Pretend Your Mother-in-Law is Coming to Visit
When talking to my Bristow home sellers about preparing their homes for market, there is a lot of talk about making sure the home is neat and tidy. Sometimes, the message that resonates with a seller will be, "Make it look so neat that buyers think no one could possibly live here." Other times, telling a married couple, "Pretend your in-laws are coming to visit," hits the nail on the head. Either way, having a clutter free and clean home is an essential starting point for desired results in selling your home.
The camera doesn't show dirt. Many an OCD seller I have talked off the ledge because they didn't mop before their listing photo shoot. Mind you, these were sellers whose homes were so clean to begin with that you could eat off of their floors. Even though the camera isn't going to show grit and grime, and the pictures can't give viewers an indication of odor, these items still need to be addressed before buyers come to see the home.
Just this past weekend, I met interested buyers who had seen a listing pop up that checked all the boxes on their home search. It was the right school district, the right size lot and the right price range. Those three things are not easy to come by, as we have found over the last four months. So the excitement poured into this one viewing was huge....until we walked in.
Getting a few steps into the home, while the buyers' young son was taking off his shoes, Mrs. Buyer said, "Honey, leave those on." I didn't blame her. The hardwood floors were so filthy, I wasn't about to compromise my own socks to that mess. My boots were staying on.
From that hardwood haze of grime, to the fingerprinted walls, and disheveled kitchen, the home had all of us sighing in dismay within twenty second of entering. The home had been lived in HARD. It was a four year old home that looked like it was fifteen years old and poorly maintained.
Even as we left, I attempted a compliment to the rarely used formal living room. There, a baby grand piano sat in a formal setting. It looked nice. Oh...but wait, is that a box of cereal by the accent chair? And a spoon? Never mind.
The Bristow area is definitely experiencing a shortage of inventory, and in the case of my buyers, that is maddening. However, they aren't about to jump on a filthy, overpriced home just because it is the only one on the market. Not happening. They will wait for the move-in ready to come on the market, whenever that may be. And my buyers aren't out of the norm.
When you want top dollar out of a seller's market, slapping a for sale sign in the yard and picking that pie in the sky price is not the all that needs to be done. Paint. Carpet. CLEAN. Pretend your mother-in-law is coming to visit. And if you aren't sure you know what clean your listing agent is talking about, get a professional cleaner in stat! The minute a buyer shrugs with disappointment in your home, you have lost them.
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