Sell Your Home Like Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs changed the world in the way products are built and sold to consumers

He made design cool and critical.

He was an incredible salesman.

But Steve Jobs didn’t sell beautiful products like the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. He sold what you could do with them.

You can channel Steve Jobs to get your home sold.

Beautiful product

Apple makes beautiful products. They may not be technically superior, indeed many would argue they are not. But everyone agrees they are wonderfully designed, incredible to look at, and amazing to touch.  

Your house already exists. You do not have Apple's luxury of designing it from the ground up. But you can make your house beautiful.  

You need to "move out" so the buyer can move in. Make its street appeal interesting and welcoming. Copy Apple’s clean lines. Prune trees, shrubs and tidy gardens. Have the front door bold and welcoming. Inside, go through the house and declutter. Then declutter again. Leave nothing superfluous.

For Apple the smallest details matter - they should for you too. Would Steve Jobs allow peeling wallpaper, sticking doors, ripped curtains or damaged carpet?

Incredibly presented

Apple is renowned for its secrecy. Products are not announced or released to the market until they are ready. Steve Jobs is famous for his “oh, one more thing” at the tail end of an announcement event. He knew the power of hitting the market with a bang in a planned and orchestrated way.

Don’t release your home to the market by accident. Don’t let it sneak out. If you are not ready don’t go. If that means you wait a little bit longer to get ready, wait. Plan it. Manage it. You only get one opportunity to create that initial impression.

A hallmark of Apple advertising is incredible images - every one of their products is sumptuously photographed. If you are going to spend any money on marketing your home spend the first $ on professional pics. Simple.

Apple does not skimp on promoting its products. Advertising is an critical component of making the product a success.When Apple was a still relatively small company Steve Jobs “bet the farm” financially on a  single advertisement during the US Super Bowl final. The advert only ever played once - but it is iconic. The plan was to get noticed, with something big and bold.  

The same with the advertising of your home - you don’t need to take the high risk of a one-off TV advert. But, you can’t sell a secret (to quote an old real estate adage). Promote your home to buyers, make sure they are notice it. Invest in marketing to put the spotlight on your place and make it stand out from the crowd.

Emotional buying

Buying is an emotional process. Steve Jobs understood that. He didn’t sell a product, he sold what you could do with it. The original iPod wasn’t a music player, it was "1,000 songs in your pocket". The iPad "makes surfing the web, checking email, watching movies, and reading books so natural, you might forget there’s incredible technology under your fingers”.

Describe your home in terms of living there and the warm emotions and great feelings that come as a result.  It’s not the features that matter it is the benefit that results.  For example, a large back deck, becomes an "extensive naturally aged cedar rear deck for warm summer evening barbecues and watching the kids play. Your restful sanctuary from the world". You want the buyer to feel what it is like to be living in the home. Use language that stirs the satisfaction and comfort of owning the home.

Apples motto is Think Different. You can make your home stand out in the marketplace by thinking differently. Plan your marketing campaign, invest in advertising and promotion and always highlight what the new owner can do there - appeal to their emotion.

All photos via Wikimedia Commons:

Picture 1: By Matthew Yohe at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-3.0]

Picture 2: By Matt Buchanan (originally posted to Flickr as Apple iPad Event) [CC-BY-2.0]

Picture 3: By Aaron Logan (Cropped from Image:Lightmatter_ipodvsmini.jpg) [CC-BY-2.5 ]