Our homes on display amidst hanging laundry, unmade beds and 70s finds

How do you sell or rent a house in 2022? The real estate market is marked by the consequences of the pandemic, the ongoing chaos over bonuses, approvals and credit purchase by banks, and general uncertainty, if not outright panic.

And a trip to the most popular real estate portals certainly doesn’t help to take courage.

Browsing through them is part of my job, and every time I come away annihilated. I’m not the only one, judging by the many outbursts of home seekers who tell me that they are disappointed by the little attention paid to them by agencies, as well as by the dearth of interesting or at least decent properties on the market.

And I wonder:

– Was it really necessary to leave that horrible object in the foreground?

– Why not close the lid of the toilet? (This is just one of the thousands of uglinesses that often jump to the eye and that, for me, do not find an answer).

– And again: why publish dark photos taken with closed windows or penalise verandas and courtyards that could make a difference – especially in the post-Covid era – by impoverishing them with clotheslines full of hanging clothes or rusty stakes, perished plants and broken pots?

– Why immortalise clothes left lying around, unmade beds, slippers wandering around the house, greasy upholstered headboards, detergents piled up in the bathroom, shelves overloaded with all kinds of objects, and clutter inside and outside the house?

How can you not understand that a potential buyer cannot be enticed to buy in this way?

Certain images are repellent, they make people run for the hills and do not let them see the potential of the house. That’s a shame, because almost every property has some potential to attract its ideal target group.

But above all: why let homeowners and their potential customers go through all this without a care in the world?

Who manages real estate communication today?

It’s time to start taking care of real estate communication and marketing in a professional way

Generations are changing, Millennials have very specific needs. They are green, they love technology and they have everything at a click. They are used to interfacing with smart solutions, quality and efficiency. They love fresh, turnkey solutions, the opposite of our homes, which are all about rebuilding, difficult to re-imagine and far from being immediately liveable..

Professionals, starting with real estate agents, can play a very important role in this change of gear, bringing to their awareness the fact that their own home cannot and must not go unturned on real estate portals. And they must do so at the cost of making themselves ‘unpalatable’: endorsing the existing situation, will not produce anything profitable, including percentages on sales.

So how do you sell or rent a house in 2022?

In order to sell or rent your home quickly and with financial satisfaction, you need to invest in professionally managed communication and property marketing. The house must be able to transmit its value and potential to the outside world in the best possible way. Its perceived value must be increased.

Will it cost? Yes, it will not be for free. Will there be a return on this investment? Of course there will.

Digital marketing and home staging: what are they good for?

Among the most effective property marketing techniques is home staging. It is used to show the buyers the full potential of the home, helping them to imagine themselves in it, to better visualise the features, the spaces, and to want to move in as soon as possible. Home staging is designed to excite.

Please note: home staging is not invented, but built on the basis of a real marketing project. In other posts we will see all the details.

For now, I’ll tell you WHAT IT IS NOT HOME STAGING.

HOME STAGING is NOT painting the walls, it’s not adding three pillows and two candles.

And no: YOU CANNOT DO IT YOURSELF, copying that programme you saw on TV.

This article (and this website) is about professionalism, about letting everyone do their job and not improvising as a handyman. Real estate communication based on digital marketing, accurate text construction, professional photos, storytelling techniques and home staging is essential in 2021. And the approach to the client cannot be left to chance, as well as the way in which one takes on his or her wishes and carries on the relationship with dedication, constancy and shared objectives.

Don’t be afraid of not being understood on these issues: those who understand will be the right target and will be happy with the way we work and the path we have mapped out to effectively respond to the huge (and unsatisfied) demand of people looking for pleasant, non-depressing, welcoming homes.

Bringing sellers and buyers together

In order to change the market and the way homes are sold in 2022, real estate agents need to be brave and self-constrained to raise awareness among owners on the issue of proper presentation of homes.

For their part, buyers need to understand that they often have too many requirements that clash with each other.

A few examples: a house in a quiet setting but not isolated; free on four sides, a little larger than a flat, but less than a villa; an elegant setting; views shielded from the view of others; a garden that does not look like a chicken pen, but not too large; distance from road noise but close to the main road; neighbours who are not too noisy; a property at the price of a house that still needs to be rebuilt, but which has already been renovated because no one wants to hear about building work.

It is clear that this is not the way to find a solution.

For the owners, on the other hand, their home is perfect as it is and does not even need a veil of powder to present itself to the world. And above all, it is worth more than the market price. Moreover, there is no question of investing something in it to make it more attractive, to sell it earlier and at a better price.

Usually, sellers love to sit back and wait (… and wait …) inertly for the money to come into their pockets. So they wait for a long time while taxes and depreciation don’t stop. So, problably, it would be better to invest something priorly to prepare your house to face the market.

This is where the patience lies, but also the professionalism of the real estate agent who must mediate between the various owner’s requirements, having the firmness to say NO when owner or buyer ask for the impossible, instead of promising and procuring an impossible success.

What the Italian property market has to offer today

Finally, it is true that today’s market offers little to dream about.

On the one hand, there are new buildings with tiny rooms (if you want to fit a bed and wardrobe into the same room, there are perhaps 50 centimetres left to go around the room) and small squared hallways that make you feel like a pawn in a chessboard.

And on the other hand, a myriad of old buildings, with ugly floors, doors, railings and staircases from the 70s (don’t say they have a charm because we’re not talking about Art Déco), poorly maintained gardens that look like is a family of wild boars has just walked through them, walls painted in improbable colours, perhaps designed to freshen up the premises in the hope that in this way the buyer – dazzled by a vast range of lilacs, fuchsias and fiery reds – will lose sight of the overall view and let himself be carried away by the colours.

It’s time to change your mindset, to take a step forward, to equip your home with weapons to get out of this stagnant and antiquated market, both in methods and in supply.

How can I help you sell or rent your home in the best way possible?

The desire must start with you.

If you are ‘enlightened’, believe in the value of beauty, quality, professionalism, technology and communication, you will understand that this type of approach is the only one possible to enhance the value of your home.

A word of advice: don’t hide behind the alibi that ‘these tools don’t work in Italy’ or in your town. This is an alibi for being able to remain immobile, safe from risks, burdens and guilt.

The world will go on anyway, it is up to us to decide whether we wish to keep up with it gracefully and elegantly or to trudge after it.