New Psychology Tricks to Help Sell Your Home
Words, colors, sounds, timing, shapes — each of these things affect us on a subconscious level, and each of these things are used constantly by advertisers and businesses alike.
Psychology plays a huge role in attracting more clients and customers. But can you use psychology tricks in a similar manner to help sell your house? Try these tricks (and check out a previous psychology in real estate blog we’ve posted) to see for yourself.
Psychology Trick #1: Create FOMO.
Otherwise known as the fear of missing out, FOMO doesn’t solely exist in terms of weekend plans and brunch dates. Creating FOMO for your property is a great tip for selling your home.
The way to do it is pretty simple: sell through a RealtyHive time-limited event. Creating FOMO is just in the nature of our auctions. In fact, the FOMO is so real that as we talked about in a previous blog, many properties listed with us actually sell before the event.
Many times, a buyer who was only mildly interested in a property is suddenly chomping at the bit when they know it could go to auction. They don’t want to lose out on the current deal, knowing that the price could go up, so they act now instead of waiting.
Point being, you don’t have to jump through hoops to make your property highly desirable and FOMO-inducing. Just list with RealtyHive and we’ll handle the rest.
Psychology Trick #2: Play to the senses.
Playing to the senses is especially relevant if you’re in a buyer’s market (aka it’s highly competitive, the houses are similar, and your property needs to stand out). Read the following listing descriptions and see which appeals to you more:
Example 1:
Spacious 3-bedroom, 1-bath house with a yard. Close to grocery store and park. Kitchen was renovated in 2019.
Example 2:
This spacious 3-bedroom, 1-bath house has it all, and we’ll miss it dearly! Take in the sunlight in the newly renovated kitchen and watch the hummingbirds flit around the backyard.
The mud room will come in handy as you come back from running errands (we’re just a block away from the grocery store) or the park around the corner.
It’s pretty clear which listing description stands out. While you don’t want to overwhelm potential buyers and write a novel, there are simple ways to appeal to the senses, paint a picture, and keep people interested.
Psychology Trick #3: Try your hand at price perceptions.
Nearly everything you buy ends in 99 cents. Why don’t businesses just round up the dollar? It’s because of an important psychology trick that you should absolutely apply to selling your house.
When people see a pack of Oreos in the checkout line at the grocery store is $1.99, the 1 is the first number they see. We have a habit of subconsciously ending our thought process there — most of us think “well, it’s under $2” instead of the fact that it’s basically $2.
If your current house is listed at $250,000, it could honestly make a difference to list as $249,000 or $249,999. Plus, listing at a slightly lower rate might include your house in a higher number of searches — buyers looking solely for houses below $250,000 might miss out on your property.
Secondly, weird or random prices might get more buyers’ attention. If you list at a random price like $194,722.78, it will likely catch buyers’ eyes and help your property stand out.
Psychology Trick #4: Remember that “perfect” doesn’t exist.
To be clear: staging your house and taking photos are times where your home should look as spotless as possible. But oftentimes, people become paralyzed in the process of selling their house. They’re trying to fix too many things or write the absolute perfect listing description before taking their listing live.
Two things to keep in mind, the first being the Pratfall Effect. People tend to like people who aren’t perfect, who make mistakes and who are genuine humans. The same can apply to houses. Remember the old adage, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is?” Buyers are sometimes wary when a house seems *too* perfect. This is good news for anyone who has a cringe-y wallpapered room they’ve just never had time to fix.
Plus, in the era of fixer uppers, a lot of buyers like looking for potential. They like the idea of tackling on a home project. Suffice to say, don’t wait for your house to be perfect before selling — in some instances, your attempts could actually backfire.
The second thing to keep in mind: If you’re worried about your house never selling on Zillow or Trulia because of its imperfections, sell with RealtyHive instead! We’ll happily take it to a time-limited event and in the event it doesn’t sell, you don’t pay. Our real estate psychologists, erm, team is standing by.