May 22, 2014 by Craig Pontey
This week I would like to talk about the importance and value of why it is so important to make the effort to present homes at their best when for sale. Every property on the market is different and will have unique selling features, even homes in the same street, or next door to each other will have varied features and so how a property is taken to market requires careful planning.
Among the most frequent questions that arise when I am working with clients to sell their homes are; what are market conditions and current prices, possible drawbacks with a property and marketing. However when clients are ready to sell, it is marketing and in particular how to present the home at its best that will always be a focus of attention.
Now I can be fairly sure that anyone reading this post will have seen, possibly many times, various check lists of how to prepare a home for sale. Hints like cutting the lawn (if you have one), buy fresh flowers, paint the front door and fix running taps, will all be on the list. However in today’s market, while these simple ideas still have currency our market has evolved and the role of digital marketing for example is a big influence and so now as a result many homes are ‘styled’ as part of the marketing preparation. So let’s consider if this is a worthwhile and good investment and it is here that we see how the advertising media has played a big part influencing how homes are presented for sale and as a result why presentation has become such an important issue.
It All Starts With Colour
The first colour news photograph was published in The Age in 1952, and this may have even been a world first. But it was not until the early 1990’s that colour advertising, including real estate advertising become more common. The trend really took off in 1995/96 when both News Ltd and Fairfax moved to new press and production facilities and ever since property market has gone from strength to strength.
Even so full colour production and advertising was back in 1996 very expensive, but today it is common, and full-page glossy property advertisements are an important part of most marketing campaigns. From this fact alone it can be easily seen that this is one of the reasons why presentation and home styling has taken on such prominence.
Access to colour advertising and colour brochures has also created a need for good quality and professional photography, as such the two go hand in hand. Following on from the impact of colour in newspapers we now have the digital media world open to us and this media not only brings to life some great photography, but allows the marketing effort to include videos which help to bring to life the essence of a home.
The combination of digital media and videos helps to promote the features and lifestyle appeal of a property in a format that is not expensive, again thanks to the spread of digital production, but it does mean that potential buyers are looking more intensely at marketing material.
Style & Presentation is More Important Than Ever
Today in just a few days or even hours any home can be placed on the internet via property portals and sites like raywhite.com.au and be instantly exposed to literally an almost unlimited audience. This means that today’s media options create great opportunities but this also dictates that homes must be as appealing as they can be, a simple de-clutter, and a lick of paint might not do the job any longer.
Home styling has come a long way. It can help to show the best aspects of any home, its size, the homes personality, the pluses of a great location, and views and all of that appeal or potential can be enhanced by skillful preparation. Then in combination with digital and on-line media there are wonderful marketing opportunities that add a new dimension, the ‘magic’ to the marketing mix.
It has been the advancement of media, and the industries willingness to embrace new ideas, that has driven much of the current marketing mix. However I believe that it is more important than ever before to do the necessary homework to get the best from the various new media options. And at the same time we need to meet the needs of buyers, who are now very familiar with quality and indepth marketing. At the core of this topic I think that we can agree that the best possible presentation of any home will always be a focal point but in today’s digital market even more so.
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