Date Posted: 2012-07-04 03:42:11
Site Posted: Myproperty.ph
It’s frustrating for home sellers that, even after they’ve done all they can to make it appealing, they still can’t attract buyers. What’s even more annoying is when the things that are making your house buyer-repellent are things that you can’t do anything about. If you’re selling your home, you first have to know what makes your home valuable and what doesn’t. Here are some of the things that might force potential buyers to look somewhere else.
1. The area – A house’s location will always be at the top of a buyer’s list when naming what he sees as important. If your home is built close to a dump site or a freeway, there really isn’t much you can do about it. Instead, try to draw the buyer’s focus on your home by building a fence around your property or planting hedges to keep distractions out of the picture.
2. Your home’s history – All homes have their pasts, such as a family member passing away right in the house, which makes buyers feel uncomfortable. Some histories are just hard to overlook, such as if the house was previously a hideout for criminals or if there are rumors that the house is haunted. Histories like this create a sort of stigma that buyers don’t want anything to do with, so you might have a hard time getting them to take notice of how otherwise well-kept the property is.
3. Impractical layout – There are homes that have an open floor plan, with access to the second floor being a single flight of stairs tucked away at one corner. And then there are those with really long hallways, with bedrooms shoved all the way at the end. Buyers are looking for practicality and efficiency, so houses with odd layouts might not attract them that much.
4. Outdated look – These days, most buyers are looking for homes that are a bit efficient, so if your house for sale is lacking in updates such as a modern kitchen or new appliances, don’t expect buyers to offer what you’ve listed the property for. Why would they pay a certain amount for your home, where they have to update the place themselves, if they can find another house that costs pretty much the same but is much more updated?
5. Properties for rent – Certain buyers can be iffy when it comes to living near rental properties, and for good reason. Because of the transient nature of properties for rent, people can come and go, and often, you never really know who you’re going to end up living next to. Also, renters tend to neglect the maintenance of their home, reasoning that it’s the landlord’s job and that it’s not their home, anyway. What you can do in this case is to befriend the landlord and the renters, and give information about service crews that can help them with upkeep, if you don’t want to volunteer to help out yourself.
No matter how valuable a seller thinks his property is because of the memories he made in it, the reality is that when a buyer looks at a home, all they see is just that: a house. Some of the factors mentioned may be out of your control, so you have to determine which of these you can manipulate, and do your best in making sure that buyers will still want to buy your house despite its shortcomings.
Jillian Cariola, Writer
(cover image by David Ritter)
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