Some influential ideas become part of the warp and weft of our culture. They become so intertwined in the community that we take ownership of them, forgetting how they informed conventional wisdom, shaped our dialog and became our identity. These are the “memes,” or trendsetting ideas that Irina Woelfle stalks on a daily basis, and her genius is spotting these contagious notions before anyone else does, and spreading them. She is our premier industry’s “cool hunter,” she identifies emerging trends in real estate at their earliest stages and then promotes them through her public relations agency, IWPR Group.
If the “Not So Big House,” “Pocket Neighborhoods,” “Katrina Cottages,” “Live-Work Units,” “The City Flirtation Index,” or “The New Economy Home” have become part of your lexicon, you can thank Irina for bringing these ideas to your favorite print, television, or social media outlet. Her clients include the famous, such as Sarah Susanka, author of the bestselling Not So Big House series and The Not So Big Life; Andrés Duany, cofounder of New Urbanism, perhaps the most influential planning movement of all time; and Marianne Cusato, designer of the Katrina Cottage and author of Get Your House Right.
Her clients also include beloved industry folks you have read in Fine Homebuilding, such as building-sciences expert and teacher Mark LaLiberte; Fu-Tung Cheng, bestselling author and designer known for his innovative use of concrete, and Larry Garnett, residential designer and author of Home Plan Doctor. So now that the market is rebounding, I thought it might be interesting to hear Irina’s perspective on emerging trends builders and remodelers should be paying attention to.
Who is Irina Woelfle?
The first question I asked Irina was, “Why are you so successful?” She laughed and told me, “It’s all in choosing your clients well.” She has plenty of business and won’t represent a client whose ideas won’t start a media fire. “It’s impossible to get the volunteer press interested if it’s not timely and relevant to what’s going on at the deeper levels of society,” she told me. In other words, if your product or idea won’t change the world, it’s tough to get reporters interested, especially in the elite media, such as USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, or Good Morning America, so she will refer you to an excellent advertising agency, where you can buy media space. But ads don’t add up to much when you want to get the whole world talking about you and your new concept.
That’s the first nugget of insight from Irina, think of how your product or service represents or responds to a trend. “Good service, great prices” may be a positive slogan, but nobody will write a feature story about your company in the Sunday paper–unless you pay for it. But something along the lines of, “Working to preserve elder dignity and independence” may indeed peek a reporter’s interest and place your remodeling company on the front page of the Sunday real-estate section with a story about the special products and services you provide seniors to help them live at home, independently and safely for years to come.
“If there isn’t a problem and you’re not providing the solution, you don’t have a story to sell,” Irina told me. When you consider that, according to the Pew Research Center, over 10,000 people retire daily in the United States, well that’s a large and growing market, not only for remodelers, but also for media outlets that may want to base a story on the success of your remodeling company precisly to reach that market. The Pew report concludes by 2030 18% of the population will be in retirement. “That’s where builder’s should focus, especialy in affordable housing,” Irine told me, referring to builders that still conceive of affordable housing as a market for young families. There are more seniors than millennials–and many millennials can’t afford affordable housing.
I asked Irina about the catchy phrases she was influential in coining or selecting. She’s associated with the most successful real-estate catchphrases, such as “pocket neighborhoods,” “the new old home,” “retrofitting suburbia,” and the “not so big” phenomena. “Just as pop tunes need a hook,” she said, referring to that infectious chorus you want to hear again and again, “…successful promotion requires a catch phrase that represents the whole concept in just a few words.” So something like, Katrina cottages, or the new economy home had so much success, not only because the concepts in the blueprints were timely, but because the name said it all. Think about that when designing your marketing.
Trends to Keep Track of
Finally, I asked Irina what trends remodelers and builders should pay attention to today. She had a few ideas that counter the conventional wisdom. She said the average new home costs over half a million dollars in many metro areas while the average person can only afford $250,000. So now that mortgage loan requirements have softened, she recommends builders take a new look at affordable housing–focusing on older Americans as well as young families. For those living in wealthy areas of the country, she recommends developing a home-advisor or concierge service, a one-call, one-stop company that can perform maintenance and handyman work, while providing owner representation and expert advice on larger projects, such as remodeling.
She said the larger trends to watch include online sales of in-home services, such as hanging towel bars and installing television brackets, an area the big players, including Amazon and Google are getting into. She also mentioned revamped, super-cool, millennial-friendly mobile-home parks, of all things, and repurposing failed shopping malls into live-work-play areas. In home remodeling, the trend is first-floor master bedrooms and two master bedrooms because many families are doubling up, whether boomerang kids, parents, or two unrelated adults.
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Irina Woelfle has become our industry's most successful and influential promoter. Just look at her client list.
