subject: See Your Home Through A Buyer's Eyes! [print this page] Selling your house quickly and successfully requires that you see a piece of property through a buyer's eyes. How do you do this? Well, put yourself in the buyer's shoes. What does he/she see about your house that you haven't noticed yourself?
One real estate broker said that a trick she's learned in getting sellers to think out of the box is to take them across the street from their house, and then asks them to give their house a long hard look, and spot things they've never noticed before.
When this exercise is done, she then takes them on a detailed tour of their house, front yard, back yard, side alleys, garage, bathrooms, the whole look-see. This way, they come up with a list of repair jobs that need to be done before they can even think of putting their house on the market.
What do buyers look for in terms of the house itself? Many agree that location is a decisive factor, but so are tangibles like the price and condition of the property is the price worth the additional huge sums of money to put this house back into mint condition? How much time will I need to renovate the dilapidated portions of this house?. Buyers will be on the alert for the following,
Start with the outside of the house and ask yourself the following questions, because these are the questions that your potential buyer will be asking!
Do these garbage cans, discarded wood scraps and building materials strewn about carelessly an indication of the seller's negligence?
Are the gutters and roof in place? When was the last time the seller changed the roof?
Apart from the human occupants of the house, are there termites and other insects that live here also?
These overgrown bushes and trees are distracting. What is it that the sellers don't want us to see?
Is the lawn is looking unhealthy? Is the rest of the house like that?
Have the patios and decks been converted into storage areas? Why can't we see what they actually look like?
The paint is peeling off, is that why the house looks so drab and uninviting?
Why are there no lights outside the house? Is this the owner's way of saving on utility bills? Is this a safe neighbourhood?
The above questions are just a few of the many questions buyers are likely to ask with respect to the outside of the house. A house's exterior constitutes the buyer's first impression. And we all know what they say about first impressions, they are powerful and outweigh other considerations!
Now let's look at the inside of the house, what are buyers looking at?
The 3 C's in real estate,
1.cleanliness
2.clutter
3.color
These three are self-explanatory, yet many sellers overlook the fact that buyers have fixed ideas about what makes a house clean, bright and uncluttered. Don't take clutter for granted. Clutter is a big turnoff. Too many objects lying around the house collect dust, and when you have an open house and the sun is streaking in through those large windows, the dust becomes very conspicuous.
