Would You Buy This House?

This tough real estate market may be grating on some of you. Especially those people who want to sell their house but aren’t meeting much with success. So what’s an impatient homeowner to do?

How about taking a step back and assess the situation. Could it be the case that your house just looks too weird?

This house is one-of-a-kind and truly unique in every way. It lives somewhere in the SF Bay Area, along the major freeway I take to head off to my job in San Francisco, and every time I drive by, I always wonder who would buy such a novel looking home. In fact, I wonder how easily something like this could sell. Since I enjoy learning about how markets work, I often try to analyze what makes for a successful sale or purchase. One thing I’ve learned is that for certain items, it could be hit or miss because of special characteristics it could have. Uniqueness may sell pretty well….or not at all. In the case of this house, which has built some kind of reputation, selling it may not be a problem as someone out there would enjoy being recognized as the owner of “The Flinstone House”.

Get a load of this “unique” matching mail box.

As a rule though, ordinary items for sale that are made too unusual will encounter a shrinking market. I remember the time while we were home shopping seven years ago and stumbled onto a pretty nice house that was professionally designed by an architect and interior designer. The thing was made out to be a period home that looked like it stepped out of the Victorian era. Just one look and you knew it wasn’t going to move too quickly — it was way too frilly, felt too cluttered with its heavy use of fabric (drapes covering the doors??) and felt too dark. It finally sold after the owners took down the frills and generalized its look.

So when you’re trying to unload something make sure things are as generic as they can be. Especially if it’s a commodity or if you’re trying to attract a mass market. Else, you can reach for the moon and drum up some *serious* marketing or story angle to capture the market’s attention — yeah like this house has.



P.S. This house is not really for sale; just spoke of it in hypothetical terms.

More on the funky house: Flinstone House

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