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Dressed to Sell
At Broad Creek Landing in Annapolis, Winchester Homes decorated this model home to sell faster. The community of 24 single-family houses has seven that remain unsold.
(Photos By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
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Decorating has also become a powerful tool in the resale market. Real estate agents and designers said they do more "staging" of homes to make them more attractive to potential buyers. In some cases, staging can be as simple as removing clutter and rearranging furniture. In other cases, agents hire staging companies to bring in furniture and artwork.
But decorating a new home without an owner is a more elaborate undertaking.
Realizing the power of the model home, builders meticulously study their target audience to determine what decor will elicit the best response. With the public seeing so much home design in the popular media, builders and decorators recognize that expectations are high.
"The audience these days is very sophisticated. They watch all the design shows," McInnis said.
Builders use surveys and focus groups to create a profile of potential buyers. They record race, income, hobbies and family size. They find out what magazines would-be buyers read, where they like to vacation, what their children like to do for fun, where they shop, what they drive. Are they dog people? Are they cat people? Do they like to eat out or cook at home? Do they read the magazine Jane, which would indicate they're probably young and urban, or Coastal Living, which would probably make them baby boomers?
The builders hand their research to the designers, who find the furniture, paintings, curtains, bedspreads and knickknacks they think would appeal to those buyers.
If it's a first-time buyer they're going after, the designer won't make the house look too expensive, said Phyllis Ryan, president of the model-home division of Annapolis-based Interior Concepts.
"I think the biggest mistake is to create an image in the interior that the particular buyer cannot identify with," she said. "You don't want to put an affluent-looking interior to the first-time buyer. They'll think it's out of reach."
For instance, at the Braddock Corner community in Loudoun County, where townhouses start at $450,000, Model Home Interiors decorated a townhouse tailored to first-time buyers. Because they tend to be younger, the decorators went for a contemporary style. They used greens and blacks and bought furniture from places such as Restoration Hardware and Crate & Barrel.
Sometimes, Bashore said, his decorators will use furniture from less expensive retailers such as Ikea in houses aimed at younger buyers.
Models for first-time buyers also usually include a bedroom for a child no older than 3. In homes meant for older families, there might be bedrooms for teenagers.
If it's a baby-boomer clientele, the designer might focus on the rooms where owners can entertain, such as the dining room, the lower level or the patio. There could be chilled wine coolers with a full-size bar in the lower level or lounge seating on the patio.
