April 13, 2018
Sally and I take real estate and property management classes from time to time and one that we use in every transaction was on staging a home for sale. It was in Sacramento and had speakers like interior decorators, professional painters, furniture companies, and so forth.
One however caught us by surprise . . . Proctor and Gamble. Well, okay. Soaps, deodorizers, maybe. But she got us all ears with this opener: “P & G is different from most consumer product companies because instead of creating a soap or something and then go research a market to advertise to, we do it the other way around. So our market is you, Realtors. Now can you guess what the product was?”
Brag time here. I was the ONLY one with the right answer (no, there was more than myself in the audience). “Febreeze!” I said.
Her whole speaking topic was about aromas and how buyers respond to them, that’s why Febreeze fit so nicely and why she was invited I suppose. Buyers like NEUTRAL in their senses she said. Neutral colors, empty (‘neutral’) rooms, neutral aromas. It’s true that the aroma of fresh-baked bread is killer (followed closely by tollhouse cookies, vanilla rubbed on an electric burner, etc.). She said it’s because those all remind us of our mothers and how warm and welcoming this home feels like that.
Cigarette smoke is of course the worst one and even Febreeze doesn’t promise to cure that. It soaks into carpet, furniture, wallpaper, paint. Doggie smells, cooking smells, and note this: deodorant smells. Why? What are you trying to cover up with them buyers ask.
So if fresh-baked bread or cookies aren’t handy when you’re getting your home ready for a showing, remember what those buyers are looking for. Neutral.
Bruce Batchelder
530-598-1586