In luxury real estate, the way a property is marketed can make or break a sale. Yet many agents continue to lead with detailed upgrade lists, a strategy that Bent Danholm, founder of Danholm Collection, says is one of the most costly mistakes in luxury marketing. Danholm argues that itemizing renovation costs, often with dollar amounts attached, works against the emotional decision-making process that drives high-end purchases.
Danholm points to a listing at Broadwater Avenue in Winter Garden as a case study. The property had sat on the market for about ten months, during which time the seller had circulated a two-page upgrade list detailing more than $300,000 in improvements, including new flooring, updated light fixtures, and a fully renovated kitchen. None of it generated a sale. When Danholm 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,” he says.
The seller initially pushed back, repeatedly asking if Danholm had sent the upgrade documentation. But Danholm held firm, insisting the list was irrelevant to the purchase decision. According to Danholm, affluent buyers capable of spending $2 million or more are not conducting a cost-benefit analysis of renovation expenditures. Instead, 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.
“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. 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.
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 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. Danholm Collection is a luxury real estate brokerage based in Central Florida, specializing in properties above $1.5 million. Learn more about their approach at danholmcollection.com.
