You don’t need 5 or 10, just these 3!
Theres many columns out there informing sellers how to prepare their property for sale, either to get the best price or the quickest sale, but to get both you really only need to be mindful of 3 things.
People, except investors, buy homes emotionally. Its like buying a new TV or a new dress, or even a new car, it has to tick 8 – 9 out of 10 boxes. Investors are usually different, the numbers have to stack up and if they don’t, they just keep “moving on to the next one” until they find out that does stack up. No emotion involved.
So heres my 3 main foundations to ensure you get a maximum price in the best possible time.
1. Smell
Yes I started with this instead of the obvious (thats No. 2) because I have lately seen more homes failing to attract buyer excitment because of this than just those of the visual nature (No 2).
Yes they might be up to number 7 out of 10 boxes ticked, then for some reason one of the partners just goes “off” because of the smell or a whiff of something they got when they opened the internal door to the garage…..emotions again.
You might not be aware that the smell of oil or carparts in the garage reminds someone of an ex, or that greasy smell coming from the uncleaned BBQ (yes I know you can’t smell it) on the deck was exactly the thing that used to make the buyers wife throw-up when she was pregnant. Think Neutral – Neutral – Neutral here.
The main 3 here are smoker, dog, cat, in that order, but other laundry / bathroom smells are up there too. Residue cooking smells are a big turn-off. (look at No. 3) If it means lighting scented candles at 9am on Sunday for the 1pm Open Home then so be it.
2. Sight
Of course this is the obvious one, and this where you really do need outside assistance.
A family member or friend may still not be prepared to hurt your “rose-coloured” view. Knowing what does and or doesn’t attract a buyers attention, an experienced agent conducting an appraisal obviously would be able to point out things that you’ve just “got too used too.”
Staying with the “imagine themselves living here” theme, think of the many many programs on TV that showcase that contempory clean look, even in older homes, or checkout the links to hi res photos at the end of this post, and compare the inside photos to your home.
A buyer could easily imagine themselves living here…….could they say the same about your place?
3. Feel
Buyers want to feel right about the home. This translates to them easily visualising themselves at home in the property.
The fact that they smell left over cooking smells or smoker smells can be foreign to some buyers, and most certainly to their emotions / senses. Not good, because if they cannot emotionally (don’t forget thats all they have at this preview stage) see themselves living here, you’re in for a major uphill battle to change those sense enduced emotions.
Same goes for all those personal photos / certificates on the wall or sports trophies for example, to them its reinforcing that fact that its still someone elses home. Frankly, for some people, those same ones that hate the wall colour in the kitchen, (and don’t know it costs under $100 down at the hardware store to fix, and to fix that bathroom colour too) ….it just makes it real hard for some people to imagine themselves living there. You don’t want that.
Lastly don’t forget that old saying above because thats exactly what buyers do when they visit your home for an inspection.
The perception is that it is someone elses home, and not theirs, so you want to do everything you can to accommplish making a buyer feel attracted, that it could easily be their home, that they could easily visualise themselves here without moving large furniture, redorating, etc, but most importantly, all things to continually trigger and hopefully raise a buyers excitment level.
May 01 2009 | Buyers and General and Sellers | No Comments »
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