REAL ESTATE PRE-SALES: 5 USEFUL TIPS ON MARKETING UNFINISHED PROPERTIES

Real estate pre-sales have become a norm in recent years. A whopping 90.5% of all properties for sale are either incomplete or straight-up empty lots. But at the same time, real estate developers and agents often struggle to convince clients to buy something that isn’t built yet. It’s understandable – customers want to see a finished home, not imagine it. They are also uncertain if the results live up to their expectations. And of course, who wants to wait for months before their dream home is done?

Despite these issues, pre-selling unfinished houses is viable, provided companies follow some easy-to-follow guidelines and use innovative tools such as CGI animation. Here are six tips to sell houses that aren’t finished!

Honesty is the best policy in any industry, and real estate development is no exception. Some companies, however, try to sell unrealistic promises. One of them is project deadlines. A common practice is telling clients that homes will be finished in a few months. But that’s often impossible without cutting corners. 

The reality is that a custom house takes roughly 9-16 months to finish completely. Delays are often expected, especially for large-scale projects and complex buildings. And customers understand this. This is why businesses pre-selling real estate should always set realistic deadlines. And it’s best to always add some wiggle room for possible delays. This way, businesses will form a more trusting relationship with clients, improving the odds of successful deals.

Modern marketing textbooks advise businesses to sell the idea of how a product can improve buyers’ lives, not the product itself. This is done for a good reason and is especially useful when it comes to incomplete properties. People are not attracted by the idea of buying an unfinished house. Instead, they want to feel they are investing in a place that will soon become a cozy home that will be perfect for them specifically.

This is where targeting for pre-sales comes in. Nowadays, people share a lot of personal information on the web. Social media, search engine activity, and visited websites are a treasure trove of targeting data. Information about potential clients’ age, marital and family status, occupation, geographical location, and plans for the future become available for digital marketers. This can be used to personalize advertising to specific groups of potential buyers. 

By offering properties that are best suited to customers’ needs and desires, developers are more likely to make them interested even in homes that are not finished yet. For instance, people who are fond of rural areas would love forest or mountain homes. Families would be interested in quiet suburban areas with picturesque locations. This approach to marketing makes real estate pre-sales much easier and more effective.

The main hurdle of real estate pre-sales is that there’s nothing to show potential buyers. Obviously, photos of construction sites or empty rooms aren’t the best promotional materials. This is why using 3D visualization and 3D walkthrough services is vital for housing pre-sales.

Using high-quality CGI accomplishes two major goals. The first and most important one is showcasing what buildings that are not completed yet will look like in the future. Professional 3D visualization is virtually indistinguishable from real photos and videos. This would ensure that the visual would accurately show how the building would look on completion, exterior and interior alike. Second is the ability to conduct life-like virtual house tours for clients using 3D animation. A 3D walkthrough with professionally made camerawork, montage, the right music, and engaging narration is a very effective tool for pre-selling real estate.

After the customers are hooked and show interest in incomplete homes, their attention has to be maintained. Potential buyers need to see construction progress to be sure that their future homes will be finished on time and will look exactly as they were promised. This is why it’s important to post regular updates from construction sites on social media and company websites. Photos can be arranged in a timeline to be more visually impressive. Showcasing the steady progress of construction will improve real estate pre-sales as it raises the business’s trustworthiness.

Homes that are not finished have a significant advantage – future owners can tailor them to fit their needs. While exteriors have limited potential in this regard, interiors can be customized almost completely. Oftentimes, initial floor plans can be changed to a certain degree if structural integrity allows it. And this feature is one of the aces up developers’ sleeves. Using 3D images or animation, it’s possible to showcase many variations of the future look of incomplete houses, both inside and outside. These visuals can be used as effective ads.

Real estate pre-sales are a challenge for developers. But pre-selling houses is not impossible, quite the opposite. The real selling point is the idea of how an incomplete home can fit a buyer’s needs and desires when finished. This is why companies should use targeting to offer specific properties to people most interested in them. It’s important to use both photos from construction sites and 3D visualizations in marketing. This will show the expected results and demonstrate steady progress towards them. 3D visuals in particular can be used to highlight the advantages of buying unfinished homes. Namely, the customization options. 3D imagery can show many variants of interiors to stir clients’ imaginations. Finally, it’s important to be realistic about project deadlines to create an image of honesty, which greatly helps with building rapport with buyers.

Need to show the entire potential of your unfinished projects? Contact our 3D animation company and enhance your real estate pre-sales!