Who Pays the Top Dollar – We quite often heard homeowners note the previous Agent they saw made comments like; “this would be perfect for a young couple, we need to say it’s perfect for them” or “you know, retirees would love this, we should say that in the ad”. The homeowner was therefore under the impression they should specifically target market to a particular demographic– I couldn’t agree less.
When you target market like that you will potentially exclude other potential buyers who both add to the numbers at the home (assisting with positive social proof – see previous blogs) as well as helping to create perceived competition. But also, these others you exclude may indeed pay a higher price. Why limit your numbers?
Here’s an example
Let’s take an example of a 2-bedroom townhouse. If you target say retirees only, young couples (some with children) will be put off as they assume the complex is mainly elderly and they are worried they will be upset with young children about – they don’t want problems. Similarly, we had an instant of a massive home which one would assume would mainly attract large families. That in fact sold to a retired couple in their 80s, who paid the most.
In these instances, if we alienated buyers by specific marketing, we would not have achieved the best price for our Sellers.
Types of Buyers
We believe there are really only two types of buyers – Investors and Owner Occupiers. It is a matter of thereby understanding their likely buying triggers.
Investors
Investors will usually be dollar driven – how cheap can I buy for, what is the likely capital growth, what is the yield, what are the likely expenses etc. They generally will not pay the most for a home and will look for the properties presented poorly, been on the market for a long time or where they feel they can both get a price advantage and not compete, especially with potential owner-occupiers.
Owner-occupiers
Owner-occupiers also have a dollar element of course (they are not going to pay $900,000 for a $600,000 home) but their buying drivers tend to be more emotive driven. That is why we always strive to market the home is such a way to majorly trigger these emotions such as want, need, love etc. If a potential buyer falls in love with the home, the price will be more of secondary consideration.
Also, remember people’s base psychology is pretty much the same regardless of their specific demographics. A buyer in the market for a $350,000 townhouse will still have similar traits to a buyer looking at a $2 million luxury home – they both want to love the home they buy, they want to be proud and show it off to friends or relatives.
Therefore, creating the correct strong emotive triggers is your best bet to achieving a top dollar for your home.
Written by Shawn Kristofer