“It’s not just the seller that is our client. It’s the property.”

 

 

Daniella: Hello everybody, Daniella and Ric here, and we are just finishing up day two of the imaging of a property that we are readying for the market.

 

While we wait for our photographer to arrive for this last portion, we were actually just talking about some interesting things relative to really readying and preparing a property for the market and the way that we do it. We thought it might be interesting to share some of that information with you, because there’s a really distinct difference between listing a home and truly preparing it for the market.

 

In the space that we deal with, which is typically high end custom homes, [including] things that are interesting, unique, architecturally significant, water oriented, things like that… There’s always a story to the homes that we work with. And so when we take them on, it’s not just the seller who’s our client, it’s actually the property.

 

We take a very holistic approach, and we thought it would be interesting to share some of the details of that with you. Today we are here behind the scenes, and this home is absolutely stunning. You can see a little bit, we can’t reveal the address to you yet, but it will be on the market very, very soon. And it is totally gorgeous. And if I myself were planning on living in this particular neighborhood, which is a fabulous place, I would very seriously consider purchasing this home for myself because it is gorgeous.

 

Ric: I know, you love it.

 

Daniella: Yeah. So tell them a little bit about how we start. What does the first day look like? Not from the photography standpoint, but literally day one we go in, what does that look like?

Ric: You know, we, we really try to pay re great respect to the architect who was involved in designing, and the builder who was involved in the execution. We come in and really try to understand what that is. We look at every detail. Daniella and I can spend 20 minutes in a home and probably tell you most of the material that was used, the expense of that material, and the care that it was installed with.

 

So we try to the best of our ability, to understand that and capture the stories of the people who live here and had this as their vision. And then we carry that forward, and we believe that in marketing, stories matter.

 

We really try to capture a great story — the truthful story — about a property. If we’re able to do that well, then buyers in the marketplace looking will connect, and we’re able to show off the details and the structures and the elements of a house that just make you want to sit down and relax. You can envision yourself there. And so I think that that’s what we do day one that matters a lot.

Daniella: For those of you who tune in or watch this later: If we’ve actually gone through this process together, you will hear us say day one: “We’re not bringing in a stack of papers. We’re not sliding a pen across the desk to you.” It’s just not the way we do it.

 

And there are all kinds of different ways that people work and different methods that they prefer. And for us, that’s just not the way it is. We’re very, we’re very relationship oriented because for us, fpr the homes we work with, like we said, we have a relationship with the home and we have a relationship with the client. That’s just how we prefer to do things. It makes it more enjoyable for us, and ultimately, we think it gets us to a much, much better result for our client.

 

So day one is just us coming in. You tell us if you like us, and we’ll tell you if we like you. If the answers are both yes, then we can move forward and do the rest of it and do all the fun stuff (like paperwork!) We get past that,  and then the planning phase; we do so much planning in this process. We storyboard our video, and we really try and make that story come through all the pieces of the marketing for the home. We don’t do a lot of print, but when we do, they’re things that are really still to be expected in our market and are still appreciated. So if we do, that’s a strategic piece of marketing specifically tailored to that property. And then of course as I said, photos, videos any kind of imaging, any sort of drone work.

 

You’ll notice in a lot of our videos if you look us up on YouTube (The Hilton Head Life houses all of our videos), you’ll see that we are in, in some combination or other, a lot of our videos and as you mentioned, sort of paying homage and respect to the designer and the architect and those kinds of things.

 

Those individuals have some really great insights that, in a lot of cases, they haven’t revisited in a long time, but they are big part of that story of the property. So, we get a chance to sit down with them and talk to them; and in a lot of cases, they actually appear in our videos, which is really neat.

 

It’s a very different element and people really love it. They love coming back to something that they created that, once upon a time, was also their baby. And now in many cases it’s being offered to the public for the very first time. It’s really exciting.

Ric: And then as we as we end the transaction, there’s negotiations that happen.

 

So a buyer comes and they get interested, and we become part of that conversation about the house itself. We’ll know it in such detail, so intimately, that we’re able to negotiate on the finer points of the house that are outside of any algorithm like price per square foot or the value of a home site.

 

We’re able to bring in the detail that was so carefully selected and constructed, and demonstrate real value. We’ll know what the competition is to this house from a finance aspect, and then be able to compare that in a value sense to the buyer.

 

I think that that’s where our sellers really see that all of the work that we’ve done has not been just piecemeal.

 

It is a strategic plan that brings us to the price for that house at any given point, and as fast as possible. If we didn’t do this part now, upfront, we wouldn’t be able to do that. We would just be more interested in getting the contract signed and moving forward. Yeah. But you’re right, I think that the best word to use is we are connected.

Daniella: Absolutely. So we just thought it would be interesting to share a little bit of the background of what we do as we prepare a home for the market.

 

As I said, we really try and parse that story out and fill that out and carry that through all of our pieces, all of our marketing avenues, platforms and all of that.

 

It’s way too much to talk about here, but this is a peek. If you ever want to know in a little bit more detail about what we do and why we do it, [get in touch]. It’s great to be able to talk about it, but it doesn’t matter at all unless it’s effective. That’s something that we are very proud to really hone continuously and evolve as the technology and market evolve, and stay at least one step ahead.

 

Thanks for tuning in. If you have any questions, as always, you can just reach out directly — and look for this beautiful home to come on the market very soon. Totally love this house. Have a great day. Happy Sunday.

 

Ric: Talk soon; enjoy your weekend!