There’s a certain phenomenon that happens with buyers looking for a place that “oozes New Orleans charm.” I call it the "bathtub effect"—or, for this city, the "Clawfoot Tub Effect." You see, everyone loves a deep soaking tub. The promise of a hot, relaxing dip with bubbles in your own private sanctuary is irresistible. Add the desire for New Orleans charm, and that turns into visions of a deep soaking, hot, steamy, bubbly clawfoot tub. It’s gorgeous and historic, right?
But here’s the thing: while having something 100-plus years old is cool, no one wants to think about 100 years of bathers before them in that tub. Unless those people were Margot Robbie or perhaps Napoleon himself, others aren’t welcome. Even then, while people might want to own Napoleon’s tub, no one wants to be in a hot, steamy bubble bath thinking about Napoleon, much less all the people who bathed before them. Sorry, Napoleon. Sorry, reader.
So, what’s to be done? Well, we know people want the tub, but they don’t want to think about what it being 100 years old really means. And that’s what this post is about, highlighting the story without making it someone else’s story.
1. Remove Personal Stuff
This means family portraits. If you’re gorgeous, they’ll envy you, and it might make them insecure. If they write an offer, they may even write lower. You can afford it, you good-looking so-and-so. Jealousy does strange things to people, and trust us, we've seen it all.
On the flip side, if they believe they're more gorgeous than you, they’ll see trolls and wonder if the place is truly home for them. We’ve all toured that house, right? Be honest.
The point is that you've now set them off on a mystery game to calculate exactly who you are, which distracts them from seeing their new life in your home. Their seeing themselves in your home is a crucial part of them seeing themselves writing an offer for your home.
The same logic applies to diplomas and awards. It’s great you went to Ole Miss—maybe another Rebel will come to tour. But what happens when someone from Mississippi State does? What happens when the ex of an Ole Miss Alumn with a hot new settlement comes through?
Similarly, it’s amazing you’re a doctor—thanks for your service. But people see these licenses and diplomas and think money; your money—as in, you have loads. They’ll go for the jugular, and we need them to think about their life here, not playing a mystery game of who you might be and what you can afford to sell the place at.
2. Strangely Enough, This Also Applies to Pets
A couple of gorgeous stainless steel dog bowls—not such a huge deal. But a giant crate, a bunch of indestructible Kong toys, and a massive bag of dog food? Now they’re thinking a dragon lives here. And they’ll start to sniff the air and look for scratches on those original hardwood floors.
Is your dog more pocket-sized than dragon-sized? Maybe they don’t understand or appreciate small dog people or only love cats. The point is, it’s your dog, not their pet they’re envisioning. Your dog is probably super adorable all the time, but someone else’s dog is a mongrel who smells, marks, and drools.
Your dog is a purebred such-and-such? Great. Maybe their mother-in-law had that dog, and now they’re thinking of her. Your dog looks like it walked off the set of a Pedigree commercial? Great. Now they’re thinking you’ve got money to burn again.
We want them to think about their lives, their families, and their pets—not yours. Yours is someone else’s to them. Again, they’re thinking about you and who you are, and they’re not picturing themselves in the home.
3. But Don’t We Want a Home to Feel, Well, Homey?
Nope! It turns out we do not. Homey is subjective; homey is personal. We want them to think about the three 'I's: inviting, intriguing, and inevitably theirs, as though it was built 150 years ago for them to use today. This requires a healthy balance of light, space, and room for imagination (see Level Up Part 2).
But there’s more. It requires there to be room for vision. And it turns out today’s buyers of historic homes really, really wrestle with vision. Trust us—we work with them every day. If everything is fully designed down to the pop of color of the tea towel linens on the handle of the Wolf range stove, they can’t picture their own tea towel from that recent trip to Positano there.
Buyers lack vision. This is especially hard for us creatives to grasp, but the truth is that the number of people who can envision updates, upgrades, and redesigns is limited. It's us creatives that are the minority. Now, in addition to conjuring up their own life in your space, they have to play AI and erase what’s there to picture their own stuff, and that’s a tall ask. It’s an especially hard ask when those last two listings they saw at their price point left room to help them picture themselves, and yours doesn’t.
It’s important to recall that you have one space you’re showing to several buyers, and we need one to love it. But your buyers have options. They could see a dozen places in one weekend. They're trying to picture themselves in each one. If they don’t see themselves in your place, you don’t get offers.
So while your record, wine, vintage china collection, or art collection can be additive, it can also take away. It depends on the buyer's profile (more on that to come in Level Up Your Listing Part 4). We’ll help you with that. But your unusual collection of vintage dolls, that lived-in club chair, the saber over the mantel—these can actually hinder your sale. Plus, they’re likely taking up valuable space not only for buyers projecting their own things in place but also making the place seem smaller and less valuable (see Level Up Post 2).
Who does this well...
So, think about it: hotels and spas do this really, really well. The last time you slipped into a fluffy terry cloth robe at the Ritz, did you think about how many people wore it? Nope! But you will now, and we apologize.
Point is, we all judge. We all want to be the leading role in our lives. And that means your buyers do, too. And if you want more money than you paid for your home (duh), it’s safe to assume you’re dealing with people willing to pay a lot more for it than you did, right? Right. Their standards might be even higher.
But what hotels and spas know we can learn from. Remember, they charge hundreds of dollars a night! Yes, removing the sense of personalization can make a place less homey, and that can feel weird when you're still living there. But we list different than we live. It will feel a bit sparse, but there's an added bonus. Making a home intentionally feel a bit less you not only works to get your home higher offers, we've also found it helps our sellers mentally and emotionally prepare for a sale and move on.
Food for Thought...
When it's your home, dive in. Leave the toiletries on the vanity, eat takeout in the tub, bathe with your dog, and run naked through the house; hell, record the whole event through photos and hang 'em up. But when you aim to sell it, things change.
Your buyer may want a home that “oozes New Orleans charm,” but truthfully, they don’t actually want a home that oozes anything—especially you. No offense.
And there you have it, the Clawfoot Tub Effect. Everyone wants it; no one wants to think about who has been in it. The same goes for your home.
This may seem like a lot to think about, but at Cool Murphy Real Estate, we already have a plan and system in place for this. We’ll use our extensive experience and our network of concierge partners to get as much of this done for you as you’d like. We understand your deep emotional ties to your historic home, and we respect that. But it’s important to remember that today’s buyers of historic homes are looking for a space they can envision themselves in. Ready to sell? Contact us early, and let’s start making your home irresistible to the right buyer.
Now, how do we know who the buyer might be? Much less the ''right buyer?" Well, that's a topic for our forth Level Up Your Listing Post, stay tuned!
Voted Neighborhood Favorite by Nextdoor, Team Cool Murphy is a top-producing, licensed real estate team based in New Orleans, brokered by Cool Murphy, LLC.
Celebrated for her next-level creative approach to real estate, Elisa Cool Murphy is an award-winning, top-performing real estate broker in New Orleans and the founder of Cool Murphy Real Estate.
Contact Her -
email: cool@coolmurphy.com
Facebook: @homeinneworleans
IG: @coolmurphynola
YouTube: @coolmurphynola
phone: 504-321-3194
