REAL ESTATE

By Compiled by Michael Flagg, Times staff writer

Feb. 9, 1990 12 AM PT

Selling Point: How do those builders get you to buy their house over the one down the street?

Well, here’s how, according to one interior designer. The subject came up when a group of French builders visited California recently to see how the Americans do it.

Dana Eggerts, a Costa Mesa interior designer, told the builders that bright colors appeal to first-time buyers. Most first-timers are young people who want a fresh look, she says.

Breakfast nooks and family rooms are the big things for growing families, usually young married couples with young children.

Warm and muted colors appeal to what the marketing folks call “mature families,” older couples with children from 12 to 18 years old. The furniture, by the way, should be substantial and of excellent quality.

For “empty nesters”--often retired people whose children are grown--it’s conservative colors.

The French, says Eggerts, went home to try out some of these ideas.