How agents 'bring homes to life' with couple having a row in property photos

In one picture, it’s an empty kitchen with a pot plant of lavender on the table. In the next, a 30-something couple are sitting at the table.

The despairing wife has her head cradled in thumb and forefinger with a stare fixated on her husband, who can no longer tolerate whatever is on the laptop screen in front of him and has his head in his hands.

The thought-provoking image appears in the Bresic Whitney advertising for 33 Lamb Street, Lilyfield, a “blank canvas cottage … in the same family for the past 90+ years” and the scenario has inspired a great deal of chatter on social media.

Julie says: “Love it … that’s a good shot of them reviewing their mortgage online.”

Lynda says: “We’re reading this as a reflection of Sydney property prices.”

But Jacinta’s comment seems to be on the money: “3 beds, 1 bath, 1 divorce.”

This is just one example of real estate agencies thinking outside the square when it comes to trying to sell property.

In February, one Queensland agent used Tiffany, her shih tzu cavalier cross, in all her real estate listings to create attention on social media.

Overseas, an agency created a feature film set in a mansion with key aim of garnering the attention of potential buyers.

Lee Valentine, partner and general manager of leading property marketing specialists Hoyne, says he can’t see innovative property strategies such as these becoming the general rule – at least not for some time.

“It’s a pretty tough conversation to have with a vendor that we want to try something new,” he says.

“One of my criticisms of the industry as a whole is that we do sales advertising, we don’t do marketing … you just put a house up with some crappy words and say it’s for sale.

“But good agents will use that as a point of difference and say ‘you should market your property this way’.”

He nominated Domain Rising Star finalist Tim Mumford of Stone Real Estate on the northern beaches, Richardson and Wrench Elizabeth Bay’s Jason Boon and McGrath Lower North Shore’s Piers van Hamburg as agents who know how to convince vendors to be clever with their marketing. “They’re thinking about what will make the property stand out,” Valentine says.

But he applauded the work of BresicWhitney in creating suspense from a photo – and inspiring a conversation online with people who wouldn’t otherwise look twice at the same photo. And it had “possibilities” of taking off, if only more agents were brave enough.

BresicWhitney’s head of marketing, Brendan Fearn, says the photograph is of two members of his team who are “having a bit of a joke about domestic bliss in family homes that have been in the family for a long time … and what is domestic bliss anyway?”

It’s just their latest strategy to draw attention to property in an intelligent and creative way.

The brief to the clever pair, photographer Aimee Crouch and senior writer Peter Wood, is to “bring homes to life … they spend a bit of time in the property and they work out how they might like to depict it,” Fearn says.

“It’s about being in the moment, being creative and having a bit of fun.”

The price guide for the weatherboard home on 289 square metres is $1.4 million. Will this new style of marketing help the vendors achieve a higher price at the auction on September 10?

“It certainly helps create engagement with the property and engagement is the first step in the process,” he says.

Bresic Whitney agent Andrew Liddell says the advertising has generated a lot of attention and four contracts have been issued.

“It literally went out on Friday afternoon so it’s hard to know if it’s had any direct impact, but I think in general the public and buyers specifically definitely respond to our marketing in a positive tone,” Liddell says.