Combination of Wine, Cheese, and Home Theater Sells
Real estate market is at its hiatus these days thanks to growing rates and overblown prices. In California, every street has something to offer and open houses are no surprise but a certain time killing activity for most wanderers and neighbors that would like to check out "living conditions" of the dude next door.
So how do you sell a house in a slow market where every real estate agency, similar to Vintage Sotheby's International Realty, has four times more in the inventory compared to just few month ago.
Follow an example of Tim and Colleen Crescenti from Santa Clarita, CA: they turned open house into a movie screening with wine and cheese reception. The family room is also a home theater that can accommodate some 10 people. They used their best room to win hearts and obviously out of 6 visiting families, 2 have submitted offers. Not a bad way to sell a house. The moral is that current fierce market can force home owners to "prepare" even more than just having the house sparkling clean and hiring a good agent. Crescentis did not actually add the home theater to sell the house because, in my opinion, Tim is a home theater freak and according to the article, he will be adding one in the new townhouse they purchased.
There is the opposite as well, value addition can actually increase the price of the house and make potential buyers think twice as happened in the case of my friend who added an entertainment system that included a 50" plasma to his newly remodeled house. He, of course, did not take the route of wine and cheese as well as did not explicitly show the little home theater he got. Apparently, house is still on sale, while he is enjoying his plasma screen and rants about the market. The mistake here is that you cannot sell a house with a TV, which plasma is without doubt. Five years ago that would have been a prefect idea but today one should have a front projector to amuse. And the great part is that projector does not have to be top notch to speen heads - any sub $3000 LCD projector coupled with a sub $3000 sound system will do.
Namely, systems with ~$1500 Sanyo PLV-Z4 or Panasonic PT-AE900 with a mid-range bookshelf Axiom speakers and a any of the Denon's or Onkyo's sub $700 receivers will be a strong selling point for any house. I will leave the selection of cheese and wine up to your consciousness.
Source: Wine, Cheese and a Movie Entice Home Shoppers by Tammy Marashlian of The Signal
