Development's sales boom after it stages messy teen rooms in its model home
Filed under: Real Estate
A British real estate developer has come up with a novel way to convince prospective buyers that its new homes are truly homey: It has dressed one of the bedrooms in its model home to look like a typical teen's room. Everything was re-created: messy bed, car posters, a fake half-eaten sandwich, open pizza box, and wadded-up underwear on the floor. Everything, developers say, except for a teen boy's "musky, stale smell."
Even in this soggy economy, six of the eight available homes in the English development (worth $435,000 to $535,000) were snapped up within a month--including the model home itself. Some of the items in the room, such as the pair of dirty sneakers by the closet door, were brought in by people who worked in the office at the development.
This simple approach is bad news for Home Staging and HGTV's The Stagers, which are devoted to teaching sellers and agents how to make their places look as perfect as possible. To them, buyers fall in love with idealism, and they strive to make rooms look as much like a furniture catalog photograph as possible. For all that, look where home sales are.
But this new approach of "realism staging" is welcome for anyone who has tried to sell their place. For as long as you have your house on the market, you tiptoe around like a guest in your own home. And every seller knows about the frenzied cleaning rush that precedes any announcement that the real estate agent's coming around for a showing. What a relief to learn that if you're artful about it, you can leave things as they are--minus the stink.
People respond to the warm-and-fuzzy feelings they get when they tour a prospective home. A longtime trick (one I've successfully used to hook a sub-letter) has been to pop some cookies in the oven an hour before someone's coming to inspect your place. The aroma of chocolate chip cookies can subconsciously seduce anyone into feeling like they're already home. Giving a room a lived-in look (a really lived-in look) just extends that sensation of familiarity and comfort.
Dressing houses with a fake sense of familiarly is just the thing to try. After all, it would be hard to sell fewer houses than they're already doing right now.
Messy Model Home Sells
To make the houses in the Abel Home development feel more like home for prospective buyers, a British real estate company dressed a bedroom in the model home to look like a typical teen's room.
PA Photos
Authentic details in the model home's teen bedroom include a fake half-eaten sandwich, open pizza box, and wadded-up underwear on the floor.
PA Photos
Maggie Abel poses inside her creation--an authentically messy teenage boy's room inside the model home of Abel Homes development in Norfolk, England.
PA Photos
Six of the eight homes (worth $435,000 to $535,000) available in the Abel Home development sold within a month.
PA Photos
This simple approach is bad news for Home Staging and HGTV's The Stagers, which are devoted to teaching sellers and agents how to make their places look as perfect as possible. To them, buyers fall in love with idealism, and they strive to make rooms look as much like a furniture catalog photograph as possible. For all that, look where home sales are.
But this new approach of "realism staging" is welcome for anyone who has tried to sell their place. For as long as you have your house on the market, you tiptoe around like a guest in your own home. And every seller knows about the frenzied cleaning rush that precedes any announcement that the real estate agent's coming around for a showing. What a relief to learn that if you're artful about it, you can leave things as they are--minus the stink.
People respond to the warm-and-fuzzy feelings they get when they tour a prospective home. A longtime trick (one I've successfully used to hook a sub-letter) has been to pop some cookies in the oven an hour before someone's coming to inspect your place. The aroma of chocolate chip cookies can subconsciously seduce anyone into feeling like they're already home. Giving a room a lived-in look (a really lived-in look) just extends that sensation of familiarity and comfort.
Dressing houses with a fake sense of familiarly is just the thing to try. After all, it would be hard to sell fewer houses than they're already doing right now.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
1-15-2009 @ 12:03PM
Robert said...
Poppycock!!!!!
Reply
1-15-2009 @ 10:11PM
Bill said...
A teen boy's musky smell?------Oh I get it. They mean a cum rag.
Reply
1-15-2009 @ 11:37PM
Laura said...
Slow news day, gotta make stuff up? I mean really.
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1-16-2009 @ 11:09PM
TC said...
So which is it? Idealistic and perfect or realistic and imperfect? I still think the realistic approach needs more research. I lean more toward the simple and idealistic (clean but not fancy). I mean, when we view homes we usually don't want to be reminded that someone lives there. We want to feel like we can live there.
What is most important is quality and function. Perfectly arranged furniture is nice but how old is the wiring, does the roof need replacing, etc? Will this kitchen accomodate my fridge, stove, and dishwasher?
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1-16-2009 @ 12:34AM
cannotbelievethis said...
No, actually there is some truth to this premise. I had my house on the market in PA, for about two months, no takers. One day the real estate agent called to say she wanted to show the house (while I was packing) I never got to the kids room which was strewn with little HotWheels and their sit and spin. the house sold in ten minutes... the man could see I had enough room in the house to let the kids play in their room, without it spilling out into the rest of the house... I miss that house....
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1-16-2009 @ 5:49AM
Pam said...
Don't these articles have editors? The last paragraph is atrocious: the author didn't mean "familiarly," and didn't he mean it would be hard (for this developer) to sell MORE houses? Though I can't really tell, from the vague reference to "they" in "they're." Another sloppy AOL selection.
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1-18-2009 @ 3:54PM
soooc said...
Pam ---- that last sentence made perfect sense as it was written
1-18-2009 @ 5:56PM
demillicent said...
I agree with you Pam, it was sloppy. This person writes like I do. It should have been familiarity just as it was in the paragraph above. I think it was a typo and she/he actually meant it to be familiarity, not familiary since there's no such word. . Didn't proof read obviously. Neither will I. But I'm not a paid blogger.
http://www.magnumshops.org/beawinner.aspx
1-16-2009 @ 10:22AM
Patricia said...
You have got to be kidding me right? This has to be a joke.
I have been selling Real estate for over 18 years and the one thing that has remained constant is selling clean and uncluttered homes. No more so than now! Does this reporter even check out the real facts? I don't think so. Do people honestly think that by doing this they will sell their homes faster? Get the facts.
Do you think Real estate agents like telling people that they need to clean up their houses? Oh and do they think we just love to spend the extra time getting our clients to go the extra mile when it is not necessary? Oh and do you honestly think that we want our clients to spend the extra time and money necessary to stage their home? Do you think we get paid for that? Or what is this article suggesting? That everyone gets a kickback for using stagers?
Well it's time people know the truth. We do not get kickbacks. Stagers are brought in so our sellers can put more cash in their pockets period! And buyers now will just walk out of a house that doesn't feel like it's been taken care of and has alot of the sellers personal items laying around. It is rediculous to even put an article out there that some people might believe it true. I promise you it is not what you want to do in the US. Or at least Washington State.
Sure would make my job easier if this were true. But this is rediculous. Try another article with the facts JASON.
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1-18-2009 @ 2:23PM
Emma said...
Hmmmm. All I can say is we had 3 sons and as teens their rooms didn't look that bad! Old food on the floor? Gross shoes? Come on. Hopefully most people investing in a house aren't just looking at the aesthetics anyhow. Most intelligent people are going to be concernes with the structural piece, the important things such as heating or cooling units, pipes, electric. But I don't believe seeing gross old food, stinky dirty clothes and crap strewn all over a room would give me a warm fuzzy feeling.
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1-18-2009 @ 2:28PM
Yon said...
I visited a house at a very fancy address, where the basement had been used as a landfill... for years! The odd thing is that there was no particularly bad smell. No, I did not make an offer.
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1-18-2009 @ 2:32PM
Norasusan said...
The only way this gimmick could work is if the rest of the house is pristine. People with teens know that most of them are slobs, so buyers might think this sales trick is cute. Remember though, in the model, the food is plastic replicas. I don't think buyers would find it appealing if the food was real.
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1-18-2009 @ 2:53PM
shell said...
I have two teens and neither are slobs ,the girl slacks sometimes more than the boy ,but they will only be slobs if they are allowed to be..They know the beds are to be made and dishes from breakfast done or at least rinsed and in the sink before they leave the house, its all habit they learn it when they are younger..
1-18-2009 @ 3:11PM
Leona Helmsley said...
Why would someone want to buy a house for a mark up when it looks like it already has vermin and insect infestation? Make a room look like a teenage slacker hides from responsibility in there and people are actually rushing in to buy. There are some real flea traps in Compton California they could buy for under $200k, under $30k if they want to live in the midwest.
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1-18-2009 @ 3:19PM
jo said...
i raised 3 kids. 2 girls and a boy and they all keep thier rooms clean,made the beds every morning, kept them dusted and kept the floors clean-if your teenagers room is dirty it is your fault as a parent..........
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1-18-2009 @ 4:14PM
aja said...
BULL!
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1-18-2009 @ 4:40PM
Pam said...
Hey soooc, if that sloppy last sentence made perfect sense to you the first time, well, good. But the vague "they" is always poor style and automatically ambiguous, even with quick-witted readers like you!
Reply
1-18-2009 @ 5:12PM
GAIL said...
Whatever sells. I bought in FL 4 yrs. ago to live and they were selling for top dollar rat infested hell holes. Now you can't "give" them away. IT IS ABOUT THE MARKET NOT THE PROPERTY.
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1-18-2009 @ 5:16PM
Tammy said...
Things change all the time. What has worked before in selling houses may not always work. Each generation is a different one and what may be appealing to one generation may not be for the next. Maybe this is a new thing that will start working in selling homes.
I personally would go for half and half. I want a home to look a little lived in to give me an idea of what I might do with my things in there but not have it be so lived in looking that I can't get a grasp of what it might look like if I lived there.
We souldn't be afraid to try new things and take different approach's in selling. I would think for the real estate agent and the seller whatever works is what you're after. If one approach isn't working, be open to trying another. The end goal is to sell the house, not be fussing over how it looks or doesn't look inside.
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1-18-2009 @ 8:10PM
Linda said...
WOW! If my kids rooms had ever looked like this, they would have been living sommeplace else!
Reply