In the competitive Connecticut real estate market, a growing number of sellers are discovering that the key to a quick sale and a higher price has less to do with square footage and more to do with how buyers feel when they first see the home. Kristin Egmont, a real estate agent with more than 20 years of experience in Fairfield and New Haven County, draws a direct parallel between home buying and booking an Airbnb.
“It’s exactly like when you book an Airbnb,” Egmont said. “Buyers are going through each room with excitement. They’re envisioning themselves there. You want to present your house in a similar fashion to a vacation, because buyers are spending a ton of money and they want to be excited about buying your home.”
Egmont emphasizes that real estate is often discussed in terms of data—comparable sales, days on market, price per square foot—but the actual decision is made emotionally, often within the first 30 seconds of viewing photos or walking through an open house. “Buyers buy emotionally,” she said. “They’re gonna be looking at your home the same way they look at a vacation rental. So you have to get them excited.”
The Airbnb analogy goes beyond aesthetics. When browsing vacation rentals, people mentally place themselves in the space—imagining waking up in the bedroom, cooking in the kitchen, or sitting on the deck. The listings that win aren’t necessarily the biggest or the cheapest; they’re the ones that evoke a feeling. Home buyers do the same, and sellers who present their homes to trigger that emotional response—clean, uncluttered, well-lit, and thoughtfully staged—consistently outperform those who don’t.
Egmont points to a recent listing that illustrated the principle perfectly. The home, a rental property, had been staged beautifully by the tenant, a vice president at a major retail company. When the owner decided to sell, the presentation was already in place. “It was so beautiful inside that buyers were excited about envisioning themselves living there,” Egmont said. The result was seven offers, and the home sold for $80,000 over the asking price. When the first buyer backed out over inspection concerns, the seller moved to the backup offer and closed faster than the original timeline.
That outcome wasn’t luck. It was the direct result of a home that made buyers feel something the moment they walked in. For sellers looking to replicate this success, Egmont advises that the highest-return moves are often the simplest. Decluttering is first. Overcrowded rooms—dining rooms with oversized furniture, walls covered in family photos, shelves packed with collections—pull buyers’ attention away from the space itself. “Remove the stuff so they focus on the room,” she said. “Then they can envision what their pictures will look like on the wall, what their furniture will look like. If it’s too complicated, the buyer just can’t get there.”
Curb appeal also matters as much as kitchens and bathrooms. Fresh mulch, power-washed siding, and flowers out front can make a significant difference. Egmont recently transformed a listing by hiring a painter and carpenter to address visible exterior wear, including moss on the garage roof and chewed moldings from the owner’s dogs. The home received five offers. Professional photography, a social media walkthrough video, and a launch strategy built around momentum complete the picture, but it all starts with the same question Egmont asks herself before listing a property: would a buyer be excited to book this?
For more information on how Egmont prepares and launches listings, visit her seller process page.
