It seems a little strange to be thinking about what is currently “fashionable” in housing design. That is because we know that things that are “fashionable” today have a good possibility of being unfashionable in the near future.

With an investment as big as a home, we don’t even want to think that our decisions will go out of style. But the fact is certain things will fall out of fashion, and in a few years our kids will be wondering what we were thinking when we made our decorating decisions. How many of us have walked into an orange and green bathroom lately and wondered just what was going on?

Architects and builders are in the business of selling homes of course, so they have to walk a fine line between what is fashionable and the classic elements that will never go out of style. These are some of the considerations that went into “the New American Home 2012″ which was recently unveiled in Orlando by the National Association of Home Builders. The model home is an evolution of the classic “White Box” that was popular in mid-Twentieth century design, with updates to make it more more Eco-sensitive with a spa-like feel. The structure has a very modern appearance with clear glass balustrades, free-flowing entertaining spaces, floor to ceiling glass doors, and clean geometric lines.

Real estate experts are telling us that this is a good time to consider having a new home built. Although the housing market is beginning to rebound, work is still relatively slow for the building trade, so there are potential bargains in new construction. Admittedly, “the New American Home 2012″ isn’t going to be a seamless fit into every neighborhood, but even in this time of down-sizing homes there are designs and styles that harken back to classic periods but surrender nothing to modern convenience or style.

The Craftsman style of architecture that was popular before WWII is finding new favor. Design details like tapered columns, oversized eaves, gables, and front porches are being combined with smaller and more efficient floorplans. Family friendly features like breakfast bars with swivel bar stools and versatile dining rooms are becoming common.

Spacious McMansions and “Brady-Bunch” split levels have definitely fallen from favor. The pretentious oversized homes are being recognized as energy and money guzzling monsters, while split levels have shown that the need to constantly climb or descend stairs has little bearing on domestic bliss.

It is an uncomfortable truth that in every attempt to sell a house, people will make mistakes. Maybe they didn’t promote it enough, so nobody even knew it was up for sale. Maybe they decided to skip on the Edinburgh bathroom design because they thought it was too expensive, not realizing that a good, clean bathroom helps sell the whole place overall. Then there are the ones that make the most important, the most devastating mistake in all of real estate selling. They sell the house at too high a price. This tendency is actually incredibly prevalent, leading to the common joke in the industry that says success relies on being one of the following: the first child, the second spouse, or the third realtor.

When people who sell their homes talk to realtors – or skip this step and try selling on their own – they get very excited about the price. The more they can sell it for, the better their financial opportunities after the sale. This emotional response lead to some mistakes, such as thinking that the place is worth more than it actually is or that the condition it’s in is good enough to sell as-is. It can sometimes make them blind to the problem of certain areas needing repairs or renovations to sell better, as they think the cost of it would just cut into their potential profits. Sometimes, they just go with the realtor or agent that quotes the highest price – a mistake, as it can be very misleading.

Here’s a fact that most home sellers miss: that house is nowhere near worth the kind of money they think its worth. It also doesn’t really mean a thing if the realtor thinks that it’ll sell for this or that value. The only opinion on the house’s value that matters is that of the potential buyer who is making an offer.

Consider two houses in the same strategic neighborhood. They both have the same access to a number of amenities, such as schools and public transportation. They’re both within driving distance of places like grocery stores or entertainment centers. They both have similar measurements, in terms of square feet. The interiors are largely similar as well – maybe one has a walk-in closet and the other a bigger bedroom. One of these houses is valued at X and the other at X+2. In the mindset of a buyer, is that walk-in closet really worth the +2? In all likelihood, it isn’t.

The opposite of this is if the house is valued too low. Then again, the market tends to fix this too. If a house is priced too low, it’ll get a lot of offers that will, in time, drive things up to market value. Once the number of offers stabilizes, then that may be a good indication that the right price point has been reached.

When justifying a high price, one of the first things that salesmen are told to do is to emphasize the quality of the product. The idea is to admit that yes, the Microsoft Dynamics CRM price tag is ridiculous, but it has so many features and is so good at what it does that it is worth that much money. Change out the product and it becomes a somewhat standardized way for salesmen to start with emphasizing something’s quality. However, this isn’t enough. It isn’t good enough that they point out that the product is superior and thus commands a higher price; the customer would very much like to know what makes it better. At that point, a lot of sales training falters.

So here are some of the angles that can be taken for proving that something has better quality.

Superior performance is, of course, a good tool. The gap between the product’s capabilities and those of its competitors is wide, so the vast superiority in terms of functionality helps justify the higher price. This is easiest to do in items or products that have tangible, objective standards of performance. Appliances, electronics, cars – all of these are items that have measurable metrics in their performance, which makes it easier to say one is better than another. Like the “tale of the tape” in boxing. The salesman merely needs to point out the numbers to back up his claims. While this may lead into over-simplification, there are a lot of products where bigger numbers do mean better performance.

On the other hand, one of the most common ways for the quality of something to be emphasized when selling to the rich is its durability. Rich people (especially the Old Money) generally don’t get their by being stupid; they spend their money on things they know will last. This explains why some of them have leather shoes that have been handed down from father to son – they’re just that good. In the modern culture of disposability, having something that is built to last is well worth the cost. Products “pay for themselves” when they’re used regularly, so if something lasts for longer than normal, then it is of higher quality.

Finally, there is also the possible angle of emphasizing what features and functions the product has that set it apart from competitors. This is highly similar to the angle taken by marketing and branding materials. This requires extensive knowledge not only of the product itself, but of the competition, as well as what they can do. If a product has more useful features related to its core function, then it can arguably be of better quality.

Sales is personal. Salespeople, or whatever else name they go with, marketing representatives, account executives, sales consultants, etc, have to get in close and personal with the consumer to really understand what they are looking for. It’s not as easy as asking “What do you want?” though there are sometimes transactions that are as easy as asking for a signature.

Salespeople like the door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman have to really work to convince the individual that they want and need a better, newer, faster, way of cleaning their floors. They inform the potential buyer that they have a problem or help them reach that conclusion themselves, enumerate the ways of solving that problem, and then make sure the potential buyer understands why a purchase of a particular product is the best way to solve the problem. A good salesman is the consumer’s very own problem solver, consultant, perhaps even therapist, all in one go.

Many salespeople who make a living off quick sales, like the aforementioned door-to-door salesmen and those who sell long-term products and services like insurance and auto loans as well as cars and home appliances, are naturals at reading between the lines and interpreting body language. There are also salesmen who cultivate long-lasting relationships with their customers, like the saleslady in the mall shoe store who is on a first-name basis with regular customers or the clerk in the furniture store who supplies all the chairs for an interior decorator client.

People are unpredictable most of the time so if you want to be able to close a sale you’ll have to make sure that the people you’re selling to are actually interested in your product. In this stage, research is important. Every company has a specific target market for the products that they release to the public. Of course, even this is a broad spectrum of potential customers. The salesperson has to narrow down that target market even more.

Knowing the people you are about to approach with a sales pitch lessens chances of them declining the sale after you have made the presentation. If you’re trying to pitch a project or a proposal to a client or your bosses, make sure that you have done thorough research on each and every aspect of the project so you’ll be able to handle the criticisms, objections, and other forms of rejection. If you have done your homework and have a rebuttal for every worst case scenario they throw at you, then you’ve probably got your proposal or your sale in the bag.