So, you want to market a unique property. 

This can be challenging, and such properties can be on the market longer than necessary if certain conditions aren’t considered.

How do you market a unique property, then?

Identify crucial and non-crucial features to determine the right price. 

From the features, you can derive unique benefits and determine the different interests of potential buyers.

Knowing this, you can target them in different marketing channels, such as Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and/or property listing sites for unique properties.

 

What Is a Unique Property

All kinds of characteristics can make a property unique or unusual. 

These characteristics include a unique location or remote area, an unusual layout, a rare amenity, or an ultra-high-end price point.

The common denominator of all these characteristics is that the potential buyer pool for these properties is usually relatively small, which makes these properties harder to market.

And when you look for advice on how to market them, you may come across the advice to use unique marketing methods.

But taking a closer look at the proposed marketing methods, you then learn that they aren’t real estate marketing strategies.

Secondly, they are the same things that should be applied to even ‘normal’ properties in the first place.

Producing high-quality photographs, drone photography, and/or high-quality videos is often mentioned. 

These are not marketing methods and strategies but marketing materials or different types of marketing content.

The main problem with unique properties is the smaller-than-usual group of potential buyers you can target.

So, it won’t help to just up your quality game with marketing materials.

That’s what everyone else does anyway, with even ‘normal’ properties.

 

What Will Actually Help You Market a Unique Property?

When you know how to prepare a good piece of real estate sales copy, you will probably know the answer.

Saying this is already getting old on this website.

Still, it is good enough to know your target (the potential buyer group) and plan your marketing strategy based on that knowledge.

What kind of knowledge is important?

More specifically, it’s knowledge about which needs, wants, desires, and motivations of a particular target group the product (the unique property) can satisfy.

So, what needs to be done before determining the ideal buyer or client?

 

Identify Current and Potential Benefits of the Unique Property

We need to identify the current and potential benefits of the property in question.

How do you find the current benefits? 

Features often confused with benefits can give us hints regarding the actual benefits.

Let’s take an example.

Suppose the unique property in question is a very remotely located 7-bedroom, 6-bathroom cottage-style house on a lake with two bathrooms and a 1-bathroom treehouse on an 8-acre property 2 hours from a major city.

The floors are all made of precious hardwood. It has a lot of natural light, large windows, and lovely ceiling beams.

Most rooms feature great views of the lake and the surrounding mountains. 

Additionally, the property has its own water and electricity supplies (off-grid) but is also connected to the public grid.

It has an open floor plan connecting the kitchen, dining, and living areas. 

It has sliding doors from the living area to the covered terrace.

From the terrace, a track leads through a garden and then to the guest house, the treehouse.

Let’s summarize the features:

  • Seven bedrooms, all with views of the lake and mountains
  • Remotely located but 2 hours from a major city
  • Precious hardwood floors
  • High ceilings with ceiling beams
  • Large windows
  • A lot of natural light
  • Open floor plan between kitchen, dining, and living room
  • A covered terrace that connects to the living area
  • Guesthouse as a treehouse with two bedrooms and one bathroom
  • Bordering lake

 

Converting the Property Features Into Benefits

Now, let’s see if we can convert the above features into benefits, always keeping the question “so what” in mind to dig deeper.

1) The benefit of 7 bedrooms with views of the lake and mountains is that they can be used to offer space for a larger family and for other touristic exploitation.

This means you can have a place for your family where you don’t have to get on each one’s nerves. Everyone has enough space for themselves but can also be together.

Regarding the touristic use, you can use that many bedrooms to offer the property as a retreat center, for “workations,” or as an Airbnb and get a return on investment.

2) The remote location, but at the same time, 2 hours from the next larger city, makes the property further suitable for tourist use or for a private family retreat from the busy and stressful city.

It’s ideal for people who need to recharge their batteries over a long weekend because they have a stressful life in the city.

3) The precious hardwood floors create a warm, cozy atmosphere that quickly makes new guests feel at home. They help increase the feeling of safety.

4) High ceilings with ceiling beams, large windows, a lot of natural light, an open floor plan between the kitchen, dining, and living room, and a covered terrace connecting the living area.

All these features create a feeling of openness and offer the ability to take a deep breath to relax and be creative.

They help in the process of relaxation and give a contrast to the usually narrower city life.

5) The Guest-Treehouse offers a unique feature with further benefits of renting opportunities for tourism use and, from the investors’ perspective, a unique selling proposition that’s an additional advantage to attract tourists.

Should this property be used as a private family retreat, the treehouse is an excellent option to accommodate, let’s say, problematic energy-sucking family members without being rude and not including them at all.

6) The benefits of the bordering lake are potential physical activities that can be done there (e.g., swimming, kayaking, playing, etc.).

In the next step, we can try to align the found benefits with well-known needs that all humans have.

This can give us further advantages in finding the right potential buyers and later make the copywriting more powerful and persuasive.

The Life Force 8 originates from Drew Eric Whitman, author of the book Cashvertising (highly recommended), and includes a collection of needs that all humans have (unless you have dominated your subconscious mind), which are:

  • Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension
  • Sexual companionship
  • Comfortable living conditions
  • To be superior, winning, and keeping up with the Joneses
  • Care and protection of loved ones
  • Social approval
  • Enjoyment of food and beverages
  • Freedom from fear, pain, and danger

The same book also has a collection of 16 core desires and needs that are also strong but not as strong as the life force 8:

  • Desire to Influence
  • Desire for Knowledge
  • Desire to be Independent
  • Desire for Social Standing
  • Desire to Play
  • Desire to Get Even
  • Desire to Obey Moral Code
  • Desire to Improve Society
  • Desire To Exercise
  • Desire to Courtship
  • Desire to Raise Own Children
  • Desire to Organize
  • Desire To Eat
  • Desire for Approval
  • Desire to Avoid Anxiety
  • Desire to Collect 

Let’s align them in a table to the identified benefits of the unique property example from above.

Unique Property BenefitLife Force 816 Core Desires
Space for a Larger Family as a Private RetreatComfortable Living Conditions, Enjoyment of LifeDesire to be Independent, Desire to Raise Own Children
Return on Investment from Tourist ExploitationTo be Superior, Winning, Keeping Up With The JonesesDesire for Social Standing, Desire to Collect
Cozy Ambiance, Feeling of SafetyCare and Protection of Loved Ones, Freedom from Fear, Pain, and DangerDesire to Avoid Anxiety
RelaxationFreedom from Fear, Pain, and DangerDesire to Avoid Anxiety
Flexible Accommodation OptionsCare and Protection of Loved Ones, Social Approval, Winning, Keeping up with the Joneses

Desire to be Independent, Desire for Social Standing, Desire to Obey Moral Code, Desire to Organize, Desire for Approval, Desire to Avoid Anxiety
Physical and Health ActivitiesSurvival, Enjoyment of Life, Life ExtensionDesire to Play, Desire To Exercise

Some of the benefits could potentially be amplified to attract a broader audience.

This property may be converted into a 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom luxury home by merging many existing bedrooms.

This depends on the local property market and what is usually selling faster. 

If this can’t be done before it hits the market, it can at least be mentioned to potential buyers.

To help potential buyers visualize these modifications, you could create a virtual floor plan apart from the one you might already do for the existing property.

Another vital thing to do would be home staging.

Making a cluttered ‘normal’ home appeal to a potential buyer is tricky. 

For a unique home, this might be even harder to do.

In this article, I already discussed how much home staging costs and whether it is worthwhile.

 

Attracting the Right Potential Buyers for Your Unique Property

We have collected the features, found some benefits, and aligned them with everyday needs.

So now, we can derive from this information which type of buyer could be targeted via different marketing methods.

The potential buyers are likely part of the following three broad interest groups:

  • Large families with a high disposable income
  • Remote living and off-grid living enthusiasts
  • Real estate investors with a focus on the tourism and wellness niche
  • All the above living in and around the city two hours away

The already carved-out features and benefits presented in the table above can now be used for the sales copy that should be used for the property listing page and/or landing page.

Regarding the proper marketing channels, you could look for property listing sites specialized in unique properties and then use marketing campaigns via Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

The advantage of Facebook Ads is that you can easily find the above-defined interest groups. 

Would you like to dig deeper into Facebook Marketing?

You can also read my more extensive Facebook marketing for real estate article here.

Google Ads is another option, but some additional keyword research will be involved.

This will be a bit of guesswork at the beginning, and you will have to guess whether someone using a particular keyword is part of one of the above interest groups.

Let’s use the example of the keyword “off-grid living.” 

Someone searching ‘off-grid living’ is likely interested in the topic.

Still, the searchers could also be people who just need advice on installing solar panels or want to generate their own water.

A certain percentage might also be potential buyers considering buying an off-grid property.

As you can see, you will need to think more about the search intent and ask yourself how likely there is a potential buyer among the searchers.

To some degree, you could also use Google display ads, where you can also target interests. 

However, remember that the variety of interests to choose from is not as large as that of Facebook Ads.

To make a long story short. 

In contrast to Facebook Ads, with Google Ads, you will need to go broader and guess at the beginning whether your potential buyer group will be among the searchers.

 

The Right Price Could Be a Challenge

Finally, another important factor is the right price to market a unique property. 

Finding the right one can be challenging because fewer comparable properties are on the market.

In the above example property, the seven bedrooms don’t add much value if, in the area, properties with three bedrooms have the highest demand.

The market might not want the additional four bedrooms.

So, in this case, they might not add much additional value.

Still, the demand would be higher if these bedrooms could be converted into a second independent living area for birdwatching or a different usage.

But in turn, the large property size, the bordering lake, and the treehouse are the features that would add more value.

Suppose you must come up with the correct value for a unique property.

You would first need to identify the crucial and not-so-crucial features that directly influence the value and then go from there to appraise it.

 


This article has been reviewed by our editorial team. It has been approved for publication in accordance with our editorial policy.


Tobias Schnellbacher