I Care about Handcrafted Marketing

I imagine you don't spend a lot of time at open houses. But let's talk about 25 Mesa Avenue, a fabulous fixer with great bones, on the market in January.

Usually I make Hershey's brownies from Costco for open houses--assuming there's no white carpet! But 25 Mesa Avenue, a great home in Piedmont's coveted Golden Rectangle neighborhood, has a gorgeous persimmon tree right in the backyard, though the persimmons were all gone by January.

I think there's nothing that expresses the essence of a home's legacy plants like a home-baked treat featuring the garden's produce. So during the season I picked the persimmons, made cakes, and stored them in my freezer, awaiting the open houses. Visitors loved the cake, and loved the story. So much of marketing is about telling stories.

Oh, and each of the 1000 postcards we sent out mentioned the cake. I'm doing the same, but with little lemon cakes, for my upcoming 5 bed/3 ba ''killer view'' home in Redwood Heights.