THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 8, 1997 TAG: 9702060240
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ANAHITA WAGER-SMITH, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: 119 lines
Visualization is a powerful marketing tool. Taking advantage of available technology, Greg and Yvonne Nelson of Re/Max Central Realty have incorporated this tool in their unique approach to presenting homes.
Their aim is to revolutionize the way homes are marketed.
The husband-and-wife Realtor team allow home buyers to see three-dimensional views of homes through a computer screen. As a result, buyers can ``place themselves'' inside the house, able to inspect every room from every angle, according to Lane Mashaw who is selling his home through the Nelsons.
Although the Nelsons represent both buyers and sellers, their unique technically-oriented, aesthetically pleasing package is especially beneficial to sellers with homes in the re-sale and fixer-upper market.
They do something that very few Realtors think of attempting - they physically measure the re-sale homes and provide an individual computerized package to every client.
GREG HAS mastered his part in the project. Calculating the dimensions of every room, cabinet and kitchen, he is responsible for putting the information into their software program.
At first, the entire process took seven hours; now he can do it in 45 minutes. His degree in mechanical engineering comes in handy as does Yvonne's marketing expertise.
Yvonne takes his work and the acquired artwork and creates a brochure. The outcome is a two-fold brochure quite different than the usual one-page handout passed out by most real estate agents.
The three-panel brochure, includes a three-dimensional floor plan scaled-to-size, detailed information highlighting significant characteristics of the home, a two-dimensional floor plan with specified measurements and interior color shots.
``The floor-plans balanced with interior photographs offer a complete visualization of the home,'' Yvonne says. Floor plans are used throughout their advertising, especially when it better communicates the uniqueness of the home.
Why all the trouble? ``To go beyond our customer's expectations,'' Yvonne says. ``Our goal is to excite them as well as to encourage them that we have something unique and this will help them with the sale of their home.
``Their home is unique; why not market it unique. Every home is different in some aspects, we try to highlight those aspects and point them out for the buyer.''
Their slogan is ``3-D marketing - going beyond expectations.''
``Our homes have sold based on the way we market them,'' Greg says.
AFTER LOOKING at 12 or more homes the average buyer has trouble remembering the first from the last. From experience, the Nelsons have found that the typical one page handout usually ends up either on the floorboard of a buyer's car or the back seat, whereas the two-fold brochure with the right presentation is placed inside a coat pocket.
``Homes have been marketed the same way for many many years,'' Gred says. ``The majority of Realtors put a sign out front, put in a Multiple Listing Service, put a brochure in the house and that's it.''
Greg says over 50 percent of their business is through homes previously marketed by other Realtors. ``In fact we work a lot with expires or withdrawals . . . and the way we market homes will often get them sold within a 60 day time frame,'' he says.
THE NELSONS go the extra mile. The are banking that the more the buyer can relate to the prospective home, the greater the chances are of their purchasing the home. They have found that the computer is an excellent way of displaying their commitment to service.
``It all comes down to services really,'' Greg says. ``What will your Realtor do for you, what services will they provide and how hard are they going to work for you. That is where we are different, we work extremely hard.''
Pictorial information combined with a detailed description is a highly effective communication technique as it facilitates the client's reception, storage and retrieval of information. The reception of information is a critical step in the decision-making process, if a home is not remembered it is not sold.
``If they can't visualize it then they can't fall in love with it and that's half the battle when you market homes,'' says Yvonne.
Kerry Beers who sold a house and bought a townhouse through the Nelsons said that as a result of their efforts re-visits were cut down during the sale of her home. She attributed the decrease to the buyer's computer access to the floor-plan after the initial walk-through.
``She (the buyer) knew exactly what it was like, she could picture it better in her head because she had the actual layout,'' said Beers.
Narrowing the pool is another important factor. By allowing buyers the opportunity to see floor-plans prior to viewing homes, the Nelsons have found that it saves a great deal of time for everyone.
The buyer is able to select homes to see and the seller doesn't have to leave his as often and at unexpected hours when prospective buyers show up.
The Nelsons also have a service for new buyers. From their experience, they have found that prospective homeowners tend to buy around their furniture. Their computer allows buyers to organize the design and layout of their furniture prior to closing a deal.
The buyer is given hard copies of a two-dimensional scaled floor plan of their newly purchased home along with specific pieces of furniture to scale grouped by room.
The buyer can cut out specific pieces and place them in the floor-plan to design the interior. Beers was so impressed with the program that after laying out the furniture for the townhouse she did what any other expert shopper would do: She took the layout to the store and bought the furniture.
With a busy schedule, Beers doesn't have a lot of extra time so ``as soon as we did the walk-through, Greg measured the walls and within the next day he had a copy of the (floor-plan) for me. I didn't have to re-visit the townhouse,'' says Beer.
Also if a buyer is considering a fixer-upper home but is unable to see past the outdated kitchen or the small bedroom, the Nelsons use their computer to ``update'' the kitchen with new cabinets and knock out a wall.
IN THE FUTURE, Greg would like to apply a virtual reality approach and walk buyers through homes step by step. With continued advancement in technology and more cost-efficiency, buyers one day will be able to quickly preview homes in their agent's office. ILLUSTRATION: [Color photo on the cover]
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot
Greg and Yvonne Nelson of Re/Max use a computer screen to give
buyers a three-dimensional view of homes for sale.