Visual Storytelling Is Helping Homes Stand Out in Westport’s Competitive Market

Written by:

Steve Marcinuk

Date:

23 May 2025

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Storytelling is increasingly shaping how homes are sold in today’s competitive real estate market. Inna Agujen, Sales Associate at Westport Real Estate, knows this better than most. After a 15-year career in animation and special effects, working on blockbuster films like Ice Age, Rio, and Epic at Blue Sky Studios, Agujen brings a cinematic eye to Connecticut’s luxury housing scene.

“There are many similarities between storytelling in film and storytelling when selling a house,” she says.

Agujen’s background in technical direction focused on crafting immersive environments for 3D films. “I’m very passionate about creating environments and everything that happens around the character, the set,” she explains. That same passion now guides how she stages, markets, and sells homes in Westport, where inventory remains at historic lows and bidding wars are increasingly the norm.

From Creating Animated Worlds to Selling Real Ones

Agujen’s journey into real estate began when she was relocating from Westchester to Westport in 2015 while still working at Blue Sky Studios. “I was looking for a home here in Westport, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is a very unique market,'” she recalls. Even before the current inventory crisis, she quickly recognized the competitive nature of Westport real estate.

With previous experience as a landlord and property investor, Agujen found herself drawn to the hunt for properties. “In Westport, I just got the bug of hunting for properties and learning about them,” she says.

What truly sparked her career change was noticing a gap in property presentation. Around the same time, Matterport was launching its 3D tour technology, a perfect match for Agujen’s background. “My background is 3D, and this is also 3D of the actual home, where you can walk through the property. So I invested with them, bought a camera, and started offering the services to other agents.”

She began by creating marketing packages for other agents—photography, 3D tours, and websites—while shadowing them to learn the business side of real estate. Ten years later, she’s celebrating a decade with Coldwell in Westport, bringing her unique visual expertise to every listing.

Visualizing Potential: The Power of Presentation

In today’s Westport market, where inventory is severely constrained, Agujen believes proper presentation is more critical than ever. “I think every space has something special about it. If you’re able to capture it in your presentation, the house sells itself,” she explains.

Her approach combines her film industry expertise with cutting-edge real estate technology. “I still do a lot of my own marketing: photography, tours, renderings. It’s much easier now with technology. AI has advanced significantly,” she notes.

Virtual staging has become one of her signature services, allowing potential buyers to visualize possibilities in empty spaces. Beyond residential properties, she’s expanded her 3D scanning services to local businesses, including creating a virtual tour of the 50,000-square-foot Westport YMCA facility.

For Agujen, successful marketing is about creating an emotional connection. “If you capture a property effectively in your presentation, the house sells itself. You’re presenting a story and showcasing it in a way that makes someone stop scrolling through pictures and think, ‘Whoa, I want to learn more about this.'”

Inside Westport’s Tight Market: 88 Homes Where 400 Should Be

The current Westport real estate landscape is defined by extremely limited inventory. “Right now in Westport, there are 88 active single-family homes. Normally we have close to 400,” Agujen reveals. “In a town of 30,000 residents, to have this little inventory is very unusual.”

April 2025 brought a welcome surge of new listings—71 compared to March’s 40—but the market remains tight, with a median listing price approaching $3 million. Homes in the $2-3.5 million range are moving particularly quickly.

What’s driving this inventory shortage? Agujen points to what she calls the “golden shackles” of low interest rates. “People sitting on 2-3% interest rates would sell in a minute if they had somewhere else to go. But everything is so expensive, the median price of a house is $2.9 million,” she explains. “So you’ll get a lot of money for your house, but you’re going to get rid of your 3% interest rate to go to 7%.”

The result is that most sellers are those who have a clear next step often relocating to different states or downsizing. Even then, many potential sellers are holding back because they “just can’t afford to buy anything else.”

The 15-Day Rule: Price It Right or Watch It Sit

Despite the overall seller’s market, not every property is moving quickly. Agujen identifies a clear pattern: “If the house is turnkey, with nothing to do, well-presented, and priced accordingly to comps, you’re going to have multiple offers and probably close close to over asking.”

The statistics back this up, Westport’s average listing-to-sale ratio is over 100%, meaning homes typically sell above asking price. However, properties that aren’t properly prepared or priced tend to linger on the market.

“If you don’t have an offer within the first 15 days, it means there’s something wrong about the price or the condition of the house,” Agujen observes. “Price fixes all of the objections.”

Her advice to sellers is clear: “Stage your homes, paint, declutter, those homes tend to sell. But if you don’t do that, it’s going to sit and do nothing.”

Cash Offers and Local Buyers

In this competitive environment, cash offers have become increasingly common. “On my deals this year, most of the offers were cash,” Agujen notes. “They were either cash or they had a mortgage but no contingency.”

Interestingly, while New York City buyers continue to fuel demand, Agujen points out that “more than 30% who buy in Westport are actually Westport residents.” These local buyers are either upsizing or downsizing within the community they already know and love.

The financial calculus for buyers with cash is straightforward in today’s inflationary environment: “If you have cash in your bank account, you might as well buy real estate, because with inflation, whatever $2 million that you have sitting in your liquid accounts is going to be less tomorrow.”

The Rental Paradox: Why Buy When You Can… Buy?

One surprising trend Agujen has noticed is that rental properties are taking longer to move than homes for sale. “People would rather buy than rent something, because the rental prices have also skyrocketed,” she explains.

A two-bedroom rental in Westport now commands between $4,500 and $5,500 per month, a dramatic increase from just three years ago when similar properties rented for around $3,000. These high rental prices may be pushing more people toward purchasing, despite higher interest rates.

New Opportunities Through Zoning Changes

For investors looking at Westport, single-family homes remain the primary opportunity due to zoning restrictions that limit multi-family development. However, recent zoning changes are creating new possibilities.

“Our planning and zoning allowed to have accessory dwelling on your property,” Agujen explains, referring to recent regulatory changes that permit secondary cottages or in-law apartments. “The rules were very strict before.”

These accessory dwelling units (ADUs) could help increase housing inventory while providing investment opportunities for homeowners. Meanwhile, neighboring Norwalk offers more traditional multi-family investment properties.

Regardless of property type, Agujen sees real estate as a stable long-term investment. “Real estate historically will preserve the value of your investment. If anything, it grows over time,” she notes. “Even if you look at 2008 when we had a huge crash, it didn’t drop dramatically and it recovered. So even if you have fluctuations, if you invest over a long time, it’s a safe investment and it’s a tangible asset.”

The Storyteller’s Advantage

As Westport’s market continues to evolve, Agujen’s unique background gives her clients an edge in property presentation and marketing. Her ability to tell a property’s story visually, honed through years of creating environments for animated characters, now helps real buyers connect emotionally with potential homes.

“When you sell what you know, it doesn’t feel like a sale,” she reflects. “You’re just sharing information and helping somebody learn about everything that the town offers. You become a friend, really.”