A Change in the Way Realtors Sell Pricey Apartments
New York realtors are having to change the way they write their ads in order to sell pricey apartments. The old ad stressed exotic touches in the kitchens and bathrooms and used lots of superlatives. Now buyers want discounts, value and lots of space.
For better and worse, the mentality that helped propel the city's real estate prices into lunar altitudes is gone. Not only are there fewer buyers today, but they are also more apt to have a yard-sale attitude, demanding sharp discounts on top of reduced prices — Poggenpohl kitchen and last year’s comps be damned.
Racing to keep up with a down-market mindset, many real estate brokers say they have been experimenting with a new paradigm in advertising, spinning their ads like roulette wheels in the hope of landing in the sweet spot of the parsimonious post-Lehman buyer.
The model is shaping up like this: The new propriety frowns at luxury, lifestyle and the fetishistic focus on designer brands and architects. Instead, brokers say they are trying to recast their listings in terms of responsible spending, comfort and, most especially, value.
"Three or four years ago, value was something that was uncomfortable even to talk about," said Bruce Ehrmann, an associate broker at Stribling & Associates. "Value suggested thrift, and thrift meant you couldn't keep up."
But now value has another ring and thrift has a nice kind of sound. "People are not buying emotionally or lustily -- they're buying in a calculated manner the likes of which we haven’t seen in 15 years, except briefly after 9/11," Mr. Ehrmann said. "The draw tends to be location, price and value before glory, glamour, Valcucine kitchens and Waterworks baths."
An attractive price is the most direct way to convey value, preferably set off by some variation of the formerly taboo "reduced."
"We never used to say 'reduced' in a very strong market because we felt people would think of it as tainted goods," said Deanna Kory, a senior vice president at Corcoran. "But now if you don't, people don't think the seller is serious, especially if it's been on the market any length of time. And people today feel cheated if they don’t get a deal."
This is especially true, she added, in "certain categories that are more saturated, like one-bedroom co-ops and downtown lofts from $3 million to $6 million."
Realtors are struggling to write ad copy that will bring in buyers. Is it better to say "best price in the building"
or "20% below market value"? Because realtors have another issue to confront: ad space is expensive, so many are advertising online only. Print is just too pricey, even for a $3 million apartment. It's certainly a buyer's market.
