Health & Fitness
5 Things that Will Make Potential Buyers Lose Interest in Your Home
If you're selling your home, then you've probably researched home staging tips. However, you should also evaluate your home for things that could make a potential homebuyer leave your home quickly.
If you are selling your home, then you probably have read all the tips for staging a home. However, you should also evaluate your home for things that could make a potential homebuyer leave your home quickly.
1. Not–so-nice DIY projects.
You may have saved thousands by remodeling the kitchen or adding on an entire new room yourself. However, if a potential homebuyer can walk into your house and know immediately that the work was done by the homeowner and not a professional, he will start seeing dollar signs as to how much it will cost to remodel the kitchen or repair the extra room. If you are not a professional contractor, reconsider any major do-it-yourself home improvement projects before putting your house on the market.
2. Oops! The buyer just fell into the pool.
You may have spent long summer days enjoying your backyard pool, but a pool is not always an asset when selling a house. That's especially true if the pool takes up most of the backyard or doesn't have a safety fence. If a buyer steps out into the backyard and almost steps into your pool, you can easily lose that buyer. If you have a large pool and a small backyard, you will have lost many potential homebuyers. This can include those who have small children, plan to have children, have dogs, and those that just don't want the hassle of keeping up a pool.
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3. Maybe hire a house cleaner?
The goal when selling a house is to make buyers feel comfortable and want to stay in your house exploring for as long as possible. The longer potential buyers are in the home, the more likely they are to make an offer. However, if your house is a mess with dirty laundry flung on floors and showers or toilets that have not seen a scrub brush in many weeks, then the potential buyers are going to rush the viewing. They will not feel comfortable looking in every closet or cabinet but instead want to get out as quickly as possible.
4. What's that terrible smell?
Even the best pets with attentive owners can make mistakes. However, if your cat's "mistake" involves marking the carpet, then do not try to cover up the smell. Adding scented candles or plug-in air fresheners only make the entire house smell worse. Mixing chemically made rose scents with the powerful scent of cat urine really will not make your house welcoming or help others picture themselves living there. They'll be too distracted wondering where that smell is coming from. If your pet has damaged any floors or other parts of the house, do not try to mask the smell. Remove and replace the damaged flooring.
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5. Wish away the wallpaper.
You may have carefully selected the wallpaper for your favorite room. However, wallpaper is out of fashion and not popular with most homeowners. Like the do-it-yourself project, potential homebuyers see wallpaper and begin calculating how much time and money it will take to remove it. When choosing between two well-liked houses and one has wallpaper and one does not, the house without the wallpaper will often win the buyer's bid.
Some of these are home features that you just can't change, such as a large pool. If that's the case, then have reasonable expectations when selling the home. It may take longer to sell the home or you may have to lower your asking price.
