In luxury real estate, there is a persistent gap between how agents present homes and how affluent buyers actually make decisions. Bent Danholm, founder of Danholm Collection, argues that the standard practice of leading with upgrade inventories and renovation line items is one of the most costly mistakes in luxury marketing. Agents list new kitchens and new roofs, he says, but skip the opportunity to tell a story about the home and the lifestyle it offers.
The instinct to itemize is understandable. Sellers who have invested heavily in their properties want buyers to recognize that investment. But presenting a two-page list of upgrades – complete with dollar amounts attached to each line item – works against the emotional decision-making process that drives luxury purchases, according to Danholm. He points to a listing at Broadwater Avenue in Winter Garden as a case study. The property had sat on the market for approximately 10 months, during which time the seller had distributed a detailed upgrade list to prospective buyers. The home had received more than $300,000 in improvements, including new flooring, updated light fixtures, and a fully renovated kitchen. None of it generated a sale.
“One of the key features of the previous listing was a two-page listing of all the upgrades, even with money attached to each upgrade,” Danholm says. When he took over the listing, he stopped sending the list entirely. “They either like it, or they don’t like it. What we’re trying to sell is the dream of living in this home.” The seller initially pushed back, repeatedly asking whether Danholm had remembered to send buyers the upgrade documentation. His position was firm: the list was irrelevant to the actual purchase decision.
Buyers capable of spending $2 million or more on a home are not, in most cases, conducting a cost-benefit analysis of renovation expenditures. They are evaluating whether a property matches the life they want to live, the neighborhood, the daily rhythms, the social environment, the sense of arrival. According to Danholm, the missed opportunity is not just about tone or presentation style. A home near Winter Garden’s farmers market, surrounded by trails and green space, in a quiet neighborhood with strong schools, tells a very different story than a home with new countertops and updated fixtures. The former speaks to identity and daily experience. The latter speaks to maintenance history. “I think that’s generally probably the most missed opportunity, to tell a story and to show what the lifestyle could be if you’re moving into this home,” Danholm says.
This distinction matters particularly for expired listings. When a home has already been on the market for months without selling, the instinct is often to reduce the price or add more information. Danholm’s argument is that the problem is usually neither price nor information volume; it is the wrong story being told to the wrong audience. Properties that sit on the market for extended periods accumulate stigma, forcing eventual price reductions that erode seller proceeds. In the luxury segment, where buyer pools are small and word travels quickly among qualified prospects, a stale listing becomes difficult to reposition without a significant concession.
Danholm’s experience with the Winter Garden property shows that repositioning is possible without price cuts when the marketing strategy changes. After taking over the listing and shifting the narrative away from the upgrade inventory, the property went under contract in 74 days, despite the headwind of being a relisted expired property. He notes that more than 90 percent of his listings over the past couple of years have been expired or canceled listings that he has remarketed – in most cases without significant price reductions.
Danholm Collection’s approach begins before photography or staging. The firm builds what Danholm describes as a buyer avatar for each listing, a detailed profile of the ideal buyer’s lifestyle, interests, family structure, and daily habits, and uses that profile to shape every element of the marketing. For the Broadwater Avenue property, that meant identifying buyers with a net worth between $5 million and $10 million, or earning between roughly $800,000 and $1.8 million annually. The firm looked for large families or international relocators who would have frequent visitors – people drawn to a quiet neighborhood and strong schools rather than water sports or dock access. Interest markers included farmers markets, trails, and hiking.
The staging process reflects the same philosophy. Rather than creating a sterile, depersonalized environment, Danholm says the goal is a space that feels aspirational but livable. “It’s got to look a little bit like a magazine where you can imagine yourself living,” he says. “You don’t feel like you’re entering into somebody’s home.” For sellers whose homes have lingered on the market, the actionable question is not whether to cut the price or add more property details. It is whether the current marketing tells a story that matches how their likely buyer actually thinks about where to live, or whether it reads like an invoice.
