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Capturing Empty Nesters

Marketing
By Nikki Rhodes, Managing Editor
April 30, 2003

Each type of home buyer looks for a specialized set of requirements in a new home. Empty nesters are no different. In her book Sales and Marketing Checklists, Jan Mitchell gives the following tips on how to show a model to this niche market:

  • Use irrigations systems, rock gardens and smaller areas of grass to demonstrate easy yard maintenance.
  • Because many of these customers are downsizing, use garden walls and landscaping so the size of the house isn't so obvious.
  • Demonstrate security systems.
  • Use secondary bedrooms as specialized rooms, such as an office, a den or a sewing room.
  • Show a guest room or a room for elderly parents.
  • Create the atmosphere that the model is in use. For instance, put food on a bar or cards on a game room table. Advertising and promotional materials can be tweaked to cater to these buyers. Mitchell’s suggestions include:
  • Depict an active lifestyle using activities such as golf and tennis.
  • Create a sense of community by including photos of residents socializing on a walking path or in a gazebo.
  • Emphasize the low-maintenance lifestyle by using shots of a resident mowing an expansive lawn and then lying on a hammock next to a rock garden near a waterfall.
  • Offer a year's free service to a lawn and garden company.
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