Neutralize the Negative by Accentuating the Positive ~ Marketing a 'Location Challenged' Listing

Neutralize the Negative by Accentuating the Positive ~ Marketing a 'Location Challenged' Listing

Marketing and selling a listing that is ‘location challenged' can be difficult.  Many times, the property has to be priced down to compensate for buyers' negative feedback concerning the location. 

When there is something that is not quite appealing with the property, creativity in bringing out the positive features of the home and neutralizing the negative features is what will help bring in the offer. 

Sometimes, the buyer may not even be aware of certain features or may not even think of how something in the property can be utilized.  This is where accentuating the positive aspects of a property can turn everything around and effectively neutralize the negatives. 

Two examples:

Example 1
A 4BR home in reasonably good condition sits on a perfectly level piece of property in a great neighborhood.  However, power lines ‘decorate' the back yard and actually scare some buyers away.  

While the home is a typical average styled colonial, what makes it a little different? 

1) Each of the 4 bedrooms are private - meaning each has a bathroom or closet 'buffer' giving an extra layer of privacy to the bedrooms.  This is something that is not immediately noticeable, but the buyers liked it.

2) One of the bedrooms has a 16x20 attic crawlspace accessible through a step-up door within a bedroom closet.  Now that's the place for a kid's hideout.  It was fixed up and staged as such and again, buyers with children absolutely loved it. 

They were not so inclined to think of utilizing this bonus space as a ‘hideout'.  While the hideout was not the only feature that sold this house, the family who bought had children who were SO excited about it, the more they looked at the layout and other features, the turnoff of the wires disappeared. 

Example 2
Lovely completely renovated 2,000 sf home with decent property. Only issue was that it was about 400 yards from a major interstate highway.  Buyers drove by and kept going.  

BUT, the house was also very near a beautiful lake where families could enjoy power boating, fishing, jet skiing, tubing, swimming and multiple party events.  

This house had a two car garage, but there was a smaller storage area attached to the end where the owner could store a jetski, kayak, canoe, and trailer. 

The drive to the lake from the house was 2 minutes.  Anyone driving up to the house did not even have a clue they were near ANY water.  Couldn't see it...couldn't ‘feel' it.   They only saw (or heard) the highway. 

The accessibility to the lake sold the house.  The buyers said the highway does not even bother them.  it did at first!) They are living the lake lifestyle and loving it! 

If a property is ‘location challenged', it's time to put on the thinking cap, accentuate the positive features and neutralize the negatives.   There's good in everything. Sometimes it just has to be creatively drawn out and highlighted.