Pretend you want to sell your home quickly, easily and (of course) for the most amount of money possible. That’s a great plan and as long as you prep the home to sell and price it well, that could be exactly what happens. But, what if you list your home and notice that though there are many initial lookers there haven’t been many offers? It may be time to look at pricing or it could be that there are a few small things standing in the way of your sale. Below are the most common home seller mistakes that turn buyers away.
Too Much Personality
While home buyers want homes filled with charm and interesting features, they don’t want to move into YOUR home full of your personality. They want to buy your home to adapt it to fit them. Take the time to remove the overload of family photos and your prized doll collection. Go ahead and repaint that bold purple accent wall you added to the kitchen. These personal choices are absolutely what makes a house a home, but what you want right now is a show home that appeals to as many people as possible.
Too lived in
Everyone understands that the sellers are most often still living in the house during showings. However, buyers don’t want to see unmade beds, dirty dishes on the counter or dog hair all over the stairs. In fact, they really don’t want to see clutter at all since it’s distracting. Yes, it is time consuming and a challenge to keep your house show-ready at all times, but we promise the extra effort makes all the difference to buyers. This is also true for odors – so invest in a clean smelling candle or avoid making smelly foods like fish on days when you know a buyer will be visiting.
Making showing awkward or difficult
If you’ve decided to sell your house, be sure you are ready to make it available for buyers to see. Understandably, this is difficult when you have small children at home or work from a home office. Still, if buyers are continually turned away at times that are most convenient for them you will risk losing them altogether. Similarly, it makes most buyers uncomfortable for the seller to be there while the home is viewed. Buyers want to feel that they can look at and comment on things without the overly watchful eye of the seller.
Everything is out of date
We’ve talked about how to determine what to do when selling a house. Naturally, some sellers do not want to invest any money into a home they are trying to leave. But even with today’s low inventory, homes that have too many out of date elements are passed over by buyers. Not everything has to be new, but having out of date appliances, old carpet, old fixtures and popcorn ceilings all rolled into one home is probably not going to keep many people interested.
Are you ready to list your home, or looking ahead toward spring already? Call one of our experienced DeSelms Real Estate agents today at 615.550.5565 and let them help you with these tips and more!