Model units open doors in buyer’s minds

Developers and brokers of new projects know they’re asking buyers to shell out often as much as seven figures for property essentially sight unseen, which is why they’re spending more money to capture the essence of their entire projects in their model units.

Andrew Gerringer, managing director of new development for Prudential Douglas Elliman, believes sales increasingly hinge on the impression made by model units, particularly in a robust pre-selling market.

“When you are selling pre-construction and people can’t touch or feel a unit, you really have to show them what the space has to offer,” Gerringer says. He points to Schaefer Landing, a luxury highrise condo development under construction along the Williamsburg waterfront, to demonstrate how even a sales office can be transformed into a pseudo model apartment when working with a property in progress.

“We built what we call vignettes, bits and pieces of what’s being offered in the actual apartments, in order to give people a feel and flavor of what they are getting,” Gerringer says. “The more pre-selling you are doing the more crazy you have to get with the models. When you are selling and you have nothing to show them you are selling them a complete dream.”

Louise Phillips Forbes, a senior vice president with Halstead Property, says seeing isn’t always believing.

“I think when you have a product with a floor plan that has nothing to apologize for meaning it is attentive to today’s buyers details, you don’t necessarily have to have furniture to show a client how to use it.”

Phillips Forbes, who specializes in boutique buildings, cites the recent sale of a nine-unit building near Bryant Park from a nearby off-site sales office.

Her company also used the design of its sales office as a selling tool but on a smaller scale, employing a designer who displayed the materials and finishes for the actual apartments in a display unit serving as a less expensive but effective alternative to traditional models.

The splurge on the demo was to display the artwork of a young contemporary artist – who loaned paintings to showcase throughout the sales office. Despite the absence of a model unit in the building, Phillips Forbes says the added touch was highly effective. “Art speaks to a potential client about quality and a certain type of attention to detail.”

Art doesn’t have to be what’s hanging on the walls. It can be the furniture, too. With savvy potential buyers who know the difference between Bauhaus and Baroque, some developers are taking the trend up a notch.

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Downtown by Philippe Starck, located at 15 Broad Street, is a prime example. Developer Leviev Boymelgreen hired the internationally acclaimed French designer to design three model units for the project and create a line of furniture for prospective buyers to furnish their own homes. A promotional brochure for the 326- unit building even boasts that buyers will have the opportunity to “have Philippe Starck as your personal decorator.”

Louise Sunshine, chairperson and CEO of The Sunshine Group, the exclusive marketing and sales agent for the development, sees the Starck “touch” as a chance for owners to take the designer look beyond the models and into their own homes.

“We were doing the first luxury building on Wall Street and wanted to immediately establish luxury with a brand that was immediately recognizable as being synonymous with luxury,” says Sunshine.

The catalogue available at the on-site sales office for Downtown by Philippe Starck includes 312 furniture suggestions including lighting, sofas, dining tables and other items for the home. All items are sold through Moss in Soho.

With competition turned up to high in the city, New York real estate sales are turning their attention not only on the quality of furnishings but also on their presentation as well. All the world may be a stage, but to brokers in the thick of a hot market, the best scene is a salable property that’s benefited from the touch of a professional home stager, someone who can transform an ordinary apartment into a set to create an all-important first impression.

Barb Schwarz, a broker based in the San Francisco area, is the founder and president of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals, which recently started a chapter in New York City. She believes a well-executed model unit is critical for new developments.

“If a buyer can’t imagine themselves living there, they are not going to buy the apartment,” says Schwarz. She believes in creating immediate impact, saying, “When the door is opened to the apartment, the first thing the model needs to do is draw people in.

“It’s like light, music, action that’s my recipe,” says Schwarz. Her words paint a picture of her perfect scenario: “We open the door, you should hear soft music, you should see soft colors, furniture that is in arrangements that don’t block or crowd a space. Everything is tastefully done, and beautiful.”

Schwarz, who trains hundreds of home stagers through her accredited staging professional courses, says there’s a difference between home stagers who charge on average $75 to $150 an hour and interior designers. Designers are working to create a perfect space for a resident, while stagers are trying to get a prospective resident to imagine the potential of a space they’ve just realized they want to buy.

“Home stagers have to understand the real estate market and know what buyers will buy and what they won’t,” she says. “Home staging is about real estate. We’re not selling the stuff, we’re selling the space.”

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