After showing thousands of homes to home buyers, I can tell you what the top three buyer objections will be within 15 minutes of visiting your home.
No joke.
Go ahead, time me. 🙂
The challenge with living in your own home is that you’ve adapted to the decor, clutter, smells, lighting and quirks. Scientists refer to this as "sensory adaptation” which indicates a reduction in sensitivity to a stimulus after constant exposure to it.
You may not notice the litter box smell, the cold blue hue your lightbulbs are casting, or the massively overgrown bushes and trees in front of your home. This is life, and I’m here to tell you it’s ok. I'm not judging you, I’m striving to get you top dollar for your home.
How you live in your home when it’s for sale versus how you live in your home when it’s not for sale are polar-opposite realities. If this frustrates you, send a complaint to HGTV because they have skewed buyer expectations in a huge, super-annoying way.
If we can correct (or at least minimize) these objections, we increase your buyer pool, and in turn boost your sale price. Getting ahead of the objections before your home is open to the public will increase buyer interest, perceived value, and sale price.
Some objections are an easy fix, others are out of our control. My goal it to help you fix what you can, and price appropriately for what you can’t. You can repaint, add lighting, and re-landscape, but so far we haven’t figured out how to cost-effectively move your house off of a busy road, dismantle the power lines in the backyard, or change the direction your home faces.
Each home exists in its own ecosystem of location, size, layout, decor, and updates. In other words, everything is situational and having an expert help you decipher that situation will save you time, money and anxiety along the way. I can help you focus on what matters as well as prioritize in a way that works within your timeline and budget.
In the meantime, if you’re starting to get anxious about what to do next, here is a list of common home rejection reasons:
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Home is too dark
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Home is too cluttered
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Pet, cooking, & cigarette smells
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House is (really) dirty
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Stucco siding concerns
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Outdated kitchen and bathrooms
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Paint color is outdated
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No curb appeal
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Damp basement
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Ceiling stains (indicating past or present roof leaks)
And yes, right now my house is cluttered, needs more lighting, and the interior desperately needs to be repainted. But I’ll worry about that when I put my home up for sale. 😉
Melissa Walter, CRS, ABR, SFR, REALTOR®
Serving Montgomery, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Philadelphia Counties