You’re Not Selling a Kitchen. You’re Selling a Life

Katrina Tarrant, CEO Harcourts NSW/ACT on what turns a listing into a life-changing experience

We’ve all heard it: “Kitchens sell houses.”

It’s been real estate gospel for decades. Agents have been trained to obsess over marble benchtops, subway tiles, and statement tapware like they’re the stars of the show.

But what if we’ve all been trained... wrong?

Because kitchens don’t actually sell houses. Imagining your life in them does.

We often hear that marketing is about meeting people’s needs and wants, but let’s be honest, that phrase has been sitting on dusty PowerPoint slides since the early 2000s.

In real estate, we don’t just meet needs. We decode them.

Our clients rarely show up with a neat checklist that tells the whole story. Instead, they come with half-formed dreams, deep-seated fears, and hopes they’re often too afraid to say out loud.

That’s where we come in. Not just as agents, but as pattern recognisers.

We look beyond what’s said and listen for what’s meant.

We see the invisible threads that connect people to place.

And we read between the lines to find the emotional undercurrent beneath the surface-level brief.

We’re not marketers in the traditional sense.

We’re anthropologists.

We’re translators of turning points.

And yes, sometimes we’re therapists with a lockbox code.

The couple requesting a fourth bedroom might not need more space. They might need more peace in their relationship.

The retiree downsizing might not be chasing less maintenance. They might be quietly grieving the end of a chapter.

The anxious first-home buyer might not be fussed about square metreage. They’re just trying to feel like they’re doing the “right thing” in a volatile world.

True marketing isn’t just creating demand.

It’s understanding the emotional logic behind the decision.

Because when we market with insight, not just information, we stop pushing features and start presenting solutions.

Here’s how that looks in action:

We don’t regurgitate suburb stats. We reframe opportunity. The best agents don’t just say “prices are up.” They say, “here’s how this move creates freedom.”

We don't talk to "demographics." We talk to real people. Marketing to ‘young professionals’ is lazy. Marketing to the 32-year-old who wants to walk her future baby to daycare past the same corner café she’s loved for years?

That’s specific. That’s effective. That’s marketing.

We don’t oversell. We reveal. The smartest marketing doesn’t scream. It resonates. It whispers: this is what you’ve been looking for.

 Real estate is personal. So, our marketing should be, too.

When I think of the best agents I know, they’re not the ones who just “know the market.” They’re the ones who know how to make a client feel seen.

That’s our edge.

That’s our power.

That’s what turns a listing into a life-changing experience.

So no, it’s not about the marble benchtops.

It’s about meaning.

And it’s our job to find it, feel it, and then market that.