Sellers - Do You Look at Your Home As a Seller or a Buyer? 

Selling your home can be a challenge, especially if you are going to really miss your home, or have been there for a long time. 

Many sellers have a hard time looking at their home from an unbiased perspective - and you may too, since you have built many memories while living there. It's likely hard to consider the maintenance issues and undone repairs that you have lived with, for whatever reason, and to see them as something to be concerned about when you go to sell. 

You need to know, however, that buyers WILL scrutinize your home both inside and out, and look for defects and repairs that they feel justify a lower price than you are asking...rightly or wrongly. 

So, are YOU looking at your home simply as the seller, or as a prospective buyer?? 

Unless your home is truly immaculate and newly built, it likely has some maintenance or repair issues. That's just the reality of home ownership, especially if you have been there for a while., or unless you are really obsessive about maintenance. Most folks aren't from what I've seen. 

Some homeowners are quite good at keeping things in shape, but I suspect many have problem areas that should be addressed...stucco that needs patching, carpet stains, wood that has some rot, bushes that need trimming, paint that needs freshening... the sorts of things that are on everyone's "list to take care of some day" but which never gets done.

And it can be easy to overlook some small problem areas, or perhaps not even recognize them as issues because you have lived with them for so long.

 

Beware!

While YOU might not think these things are a big deal, because you live with them, buyers will.

 

Yeah, they may love the home when they walk in but trust me they are looking for defects or deferred maintenance, and once they find something, no matter how small, the looking will continue.

You see, once they see some repair issues they will wonder what else may be wrong or need fixing. 

So don't make the mistake of taking the approach that these issues are small and unlikely to make a difference.

A savvy seller these days will take the perspective of a fussy buyer looking at their home, inside and out, and take the time and spend the money to make as many things right as possible. Or get someone in to do it. Often it's the small things that matter. 

Is this easy to do? Nope. But if you really put yourself into the mode of scrutinizing your home as a buyer, and perhaps thinking back to when you were buying, it'll help. And it doesn't hurt to ask a friend to help you do this. 

Of course a good REALTOR will be able to help you pinpoint those things that really should be taken care of before you go live with your listing.

 

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 If I can provide more information about Carlsbad real estate and surrounding areas, or the housing market in general, or otherwise assist you in your homes search, please contact me by phone or text at or email me at JDowler@remax.net.

All content copyright © 2010 Jeff Dowler Carlsbad Homes and Real Estate Tidbits