In downtown White Plains, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel complex, for instance, where Louis R. Cappelli is building 213 condominiums, the walls of one bedroom are covered in cashmere, rose petals are strewn about a stainless steel Japanese soaking tub, and the bathroom cabinets are upholstered in leather. The lavishly appointed unit seems made to order for a well-heeled power couple.
At Van Wyck Glen, a community of 221 semiattached three- and four-bedroom single-family homes by Toll Brothers in Fishkill, a wine bottle and glasses sit atop the dresser in a master bedroom suite designed to soothe a young couple after a hard day with the kids. Downstairs, the smell of fresh-baked cookies wafts through the rooms.
At River Ridge at Hyde Park, a community of 162 town houses by Cambridge Development and Construction, a living room includes what most empty nesters have probably only dreamed about until now: a pristine white linen sofa, obviously never used by anyone under 30.
At Harbors at Haverstraw, an 800-unit complex being built on the Hudson riverfront by Ginsburg Development, a model includes an exotic art collection on the walls, expensive rugs on the living room floor and a whirlpool in the bathroom. (Unlike many model-home items, it can be ordered as an option in any unit.) It is a setting designed to project a lifestyle in some of the units for buyers in their late 50s or early 60s who are ready to enjoy the fruit of their labor.
And in Pelham, at the 66-unit Marbury Corners, another Ginsburg Development project, there is plastic sushi on the plates in the modernistic dining room of a stylish condo town house that appears to be occupied by 20-something professionals.
But do model rooms like these, much more picture-perfect than the way people actually live, really help to sell homes? Do suburban couples with children — especially couples commuting long distances from Fishkill to New York or White Plains — really believe they will get a chance to sip wine before retiring? Or are cashmere-covered walls just fanciful decorating notions gleaned from some upscale magazine?
As for the decanter of wine in the bedroom and the rose petals on the bathroom floor, Lauren Brady-Russell, the owner of LBR Design Collaborative in Deer Park, N.Y., an interior design firm, remarked, “Doesn’t everyone live that way?”
Perhaps not in real life, she conceded, but most home buyers at least like to dream about living the way the models depict life. Ms. Brady-Russell designed the model rooms at Harbors at Haverstraw and at Marbury Corners.
Indeed, fantasies about the joys of homeownership are so motivating for buyers that Toll Brothers spent $100,000 to $130,000 furnishing and decorating each model home in the Fishkill development, where houses sell for $465,000 to $527,000.
“It’s a very effective marketing tool,” Dan Zalinsky, a division senior vice president of Toll Brothers, said. “Model rooms help buyers envision what life could be like in a new home. They’re designed to tug on a buyer’s emotions.”
Mr. Zalinsky, who has four sons, the oldest 7, including newborn twins, said that he personally could not imagine taking time out to relax and have a glass of wine before going to bed. “Unless,” he added, “you have a homeowners’ association, like the one at Van Wyck Glen, taking care of outdoor chores like lawn mowing.”
Selling a home using a model involves appealing to all of the senses — hearing, sight, smell, touch and taste — said Rebecca Hanford, president of November Design Group in Austin, Tex. Her company, which designs the interiors of model homes for Toll Brothers, often uses real food, like cookies fresh from the oven, to entice prospective buyers. Sometimes, there is music playing in the background.
“We want home buyers to be able to experience the model in such a realistic way they actually put themselves into those rooms,” Ms. Hanford said. “The same theory applies to children’s spaces. We want a kid to say to his parents: ‘I like playing in that house. I want to stay here!’ ”
At the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton Westchester, the high-end White Plains project, Kylie Travis Cappelli, the developer’s wife, said she designed the interiors of the one- to three-bedroom condos, which cost $678,000 to $3.5 million, with no particular buyer in mind. “We’re just suggesting different options and leaving the rest to the buyers’ imaginations,” she said.
By contrast, Ms. Brady-Russell said she “scripted a detailed profile” of potential buyers at Harbors at Haverstraw, where condos are about $600,000 to more than $1 million.
For one model in a three-bedroom unit, the imaginary residents are an empty-nester couple. The husband is retired and has taken up gourmet cooking, and the model kitchen is filled with hanging herbs and cookbooks are open on the counter.
The wife, an art dealer who is still working, has an office in their home, and on the entry level her bookshelves are filled with pottery and other art.
In a survey conducted by the National Association of Homebuilders last year, 43 percent of the developers who responded said model homes were the primary marketing tool they used, and 71 percent said they use model homes at least some of the time to sell a house.
But according to Stephen J. Melman, director of economic services for the association, which is the home builders’ trade group, in the current sluggish housing market, fewer builders are relying solely on models, and more are turning to real estate agents. “When times are tough, you have to use everything in your arsenal,” Mr. Melman said.
As for a bedroom conducive to sipping wine, Mr. Melman said: “Most couples raising a young family are probably happy just to get the kids off to school on time. Instead of wine in the model, how about a nanny?”
Some brokers also think more realism can sometimes be helpful. J. P. Endres, president of the Westchester County Board of Realtors and president of David Endres Realtors in Scarsdale, said: “The bottle of Champagne by the hot tub is fine. The flowers in the vase are great. But sometimes, the model rooms are overdone, and buyers simply can’t relate to them.” That is especially true if a model portrays a lifestyle that is too expensive for a potential buyer, Ms. Enders said, because buyers may not consider the house.
Not that the items in model units are not attractive to somebody. Most such items — furniture, books and silk flowers — are sold off when the model, the last available house in a development, is sold, often to a buyer who has fallen in love with the furnishings and wants the model exactly as is, according to Mr. Zalinsky at Toll Brothers
By ELSA BRENNER
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