HOW I sell a house: Big Wins, Big Detractors, and Deal Sealers

There are many philosophies on how to market and sell a house. Do you make it broadly appeal to everyone? What about problems you know buyers are going to have? How do you appeal to the buyer that will pay the absolute highest price? All that and more coming up.

Hello everyone, my name is Cameron Stephens, the entertainment industry’s real estate agent and the owner of Stephens Real Estate, a real estate experience tailored to the creative client.

Today I want to talk about my personal philosophy behind how I look at and analyze a house I’m going to sell, and then how I translate that and convey it to potential buyers.

First off, I’ll say that the way I look at houses is very different from most real estate agents. Conventional wisdom states that you want any home that you sell to appeal to the widest range of possible buyers. You want to make sure all the impersonal touches are out, you want to make it as widely appealing as possible, and that way not only do you have the chance to get the most amount of people interested and submitting an offer, but also it allows a blank canvas for potential buyers to see their dream home overlaid onto yours.

There are multiple problems with this philosophy, especially within the Los Angeles market. The first is that we don’t have track homes, we’re a mix of many styles built in many different eras with very little of what one might think of as “suburban track homes”. Not only that, our high prices put housing itself into a category that if you can indeed afford to purchase a home, you’re very unlikely to want it to be “just like everyone else's”. Why pay so much if it isn’t unique?

Finally, the remaining problem is one not so obvious but is glaring once you realize it. If you are marketing the home as appealing to everyone, you’re inevitably diluting your appeal to the smaller selection of buyers that will truly love your home.

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So I have a different philosophy that I approach almost every single home I sell with. There are three major things I identify and I structure how I pitch those in every piece of marketing material and how I verbally present a home to buyers. I identify the Big Wins, the Big Detractors, and the Deal Sealer.

Ok fun names, but what are these? Well let’s start with the obvious, the Big Wins. These are unique aspects to the home that are likely going to appeal to many people but specifically due to their uniqueness. It could be original hardwood floors, custom kitchen cabinetry, large walls of windows, a large outdoor deck, lush sculpted landscaping. It could be as simple as that bright pop of color on the front door. It could be as dramatic as city light views. It could be something intangible like a breakfast nook that feels like a cozy place to curl up. What we are looking for here are as many Big Wins as possible, and if we don’t have them, we can create them, and if we do have them, we want to focus on them, highlight them somehow. We could dress them up, add lighting, or just make sure it is a major focus of the tour.

See these are things that people like BECAUSE they are unique. They are character aspects that appeal to a broad range of people. They’re things that not all homes have but all people will want, or at least get excited about in some way. And then I passionately highlight them because they’re going to be an easy sell, they’re the Big Wins.

Ok now for the Big Detractors. These can be scary to people, especially to the homeowner, but they really shouldn't be. I always try to get ahead of as many of them as possible, and when I do my early walkthroughs, I think to myself, “ok what are the major problems I’m going to have to provide solutions to? What is the first thing most home buyers are going to feel like they have to remedy? When they leave and talk about the house, what’s the one thing they’re going to bring up that the reaction is, “well I dunno about that thing”

But if I can find that thing (or in less great cases, things), we can usually get in front of it by doing one of two things: fix it before we go to market if there will be a financial return by doing so, or research and price out the various remedies so that we can get in front of the problem. 

I’ll give you a great example. Some people aren’t fans of electric stoves. I am, I have one in my home by choice, but not many people are. So when I go to sell my home, I’ll talk about the benefits of the electric stove, and then I’ll get ahead of it as a Big Detractor and talk about where the gas lines currently run so that they can envision what it would be like to install a gas stovetop. Done, even if it wasn’t a problem, now it just seems like options to people and they don’t even think about it.

Now sometimes problems arise when I’m successfully able to identify that Big Detractor and either it doesn’t bother the homeowner or they even love it. That’s when things get a little dicey when I have to explain that the quirky purple room with velvet carpet might have brought them a lot of joy, but every single person coming through wants it gone immediately. Or someone might like popcorn ceilings for acoustics, but most buyers want that gone, so we’ll price it out as to how much that will cost so that people don’t think it’s 10k to fix when it’s only 3.

Ok now here is where I really differ from most agents when identifying selling points of a house. I believe every house has a Deal Sealer. You can guess what this means, but basically, it’s something unexpected, and often very very unique, that people don’t see coming and it seals the deal. Often times this is some aspect that is somewhat difficult to convey in photos, or rather, it just has to be seen in person to appreciate. It’s that bonus thing that makes the right buyer of the house say, “I have to have this”. 

And many times, this is something that, unlike the Big Wins, is actually not universally appealing. Something like say a koi pond. Or maybe a little bonus studio. Or even, here’s a great one, a huge old oak tree in the backyard. Some people are actually going to massively dislike that. They want to build and expand the backyard, and they can’t because the oak tree is a protected tree. But a small group of people are going to absolutely lose it for a truly special tree like that. And we might even dress it up with some string lights or an outdoor seating set underneath it to really double down on it. Because for all the people that don’t like that one aspect, or maybe they just simply won’t be as excited about it as other people, for a small group, this will seal the deal to them. And what I want to do is make sure that the right people leave the house I’m selling and tell their real estate agent the following words: “I don’t care what I need to do, or how much I need to pay, get me that house”.

Ok there you have it! Thank you for watching, I hope you learned something about the way I think about selling homes, the way I analyze and work through different aspects of a home.

At Stephens Real Estate we specialize in working with creative professionals, entrepreneurs, and especially people in the entertainment industry because I spent 7 years of my life working in animation and visual effects. That is why I designed Stephens Real Estate to be tailored to the creative client.  

I also designed a few value adding programs for both buyers and sellers that no one else is offering. For buyers, we put together a full marketing plan that paints you as the right buyer for your dream home. We can help recommend local lenders that will fit your financing situation, even if you’re freelance. And don’t worry about the inspections, we’ve got you covered. They’re free, all of them, no questions asked.

And If you’re looking to sell your home, we offer the ability to REMODEL NOW, and PAY WHEN YOU SELL with Zero fees, no interest, no upfront costs. Plus, we pay for all of the aspects of digital marketing from photography, drone footage, videography, 3D walkthrough and virtual open houses, social media campaign, custom website, targeted emails and more.

So, if you like my energy and personality, and think my expertise and the programs I offer would benefit you, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Additionally if you know someone that would benefit from connecting with me, I’d absolutely love an introduction.

Thanks again for watching, and at the end of this video there will be a QR code you can scan to be taken directly to my website, or a link somewhere down there where you can click to learn more.