Your home is full of memories, experiences, love, laughter, tears, and life.
But when you’re selling it, it’s beneficial to do some deep thinking about what really makes your house different from others? What is it that would make a buyer emotionally imprint on your house?
Why does anyone buy anything? Because of its unique selling position. What is it about that shirt that is unique, and makes you want to buy it? That ladder? That car? And yes…that house.
What is USP?
Your house’s unique selling position (USP if you want to get all jargon-y here…and I do) is what makes it it. What is it about your house that sets it apart from other houses in the market? Identifying the elements of your USP is incredibly helpful for when your house is for sale.
One hard part about identifying your USP is that the memories, experiences, love, laughter, tears, and life can’t really be part of it. You can’t sell them. As awesome as your house is, when someone buys it, they don’t get your memories. Although, that would be a super entertaining episode of Black Mirror.
Questions That Identify Your Home’s Unique Selling Position
Ok, fine. So you can’t sell your memories and your tears. But “three bedrooms” isn’t a unique selling position. There are thousands of houses in Vermont that have three bedrooms.
When we talk about a house’s unique selling position, that thing that sets it apart in some meaningful ways from other houses for sale, we get to be really thoughtful.
Some questions that help get a seller there are:
- What did you like about this house when you bought it?
- What will you miss when you sell? (and if you’re about to say “the memories” I’m going to politely refer you back about two paragraphs).
- When you come back from other people’s houses, what do you smile at and say “I love that our house…”
- What do other people say they like about your house? Honestly, it might not be the same thing that you like about your house. You could have more than one unique selling position.
Take some time and think about these questions, even writing down answers. Different members of the household could do the same exercise. With that, you’ve probably done a really good job of finding your home’s unique selling position.
A Green Light Real Estate Professional Can Help
A skilled and experienced real estate professional can be helpful in this exercise, in much the same way that a therapist or life coach is helpful–by asking the right questions, digging a little deeper, and working to get to the real uniqueness, beyond what your initial responses are. Sometimes it takes asking “why” two or three times before it becomes apparent what’s really going on.
As I’m thinking about this, I realize that it’s kind of a gratitude journal for your house. I fully realize that some people might roll their eyes at this. But I’m telling you, if you really know and can clearly spell out your house’s unique selling position, it will help sell your house faster and for more money. You can roll your eyes at getting heartfelt and sincere answers, but most people don’t roll their eyes at selling for a better price, with less stress.