RENO, Nev. — Every multi-million dollar house on the market, Megan Warren says, needs a story.

Maybe it’s a story about the role of the home in history. Or the part it played in a famous life.

So when the Donovan Group of Chase International sat down to begin developing the marketing plan for a 7,130-square-foot home in Incline Village that just hit the market with a $12.5 million price tag, one of the first jobs undertaken by Warren and Kerry Donovan, the co-listing agents, was development of the home’s story.

Built in 1999, the house at Lakeshore Boulevard and Highway 28 hasn’t been around long enough to carry tales of history or celebrity.

Instead, the Donovan Group built the story of the house around its builder — longtime Incline Village contractor Ira Rodman. The story of the house focuses on its design that takes advantage of an unusually shaped parcel along a private cove on Lake Tahoe. The story pays substantial attention, too, to Rodman’s craftsmanship in details ranging from hickory flooring to massive ceiling beams.

Equally important, Warren says, is the creation of a name for luxury properties on the market — “Secret Cove” in this case.

Preparation for the marketing of the home also includes creation of a portfolio of professional photography as well as the registration of a domain name, www.1169lakeshore.com, as a home for the photographs and marketing materials.

Getting that message into the right hands, however, can present a challenge.

“Our buyer could be 20 years old. Or 50. Or 70,” Warren says.

That dictates a strategy that includes everything from social messaging and text messages to traditional advertising in glossy magazines such as Premiere Homes.

The marketing plan also includes Realtor.com, the Web site that’s used by shoppers for $12.5 million luxury properties just as it’s used by shoppers for $150,000 starter homes.

“It generates tremendous traffic for us,” Warren says.

Public relations efforts by Truckee-based Switchback Communications also help carry the word. Last fall, press releases about another of Donovan’s listings at Lake Tahoe —the $34 million property known as Osprey Point — landed on the pages of both the Wall Street Journal and Architectural Digest.

Even with all the marketing efforts, Donovan says the process of selling a home priced above $10 million takes time to find a buyer whose heart and pocketbook match the property.

In fact, Warren says, Chase International tells sellers of properties priced at $10 million or more that they typically can wait two to four years to find a buyer.