The marketing of homes
If you live in a small town throughout North America, I can almost guarantee you have a dozen realtors, all vying to sell your home and help you purchase your next house. They keep local newspapers, billboards and television stations alive through their non-stop drumbeat of “there has never been a better time than NOW to move.” As an aside, if NOW is always the best time to move, then you technically have eliminated this concept as it requires an anchor, a time that isn’t the best to move.
The real estate industry is massive and is enjoying one of the best years ever. Houses selling for way over asking has become the norm, and realtors, they’re cashing in. But what I’ve found interesting throughout this tremendous land grab is that the marketing of houses has diminished if not fully evaporated, which is a problem.
Buying a home is a major investment. For many, it will be the single largest financial undertaking they will ever take. Paying off something for 25–30 or even 40 years sounds ridiculous (and it kind of is), but that is the position that hundreds of millions of people across North America are in as I write this article. Few things in our life will last as long, and even fewer items will stand a chance to appreciate and, one day, if you are lucky, provide a financial backbone to live out your dreams.
It is critical to understand the psychology around buying a home if we hope to understand why marketing is so important.
When you go to buy a home, there are several psychological factors at play. Safety, security, shelter, comfort, belonging, and status all intertwine in our heads as we go from house to house, looking for just the right “fit.” And it is this quest for a fit drives us to make purchases that a person who only uses logic would never consider. We go to a neighbourhood that we know is out of our price range, but it feels safer than the one we can afford. We explore houses that are two or three times the size we need, but the home significantly inflates our status with the four-car garage (even though we only own one car). We opt for the house far away from work but is nestled in nature and speaks to our soul. Nothing wrong with any of these reasons, but none of them are purely logical.
And it is the fact that we make this massive investment based more on emotions than one reason that marketing is a critical aspect. The story we tell ourselves (and to others) will be the defining reason for our purchase — and this purchase is going to last a very long time.
When we think about the marketing of homes, we can think of a few tactical elements that help us with the story in our minds.
Location is and will be for as far as I can see — the top factor in purchasing a home. If you want to live in the city, then you will focus your search on that city. If you don’t — then you will look elsewhere. However, this has come under fire recently as more people have begun to work remotely. Although, in my mind opinion is still the top factor, the story that we tell ourselves around location has changed.
For the longest time, the narrative that we would have was simple: “Unless I want to commute, I need to live in XYZ city to have a good job.” Now, with the rise of remote work, the story is changing. We now think, “I’m working at this great place that I can work remotely, which means I can live anywhere as long as I can get my work done.” The story gets a bit more complicated when you have a family, as you are factoring in other lives, but the shift in our thinking is still taking place. Thus, what makes for a desirable location has also changed. From “Be part of the action” to “have room to grow,” or even “escape the city and live life on your terms.” All this leads to the second most significant factor we think through when we are buying a home.
Price. Next to location, Price is the critical factor when buying a home and possibly the most crucial chapter in our personalized storybook. We see price as an indication of many things. I’ve shared this in the past, but we constructed price and layer in factors such as quality and value. So when we’re buying a house, we look at the price and start filling in blanks that don’t exist. One home is at $699,000. Another home, a few blocks away, is $799,000. The features list looks the same. But we start to tell ourselves that the $799,000 must be better. The craftsmanship, the appliances, the fact that this house faces southwest and the other home faces southeast are considered. And as we start to build these connections between price and perception, we begin to tell ourselves that “the home for $799,000 is better for me OR better for my family.”
However, like location, the price has gone out of whack over the past 12 months. Homes that cost $399,000 in 2018 or even 2019 are now selling for $799,000 or more. Thus the story we tell ourselves about price is shifting as well. What was once seen as a good/safe investment is starting to be seen as a lot of money that may NOT work out. Because of this shift, people are exploring less expensive options. Combine this with the location upheaval, and you have a massive change in what price represents. Now, that $799,000 doesn’t seem like the better option for my family OR me, and the less expensive home that is several hours outside of a major city is the better fit.
After you have these two elements in your home buying story — then you get more granular.
Look at any description of a house or Realtor.ca or Redfin.com, and you won’t see a single use of “this is a house — it has four bedrooms, two bathrooms…blah blah blah.” Why? Because that is the features of the house — not the benefits. Instead, you’ll read, “This beautifully appointed dream home has three spacious bedrooms and a master bedroom that is so inviting and warm, you may never leave. The two generous bathrooms, one on the main floor and one near the bedrooms, all feature creature comforts that…” The real estate agent who is writing these descriptions is using the simple marketing tactic of benefits vs. features. It’s a classic marketing tactic, but one that builds towards our narrative.
The imagery that is with any real estate listing. The photos are warm, inviting, and leading. The colour tones are often soft but, when needed, will have sharp contrasts to highlight critical elements. If the way we write for marketing a home is benefit-centric, the way we display imagery could be considered “picture yourself here” centric (not real). You rarely see anyone in the photos and, with the rise in home staging, you often don’t even see personal effects. The furniture fits perfectly into the room but isn’t so unique that you couldn’t picture yourself owning it. You may even think, “oh, I love the way that coffee table looks — we should get the same one when we MOVE IN.” And that’s the key. You start to picture yourself living in the space, building up that narrative of a comfortable, safe home that suits your style just right.
Consider what elements of the home are highlighted. You are buying a place for hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) and what is often selected to be highlighted are elements that cost a few thousand bucks. “This amazing home comes with stainless steel…” Yes, at times, real estate listings will highlight more expensive components like a new floor or roof, but often they are only included IF they’ve recently been updated. It is in the highlighted elements that we finish our narrative. You are unlikely to buy a house because it has a stainless steel fridge. Still, suppose you have landed on the location and the price and have embraced the description and imagery. In that case, the refrigerator becomes the final nail, the last “I am someone who would live in a house with a stainless steel fridge, and it will impress my friends and family.“
The story we feel when buying a home is why we believe one property is better than another. And as the world has shifted, so too will the marketing.
