Men still make more money, but when it comes to buying a house, women call the shots
Joanne Laucius
Sun
When searching for a home, women are more apt to imagine how the household will function in a given space, while men are inclined to go with what will make a woman happy, experts say. Photograph by: Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun
When my husband and I finished our new home, we held a party. I was proud of all the practical and luxurious touches I managed to squeeze in on our limited budget — the kitchen island with its own sink, the maple floors, the cast-iron tub and a pair of linen closets upstairs.
But cast-iron tubs and linen closets held little interest for guests of the male variety. One marched right through the kitchen without a glance and asked to see the basement.
If you’re a woman, feel free to jump in and tell your own decorating story. Women are all about the narrative, even when it comes to their feelings about their spaces.
Take the Heineken commercial that shows a pair of women swooning over a walk-in closet. There’s cheering from the other side of the room as the men discover another closet that has been converted into a beer fridge.
Or the Ikea commercial about Trevor and Anne, who have achieved marital harmony thanks to Swedish closet organization ingenuity. Trevor is smiling, too, because Anne’s 37 pairs of shoes are no longer falling on his head.
A built-in beer fridge in the bedroom might thrill a man, but it’s not going to sell a house to a woman. And just like the bumper sticker says: “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”
Men might still make more money, but when it comes to home buying, it’s what appeals to women that clinches the sale.
“Men aren’t motivated to buy homes that don’t make their wives happy,” says Bridget Brennan, the CEO of Female Factor, a company that develops sales strategies to appeal to women. Most households are two-income families.
And while women used to have informal purchasing power in the past, now that they make their own incomes, the effect is a one-two punch, says Brennan, also the author of Why She Buys. Women tend to spearhead the home-search process after crunching the numbers, says Brennan.
“When you make the women happy, you make the men happy.”
It’s all about the narrative — something Ikea understands very well when it arranges furniture to form vignettes in its stores or runs a commercial about Anne and Trevor’s organizational bliss.
“Storytelling is one of the most powerful techniques for creating an emotional connection with women,” says Brennan. Women are also keenly aware of the practicalities, Brennan says.
They want clear sight lines into the backyard and the family room so they can watch the children play or do their homework while Mom cooks and sorts out a crisis at work via BlackBerry.
“The search process is exciting. Women are all about imagining the possibilities of their new life.” While a spacious foyer might have a lot of design impact, women will notice if it doesn’t have a closet, says Brennan.
“They know how their family is going to function. They are looking at the flow.”
A Canada Trust women and homeownership poll, released last March, concluded that women who independently buy a home are most interested in cost, neighbourhood and location and safety and security.
Women looking at homes are buying into the whole neighbourhood, says Brennan.
“Women aren’t just looking at the home. They’re buying into the whole community — the schools, the stores, the restaurants. You don’t live in a vacuum.”
About 43 per cent of the female homeowners in the Canada Trust poll said financial security was the best thing about homeownership, followed by having a backyard and a quiet and private space for themselves. That can range from a cosy sitting area in the master bedroom to a luxurious ensuite bathroom, says Brennan.
WARMING A WOMAN’S HEART: FEATURES TO HELP SEAL THE DEAL
It’s a smart builder who knows what to promote when appealing to women buyers. Here are six deal-clinchers for warming a woman’s heart.
1. Cooking power: In the kitchen, pantries are big, says Mary Taggart, editor-in-chief of Ottawa at Home magazine. “Luxury finishes are big, too, granite countertops, even if it is just done on the island,” she says. “In my kitchen, having two ovens was a must. I love to entertain and am the one who wants to cook every holiday meal, so incorporating the extra cooking space was essential.”
2. Sweet spas: Men see bathrooms as simply functional. Women want gorgeous bathtubs and a spa-like environment, says Taggart. “A bathroom is so much more of a retreat for women.”
3. Mandatory options: Choosing options and upgrades is one of the most exciting aspects of homebuying for women. Builders who leave a bunch of samples lying around on a table in the garage of the model home are missing out on an important part of the buying experience, says marketing consultant Bridget Brennan. “It helps capture the excitement of the buyer.”
4. Storage, storage, storage: In a bulk-buying world, women want to be sure there will be a place to stow the 28-roll package of toilet paper. “People are paying to outsource storage. That tells us that people are willing to pay for storage,” says Brennan.
5. Security plus: Women want features that make them feel safe. That includes good street lighting and lighting around the entranceway of the house. 6. Colour plus: Women have more confidence with colour than men. Brennan notes that the U.S. home-building giant Ryland embraces personalization to attract women buyers. Instead of offering three colours in a 100-house development, the company now typically offers nine to 15 colours. “Women see colour differently than men, but colour is a very personal thing, not necessarily a gender thing,” adds Taggart. “I do think women seek to personalize space with greater zest than men. Women will go to much greater effort to make a space stand out and showcase their personal taste with more strength than a man might.”
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