an undersized scan of an old piece of paper. The presentation was underwhelming, so I expected to walk into an underwhelming property. Boy, was I wrong.
When I got off the private-keyed elevator and walked into the penthouse, I was floored. This wasn’t because the apartment itself was so amazing—as a real estate agent, you see a lot of apartments, so being impressed becomes a rare occurrence as time goes by. I was floored because what I saw online really did not resemble what the home looked like in person. It wasn’t dark, it was bright! The floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over all of north Manhattan from West 19th Street. All of Manhattan’s most iconic buildings were before my eyes with open skies above. This was a full-floor private penthouse, in a condominium, on one of the hottest streets in Chelsea. The home should have sold itself.
The issue was clear as day. Poor marketing and a lack of attention to detail had wasted six months of this seller’s time. Let’s look at where the problem started.
First: The leading thumbnail image was a shot of an evening view. The concept is not wrong, but the photo itself is low quality and not where it belongs in the order of images. Here’s what I mean: At this very moment, there are 79 three-bedroom homes listed for sale in Chelsea. Let’s assume that a buyer or broker searching on behalf of their client is looking for three bedrooms, and only in Chelsea, which is highly unlikely as buyers almost always search multiple neighborhoods. What is even more unlikely is that the buyer or broker will click through to view every single three-bedroom home in Chelsea that is currently on the market. The reality is that the very few listings that are clicked on are the ones that have visually arresting thumbnail images that capture the viewer’s attention.
Second: The view, privacy and penthouse nature of the property were somehow overlooked in the marketing. I knew we needed to make sure these elements were properly documented in the photos. I chose to focus on capturing the view from further back inside the apartment, as opposed to directly from the glass. This gives the buyer a sense of what it feels like to actually stand in the living room and see a gorgeous view before them.
The goal when marketing a property for sale is always to create excitement, urgency and the feeling of home. These three things help the person viewing the online listing feel that the opportunity before them will not be available for very long. This is why the first weeks on the market are the most important; this is when the momentum is at its highest.
You can see what the Chelsea listing looked like after the marketing was redone by my team (the main pictures in the pages above). We used the living room picture with the panoramic vista as the listing’s leading image.
After re-shooting the home with an industry-leading photographer, I had the images virtually rendered to include digital furniture that was measured to scale at the exact dimensions of the space. The goal was to give a viewer not just a sense of the depth of space, but the lifestyle of the home and what it would feel like to actually live there, to stare at the view from floor-to-ceiling windows. Sometimes, a home like this one is empty when it’s available for sale, and staging it with furniture is not always a practical solution for the seller, as they are the ones who incur the cost. The alternative is staging virtually, but only if it can be done in a quality way and to scale, so that the listing does not misrepresent the space. Sometimes that can also mean improving the space on the exterior by adding clean landscaping or outdoor furniture to show a buyer what would be possible.
I also scaled down the number of images in the Chelsea listing. The previous broker had listed almost 20. We brought it down to ten, highlighting only the best features of the space, leaving the rest up to the home to sell itself. As is often the case, less is more. I like to leave something to curiosity, another reason to make a buyer want to come in. Too many images can overwhelm buyers, who may end up feeling that seeing the home in person is not worth their while. We can’t have that.
To accompany these gorgeous new images, I created a brand-new floor plan from scratch that was easy to read, easy to understand, and showed clearly where the important elements in the home were located, such as the appliances, the egress, and the balconies, as well as the dimensions of every space. I also produced and edited a video that highlighted the primary selling points and showcased the space in its best light.
We listed the apartment for $3,250,000, the same price as the previous listing. We went to market on a Tuesday. Within 24 hours, we received over 20 inquiries. On Thursday, we showed the property to 16 parties of interest. That evening, we received our first offer, which was $25,000 above the asking price. By end of business Monday, we had a fully executed contract for $3,275,000. Total number of days on the market: five.
No Clicks, No Views
The simple way to explain what we did differently is this: We curated a meaningful and impactful online experience for the buyer. Once the buyer clicked, they were able to see a real vision of the home’s best features and what living there could look like. A lifestyle presentation, accompanied by a video and a user-friendly floor plan. Not too much, not too little, just enough.
Curiosity and intrigue pull buyers through the door, and only then does the space sell itself. What I create is the means to get people curious, to intrigue them. Almost every single buyer who visited never knew this home was listed previously, even the ones who had been searching for months. This is the power of marketing, the power of a meaningful experience. This is where the money is made.
When I entered the world of real estate 11 years ago, green and ready to take over New York, the market had only just recently been exposed to new platforms that offered the means for real estate professionals, owners and landlords to create awareness about the properties they were representing, selling or renting. Websites like Zillow, Trulia and StreetEasy began to pave the way for platforms like Craigslist and The New York Times to become irrelevant instead of the go-to places to find homes for sale. By creating an efficient and user-friendly experience for buyers and renters to search for property, the power quickly moved into the hands of the consumer and effectively changed the job description of the broker. It was at this point that the paradigm shifted from “broker” to “marketer.” Owners and landlords no longer needed brokers for the sole purpose of listing a property for sale or rent. The winners who recognized that fact from the beginning, as well as those who understand that going into it, are the ones who are successful representing sellers.
Today, there are over 16,700 New York City properties listed on StreetEasy. Over 90% of the leads generated for listing agents in the New York markets are sourced through StreetEasy. This staggering metric is one of many that confirm that the days of relying solely on word of mouth have long since faded. Being known to have the inside scoop, being able to offer the link to off-market opportunities, is no longer what is truly valuable.
So what is valuable? Knowing how to capture an audience, how to harness attention through marketing.
We all judge a book by its cover, or a property by its online listing. Even the most experienced real estate professionals do it. Time is a valuable commodity. Is it realistic to think that when a buyer runs a search for two-bedroom apartments on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, and over 200 properties come up, the buyer is going to click through to every single one? Never. And neither are the brokers—especially not the brokers. If the first image, the thumbnail, is not striking, the listing will not get a click. No clicks, no views. No views, no inquiries. No inquiries, no showings. No showings, no offers. No offers, no sale, no commission, angry seller, discouraged broker. No one wins.
Of course, the click is only the beginning, just the hook. Once they’re in, we have to give them a reason to want to come through the door in person. We want to give the viewer a meaningful experience so that the home has a chance to sell itself. Once it does, the meaningful experience is shared by all parties and everyone wins. The hidden value is in the experience.
What About the Beach?
Ami’s Lunchbreak columnist Nesanel Gantz told me about a property in Seagate in Brooklyn. In all of Seagate, there is only one block whose houses have access to the beach, and this house was on that block. That makes the property really special, but you would never know it from the first broker’s listing. This broker put up three iPhone pictures that showed the exterior of the house—and nothing else. It’s true that the interior of the house needs updating, but in the case of this property, there was more going on here than just the exterior and interior of the home. What about the beach? There was absolutely nothing being done to market the house based on how close it is to the water. It is less than 300 feet from the beach!
When I saw this property, I knew it was an outstanding opportunity. Someone is going to be able to buy a home very close to the water for under a million dollars.
This was right up my alley. I became the broker for this property, and you can see some of the photos my team pulled together (see above). Savvy buyers know potential when they see it. I had the outdoor space staged with furniture and planters to help a buyer see this property as the fantastic entertaining space that it is. Considering the rapid advancement of technology, the way to be the best marketer is to focus not just on the experience in person, but the one had by the viewer online first. The home will sell itself, but only once the buyer is there. The hotel will sell itself, but only when the guests arrive. Make it meaningful, make it nice.
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