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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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If it's a house in Annapolis, there might be a room with a nautical theme -- or in Loudoun County, a room with an equestrian theme.
"It's very important to show the buyers the way a home would look to fit their lifestyle," said Mark Kinsley, president of KB Home's Mid-Atlantic division. "We go to great lengths to do it."
Builders can also go to great expense.
Prices for decorating model homes range from $15 to $40 a square foot, according to designers and builders. Sometimes it can cost as much as some people spend on an entire house. Winchester Homes will spend about $250,000 to decorate one of its regular models. Its Camberley Homes luxury models can run higher -- $450,000 for a 10,000-square-foot house, for example.
"When there are a lot of people looking and more opportunities, you have to put more into making the home memorable," said Cynthia Herberg, director of marketing for Winchester Homes.
Sometimes, small, unusual features that will never make it into the house once it is sold can become a memory point, Herberg said. In one of the Camberley models, there are light fixtures in the shape of birdcages.
"When they leave, they remember that was the house that had that amazing birdcage light fixture," Herberg said. "We've taken a couple more risks like that because we want to be remembered. People know if they buy the house, they don't have to have that."
McInnis, of Carlyn and Co., is designing a model home in a Capitol Hill development, so she bought accessories and artwork from local artists at Eastern Market. At a model in Maryland, she used works by Maryland artists.
Bashore, of Model Home Interiors, plans to put a coffee bar inside the master bathroom of a model in Upper Marlboro. In front of the coffee bar, he will place a bistro table with a marble top and chairs.
"Bathrooms do play a big part in home sales," he said. "The idea of having coffee in your bathroom with an elegant tub and elegant surroundings is going to be lovely."
In one community in Fredericksburg, the builder determined that the potential buyer was older than 35 and would probably entertain at home, so Bashore created a jazz-club theme in the lower level, complete with a bass and a drum set.
Would a buyer actually want a coffee bar in a bathroom or a jazz club in the basement? Probably not, Bashore conceded. But that's not the point. The point is to be remembered.
"I thought, let's be different," he said. "I've never seen it done before."
