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Marketing Psychology Strategies to Sell Houses
Take advantage of proven supermarket marketing psychology to sell your home or investment houses.
Like most shoppers, you know that supermarkets deliberately stock temptations such as tabloids, magazines, and candy near the checkout lines. Supermarkets place expensive items at eye level,
lower-cost goods out of reach, and child magnets like sugar-coated cereal and eye-catching candy within reach of little arms.
Expert marketers don't stop with these marketing psychology tactics to get you to spend more time and extra money shopping. Throughout the store, supermarkets strategically arrange products on the shelves and use psychological tactics to tempt your senses like roasting chicken, baking bread or cookies, and a coffee bar.
Take advantage of these marketing masters tested strategies to turn home shoppers into buyers. Tempt shoppers to linger in your house and to connect to your house as their new home.
Marketing Psychology for Home Sellers
1. Eye Candy Attraction = Curb Appeal
You need to capture home buyers' attention with colorful packaging. Think of the eye candy temptations like your front door curb appeal. Add color to your front door and plant colorful flowers. Hang refreshing green ferns in patios. Make your home stand out and more appealing than other homes in your area for sale.
2. Cozy Coffee Rest Stop = Bond with Home
Notice all the mini coffee shops sprouting up in supermarkets? The idea, create a spot to stop and spend more time in the store, gives you more energy to shop longer. Also, you bond with the store as "your store" and tend to return instead of shopping the competition. Create a refreshing stop for home shoppers with a tall iced drink or cup of coffee. Get home shoppers to spend more time to bond with your house as "their home." Serve cookies for the children who will talk about your home when they leave.
3. Music that Persuades = Connect with Home
Depending on your property and the target buyers' profile, play music that you know will make them feel at home. Slow music makes people walk slower so they take longer than the normal three to four minutes looking at a house. Music without words that your home shopper knows prompts them to "sing along in their heads" and makes them feel connected to the home.
4. Smell to Sell = Smells Like Home
Connect to all your buyers' senses. During summer's high temperatures, use fresh lemon and lime essential oils to make your house feel like a cooling respite from the heat. Add the oils to water and spray on carpets or in the air. Run a lemon rind through the garbage disposal. The natural air cleaner won't scent the air for long, but it cleans up the stale air in a closed up house. Avoid commercial artificial sprays because many people have allergic reactions. Home shoppers won't by a home that makes them sneeze!
5. Turn Down the Temperature = Feels Like Home
It's a strange fact: people like spaces cooler in the summer than they do in the winter. When you know buyers are on their way, lower the thermostat. The cooler your home feels, the happier your buyer feels.
According to a report by the Christian Science Monitor, March 2006, staged homes sell for 7.4 percent more and in half the time.
Learn how to profile your buyers and create a buyer's "Dream Home." Plus, get the added benefit of expert real estate advice. Home Staging with Design Psychology books
Real Estate Bubbles, Prices, and Trends
Media Headlines, Fact or Fiction?
If you take some time reading real estate investing blogs and
forums, you find that many people really want help figuring
out how to make money investing in real estate. And it seems
that the media loves to scare people with all the real estate
bubble bursting, downturn in prices, and buyer's market talk.
Let's take a closer look at some the media headlines. Real Estate Bubble
Buying Foreclosure Properties at Auction
On the rise in many parts of the country, these properties
may be a great way for you to pick up a bargain property.
Here's how to do it.
Buying Foreclosure Properties at Auction
Dealing with Short Sale Rejection
If a lender does reject your offer, all isn't lost. Short Sales Information
1031 Tax Deferred Exchange Step-by Step
Question from reader:
Why Don't Most Beginning Real Estate Investors Make Money?
Real Estate Investors Make Money
Question from reader:
Jeanette, you said that you often use "oops" paint. We're getting ready to paint an investment house. What about the sheen--do you mix flat with semi-gloss paints? See pictures of our painted houses & find out how we mix paint: Painting Investment Houses
Question from reader:
Ideas for curb appeal without too much work or money?
Home Staging with Curb Appeal Landscaping Tips
Question from reader: (This is the same Q I get over and over.)
How do I stage a vacant house?
Question from reader: I guess the biggest question is how do you go from not knowing anything about real estate to actually working it? How do you find houses in pre-foreclosure? And from what I've heard from other people that looked through the books at the court house, how do you understand the lingo. This one guy told me he did find a book to look through at the court house, but he couldn't understand half of what they were talking about, and he knew a good deal about real estate. I guess this is why people buy into these seminars and infomercials etc. Everyone knows there's money to be made but how do you get the knowledge to do it without losing your shirt or credit on the first deal. I have great credit and don't want to screw it up.
Thanks, Brad
Hi Brad,
Where are you located? That makes a big difference.
We don't do pre-foreclosures, courthouse steps, or short sales. I hate getting doors slammed in my face contacting people on the pre-foreclosure lists. At our tax sales, a group of investors will jack the price up if an outsider comes to play. In our area, banks don't need to do short sales.
We specialize in fixers.
We get to know an area so well that the people ready to sell will stop us when we're driving by. People in pre-foreclosure won't slam the door in our face because we never tell them we're sorry about their problems. We hear from a neighbor that they may be selling their house. (Neighbors may not know their in financial difficulties, but they've heard that the owner may be selling.)
When you knock on a door and say. "Jim down the street said you might want to sell your home," you have a better chance of talking to the owner. Compare that to knocking on the door with a long list of foreclosures in your hand.
See the articles on our system: Beginner's Real Estate Investing Guide
With a good score, you're ahead of so many starting out. You still need to master the other requirements.
Read the no-cost ebook on http://worryfreecredit.com
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Question from reader: I would just like to simply know if it a good idea to acquire a real estate license prior to investing in real estate?
My husband and I had our licenses. We sold a home that we owned to a buyer who our lender had approved. We let them move in before closing. The lender reneged on the loan. Because we had licenses, the buyers got to stay in the home for a year without paying.
Each state is different. My point, a license can get you into trouble. You can get into trouble for not paying fair market price in some states. Since we always purchase bargain houses, that defeats the purpose. Check you state laws. You can save on commissions but is it worth the savings?
Recent articles:
What's Missing on Most Home Buyer's Checklists?
In a search for "Home Buyer's Checklist," I found articles, spread sheets, and tips with differing advice. These checklists should include more information. Why do you need a home buyers' checklist?
How to Buy a House with No Down Payment
Many real estate investors started out buying fixers and transforming them into homes for new buyers. This unoriginal concept proves to still make real estate worthwhile. However, time haves changed and you get many competitors for the same fixer property. How do you get your first fixer? Real Estate Investing Plan