Ten Ways to Turn off a home buyer
- Dirt -Hands down, our panel agrees: Nothing turns off a buyer quicker than a dirty house.
- Odors – Buyers, it’s said, buy with their noses. Make sure your home smells fresh and inviting.
- Old fixtures – Want buyers to roll their eyes? Leave old fixtures on your doors and cabinets. Faded, worn, broken, outdated, and ugly fixtures will surely turn away buyers. Sure you can replace them, but people want to move right into a house without having to do work.
- Wallpaper – Your grandmother may have had it in every bedroom. Your mom may have loved it as a room accent. But today’s buyer wants no part of wallpaper.
- Popcorn acoustic ceilings – Times change, and with them home decor styles. Acoustic popcorn ceilings, once the must-have for fashionable homes in the ’60s and ’70s, now badly date your space.
- Too many personal items – Psychologically, when buyers tour a home, they’re trying it on to see how it fits, just as they would a skirt or a pair of pants. If your house is cluttered with too many personal items, it’s like the buyer is trying on those clothes with you still in them. A fit is unlikely.
- Snoopy sellers – Its best not to be at the home when there is a showing. Buyers want to walk and anaylze at their own leisure without the sellers 2 cents every few minutes. Its perceived as a hard sell. If you must be there, only be there to answer questions about the home and nothing else. Pretend to be invisible.
- Misrepresenting your home – Misrepresenting your house online in the Multiple Listing Service is a sure way to really upset buyers and their Realtors. If I show up with my buyers and the house is NOT what the sellers agent says it was on MLS I am going to be upset and so is the buyer for wasting our time and gas to go see it.
- Poor curb appeal – Much is made of curb appeal, and for good reason: It’s your home’s handshake, the critical first impression that lasts with most buyers. This one is HUGE deal. People want to come home to a beautiful home when they drive up, and the first impression people get of you is your home from the outside.
- Clutter – Whether inside or out, less is more when it comes to clutter.
Some of this information gathered from: Bankrate.com
