Biggest Turn Off's When House Hunting

When you decide it's time to sell your house, whether upgrading, moving for a job, or whatever the reason, one of the most important things you can do is put yourself in the buyers shoes. It's just not that endearing to a buyer to see how tall Johnnie is by the ink marks on the wall. It's not sentimental value to a buyer to see Sally's hand print in the cement by the garage. What ever you can do to depersonalize your home the better. That goes for family pictures, your son's room decorated like his favorite baseball team, all the way down to the team colors painted on the walls. If you are going to move anyway, DEPERSONALIZE, NEUTRALIZE, and SANITIZE.

DEPERSONALIZE

The definition of depersonalize is:
1. make something impersonal: to take away or omit the qualities from something that make a person feel welcome or important.

In Real Estate, I think it is a gift to a buyer to take away the qualities in a home that make it personal property to the owner, yet a canvas to the new potential owner, to put their own personality into the property. If I take away the things that make the house MINE, it could potentially become THEIRS. If I refuse to take myself out of the house, then I might as well stay there. It's extremely difficult to decide to sell a home, but at that point it goes on the market, it's not your home anymore. Give up the claim to a home, and you will see someone else can see themselves living there. And that is a great gift.

TIPS FOR DEPERSONALIZING

• Take away any family pictures. Replace framed photo's on walls with something neutral, or fill the nail holes and make a more spacious feeling. Don't forget framed photo's on tables, dressers, shelves. Anything that makes the house yours rather than theirs has to go.
• Take down the stuff on the refrigerator. Anything on the refrigerator belongs to the current owners and it's just clutter to someone else. Give your child a big hug for his great papers, and wonderful coloring, but keep it out of sight.
• Every poster must come down. No exceptions. Not even limited edition. DOWN.
• Trophy's, medals, honors, and awards. Even if it's your husbands medical degree. If he doesn't practice from your home, get it down.
• Cleaning out the closet. Get as many things packed as if you are really leaving and store them somewhere. It opens up the space, and it avoids someone being distracted by the silver glitter shirt you can't even believe you bought. Get things off the floor of the closet. It's just not impressive to someone if you showcase your 100 pairs of shoes. It can only make them think the house is overpriced so you can keep up your shopping habits.

• Another smart idea is if you have favorite sports teams, swallow your pride and take things down. What if someone loved your house, but had a dislike for the team you are proud to display. It's silly, but sports are very emotional and can immediately give a person a good or bad feeling. It's not logical, but I must confess, I have very strong feelings for or against teams. And I am not the only one. People are crazy like that! If you are too fanatical to take down your team stuff, then just realize, you might not ever know if you lost a potential buyer based on that...but if you were too fanatical to take it down, I can guarantee someone else was too fanatical to make an offer based on the stuff being up. OK?
• If it's personal to you, then pack it up. Things your kids made in school, father's and mother's day gifts, ie.. World's Greatest Dad Plaque. It might turn off a childless couple. It might seem silly, but look around your home and put yourself in a strangers shoes. If it says something about you, remember, you can put it up in your next house.

NEUTRALIZE

Some of my favorite homes have brilliant color pallets. Bold colors are a sign of good taste. Burgundy and deep greens are comforting and elegant. However, dark colors have a way of shrinking a room. It also gives someone an immediately good, or immediately bad feeling. Powerful colors produce powerful emotions. You want to appeal to the majority of people, so the best investment is in a neutral color. White, off white, light tan. NEUTRAL means neutral. If you walk into a room with white walls, you notice size, layout, etc. If you walk into a room with a bold color, you notice the color. I once showed a home my clients had seen on the internet, and they referred to the rooms based on the color...the purple room, here is the blue room, there's the red bathroom. They didn't buy the house. They bought the house with the neutral colors. They had a choice between the two in the end, but she went with the neutral because the houses were similar, but she was too busy to repaint the walls for a few months. Most people will repaint, and they take that into consideration, time and money. Paint it for them. Neutralize. What are the odds that their taste will match yours exactly. Are you willing to "bet" on those odds when you might be losing buyers or losing money when they want to offer less than what you are asking for?

Colors also have a potential to "date" a house. I remember growing up and our kitchen was aqua blue. (I am in my 40's) Then the popular colors seemed to be golds, and avocado. I remember in the 80's things were mostly country blue. 90's Hunter greens and burgundy. Then late 90's olive green was making a comeback. Now it's anything from wheat to red! Thank goodness aqua blue as not made a comeback! But most of us can identify with colors and certain memories. It's great when you buy your house, you can add your personal touch and personal style. I have seen homes beautifully decorated and have had buyers comment on the elegance, but then not quite knowing why it just isn't for them. It just doesn't make a person feel like it could be potentially theirs. If it's neutral, it gives the impression of "new". Most new homes that appeal to the most potential buyers are painted with "contractor white". It's boring, but Hip Hip Hooray! for boring, because it doesn't scream out,"NOTICE MY WALLS", but notice the room. The space. The POTENTIAL. What if someone just bought a new furniture set, and the color of the room didn't match. It might seem obvious to just paint it, but painting over an existing color just seems like more work than painting a white wall to match the new furniture. It is no difference, it's just perceived to be more difficult. And once someone's mind has seen that color, it's difficult not to see it even after it has been painted. It's crazy, but again, people are crazy like that. So the best thing to do is invest in a couple of can's of white paint, and let the room speak for itself.

SANITIZE

This might seem the most obvious of all, but there are so many homeowners who just don't want to put the elbow grease into selling a house. They might go ahead and put away the personal pictures and things. They might invest in the neutral colors for a room. But they don't realize the importance of truly sanitizing a house. It's just not enough to have the carpets cleaned. If a house has a certain odor, forget about how spacious it is. Forget about the great price and wonderful location. Odor is the number one turnoff for a buyer. And the only way to truly get rid of odor is to sanitize. Like literally, eat off the floor clean. It's another way to depersonalize, too. If you are a smoker (first, quit, but if you can't, get out of the house. It's on the market and it no longer belongs to you. Or don't quit smoking in the house and stay there.) Smoking in the house makes a terrible smell. It's immediately offensive, and a buyer knows they will not be able to get that smell out, and they don't want to own a house where their friends come over and smell that smell. It goes for pets, too. If your puppy was difficult to train, invest in a new carpet. It's not enough to clean it. Rip it up, rip up the pad, sanitize and replace with new. If you aren't willing to do that, I can guarantee the reduction in price the potential buyer will be more than the cost to you to do that. And how many people walk right out of a house that smells like a pet? And how hard will it be to get that potential buyer back by telling them you did finally replace the carpet. Impossible. The nose has a memory. I can remember almost every house I walked into that smelled bad because of a pet, or smoker. Or funky cooking. Or bizarre incense. There are certain fragrances that the majority of people perceive as pleasant. Vanilla, cinnamon, and citrus. These are ok, as long as they are very light. A strong smell, even if pleasant, makes someone wonder what someone is covering up. The best smell is something that you can't buy in a store. And that is the smell of "clean". And everyone knows the only way to get the smell of "clean" is by hard work. And hard work makes someone think (perception again) that the house is well cared for, therefore a great investment. You can't fake "clean". And people know that. If the entire home is not sanitized, then don't bother. Just take the loss. Because if you spend all your time just cleaning the kitchen and you ignore the bathroom, it will be perceived as a negative. You can't even just sanitize the bathroom and kitchen, and then have a dirty garage. It will be perceived as negative. It is a lot of work, but the time and energy you spend on just cleaning and sanitizing will be add up to more money in your pocket when you go to sell. Whatever the potential buyer has to do that you didn't do, will cost you more money than if you do it yourself. I know I would never buy a dirty car or a dirty pair of shoes. Even if you don't think your house is dirty, if it doesn't sparkle and shine, like inside and out, be prepared to take a loss. And if you don't care, then that's ok, too. But what you will gain is far more. If someone sees something dirty or not sparkling, they might wonder how good are the major things, like the roof. You don't want anyone doubting how well you took care of the house. It's just perception, but eliminate all doubts.

In conclusion:

Remember, you want to sell your house, and you want the best price for it. And someone wants to buy your house, and they want to get the best house with the least amount of work for them. That's what you are looking for, because a seller is usually also a buyer. HUMMM>so whatever you are looking for when you are "house hunting" keep that in mind when you see something offensive to you....see if that's happening in your house, too. If it's in your power to change, the benefit will outweigh the cost.

Happy House Hunting!