In my experience, there’s one fundamental truth about
house-hunting: you can never fully escape the haters. That’s right. The haters.
The only way to live a 100% hater-free life is to never stick your neck out,
and never do anything because, as the saying goes, you simply cannot please all
of the people all of the time.
And this is particularly true with
real estate and putting your listings on the market—because homes, locations, aesthetics
and such are so much a matter of personal preference, some people will find
something to criticize about even the most perfectly staged, priciest
properties on the market.
As a listing agent, your job is not
to try to make your listings be all things to all people—but you do want it to
appeal to enough buyers that you get one great offer (and multiple offers never
hurt anybody, either). That said, you don’t want your listing
to be the house that nearly every buyer and broker sees, rolls their eyes and
utters the same few, predictable deal-killing criticisms.
Fortunately, what is predictable is
avoidable. Unfortunately, many of the things that make a listing susceptible to
haters are issues on the seller’s side of the property preparation
responsibilities. Let’s explore the most common things buyers hate about
listings they see. In the process, you’ll get equipped with things you can say
to your sellers to help sidestep those issues and, in large part, hater-proof
your own listing.
House Hater Complaint #1: Odors.
You might think I’m beating a dead
horse, here, or even preaching to the choir. But as long as house hunters keep
emailing me to ask why, in the name of all that is sacred, they keep seeing
homes that smell like all sorts of madness and mayhem, I’m going to keep
repeating this message.
Viewing a home sounds like it’s all about the visual of the
experience. And visuals are critical – your listing should be in its Sunday
best, so to speak, when it’s being shown, in terms of being spruced, staged and
clutter-free. But when a buyer comes to see your listing, they don’t turn off
the rest of their senses. And there is nothing that can turn a buyer off from a
home they’d otherwise like more quickly than a powerfully bad odor.
In particular, cigarette and pet odors in a house that seems to
have been well-cleaned create the concern that they might be permanent and that
the buyer might not be able to get rid of them without dropping some serious
cash on cleaning or even removing wall, window and floor coverings.
If you are listing a home and you know that someone has been
habitually smoking in it home or that the seller has had a “challenge,” let’s
say, with pet accidents, do not ignore the problem. And do not think that
because you had the carpet shampooed or the drapes cleaned, or because YOU
can’t smell anything, that the problem is gone. The human sense of smell
very quickly gets used to smells that it lives with or is surrounded with on a
regular basis.
It’s one of the tougher parts of your job as an agent to point
out bad smells and odors, no matter how painful the conversation and make sure
they are eradicated by any means necessary, before you place your listings on
the market.
House Hater Complaint #2: Glaringly
extreme overpricing.
There’s the kind of overpricing that makes a buyer say, “Hmmm –
seems a bit high. Let’s go see it, but we might have to offer a little less
than the asking price if we like it.” Then there’s the kind of
overpricing that makes buyer say “I’ll wait until a price reduction” or worse,
hold their sides from laughing.
When overpricing is glaring, many buyers and buyer’s brokers
will comment on it or inquire about it. What they are less likely to do is
actually come out and see the place – especially if they weed it out online
after comparing its specs to all the other homes in the area and the price
range. Often, homes this severely overpriced simply don’t sell, or not
until after they’ve had some serious price cuts or have been on the market so
long buyers begin to feel confident about making lowball offers.
In fact, the goal is the opposite – you want your listing to
stand out as a property that is not dirt cheap, but does present a good value
for the money – that’s what motivates buyers to get out of their chairs and into
the property for a viewing.
Obviously, you don’t set the price of your listings. It’s also
obvious that the agent-seller conflict about overpricing is one of those
battles that have been fought since Adam and Eve sought to list the Garden of
Eden.
Here’s how to hater-proof your home’s listing against this
issue: force your sellers to fixate on the comps. Smart sellers deactivate
their emotional attachment and very human tendency to overvalue their precious
homes by poring over the sales prices (not list prices) of similar, nearby
homes that have recently sold. Walk them through this data – don’t forget to
show them the overpriced listings that are lagging on the market, and any
value-priced listings that have sold for way more than asking.
When you get a seller who simply
won’t budge off a dramatically high list price:
(a) get them to sign a reduction addendum that will
automatically kick in after 30 or 45 days on the market, and/or
(b) consider whether this listing makes sense to take in the
first place.
Also, consider using your broker’s first Open House as an
additional hater-proof measure: if the agents overwhelmingly comment that they
think the home is significantly overpriced, communicate this feedback to your
seller.
House Hater Complaint #3: Dirt and messes.
Possibly the single largest source of House Hater Complaints
I’ve ever heard are the dirt, messes, piles and personal belongings that buyers
find so distracting, when they walk into a home for a viewing or Open House.
Obviously, homes that are filthy from floor to ceiling are fertile fodder for
haters, but often those homes are bank-owned or otherwise distressed so that
the sellers aren’t likely to do much. What is underestimated is how often
even savvy home buyers are distracted (and disgusted) by relatively clean homes
that just have a few outstanding messes, like piles of dirty dishes in the
sink, piles of dog poo in the yard or even piles of papers, mail, books or
clothes lying out in plain view.
Will one or two such items ruin the sale of your home? Perhaps
not. But a few of them (or more) can certainly distract a buyer enough that
they fixate on the home’s messes and, in the process, fail to see what is so
great about your property. As I see it, cleaning up, meticulously, before
every single showing is free – so it makes no sense to even run the risk of
turning off a prospective buyer by letting messes get in the way of their
ability to visualize themselves and their families flourishing in your home.
Make sure you brief the sellers in detail on what buyers expect,
in the way of cleanliness. Also, set up a plan for giving them enough
notice of showing appointments that they can do a quick, but thorough, house
cleaning pass through before every single viewing.
House Hater Complaint #4: Lots of little
malfunctions.
All of us tend to think our homes are in fantastic condition.
After all, your sellers have had the furnace maintained regularly,
they’ve installed granite and dual paned windows – maybe they even took your
advice to have the floors refinished or the walls painted in preparation for
putting the place on the market.
That’s all fantastic – all the non-cosmetic work that’s been
done to maintain and improve your listing should be trumpeted in your marketing
materials, and the cosmetic items will (or should) speak for themselves. But
here’s the thing: house hunters won’t be running the dishwasher or testing the
furnace (at least not until inspections).
What they will do – almost
unconsciously – is:
• flick light and fan switches
• open or close window coverings, closet, room and entry doors,
• open and close drawers, cupboards, gates and fences and
• hold the handrails as they walk up and down the stairs.
They will hear leaky faucets and point out water spots from
long-ago repaired leaks, and they will notice (or potentially trip on) uneven
exterior tiles, paths and walkways. And even though these items might be vastly
less expensive to fix than the roof or sewer line you had replaced, they are
much more visible and noticeable to a buyer. In fact, buyers don’t always
even know that the little malfunctions and repairs that need doing are little
or inexpensive. And when they notice a bunch of these sorts of things in a
single property, they can jump to the conclusion that the whole place is
rickety.
Since these little fixes are inexpensive to make, have them
completed before you list, if at all possible. You might even ask your seller
to walk through the property with you, pinpoint all the necessary little fixes
and offer the handyperson reference for someone you know works efficiently
For a fun time this summer check out this extensive list of Omaha metro area events!!
Linda Lichter Pat Lichter
402 680 2875 402 681 0300
7 Seller Personality Disorders that Can Cost Agents
7 Seller Personality Disorders that Can Cost Agents
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