When you’re selling your home, you need every advantage you can get. There are few homes that are magically market ready without a little help. If your home needs a touch more than a little help, it’s time to get focused. After all, listing your home when it’s not in the right condition to sell will probably only end in frustration. And, in this case, frustration means your home sitting on the market for months with no offers or the errant, offensive lowball offer.

If you want to sell your home quickly and for the right price, avoid listing it with the following problems:

1. Excessive damage – Maybe the home you’re selling was used as a rental and trashed by tenants, or maybe you just haven’t kept it up as you should. Either way, holes in the wall, scratched wood floors, and a barren yard are not what buyers are looking for. Unless you’re planning to offer your house for a bargain price, fixing these problem areas is essential.
2. Carpet in the bathroom – The bathroom is not the best place for carpet for multiple reasons. Remove and replace with a suitable flooring material for wet environments.
3. Big, nasty stains – A buyer shouldn’t know where your dog has had accidents or where your kids spilled the entire bowl of holiday punch. If the stains on your carpet are that bad, potential buyers will stroll in and run right back out. No one wants to buy a pigsty. Invest a few bucks in new carpet. You’ll make the money back since you won’t have to drop your sales price.
4. Pet smells – Speaking of pets…they smell. You probably don’t notice since you live with them everyday, but buyers will, and it might be enough to turn them off. Deep clean the carpets and the upholstery, invest in some air fresheners, and remove cat boxes from the house for showings. The last thing you want is a potential buyer referring to your house as “the stinky one.”
5. Loud dogs who bark when someone approaches the home – One last word on pets. Barking happens, whether it’s your dog or one that belongs to a neighbor. But you don’t need that on the day of your open house. Offering to pay for doggie day care for a neighbor’s pooch can eliminate the issue and help create the serene setting buyers want.
6. Your dead lawn – Lack of curb appeal won’t necessarily kill a deal. In many cases, you won’t even get potential buyers to get out of the car. If the front yard is a mess, buyers will naturally think the mess continues inside.
7. A bad agent – A real estate professional who isn’t giving their client the right type of attention probably isn’t going to get the job done.
8. Unkempt – Those drawers and cabinets you shoved everything into when you decluttered your kitchen and bathroom cabinets could be a deal breaker for picky buyers. We all know buyers open stuff. They look in drawers, they open cabinets, they examine closets. If these spaces are messy and overstuffed, they may assume there’s not enough storage space.
9. Unreasonable sellers – Big problems in your house can be deal killers, but they can also be deal sealers, if you are reasonable. If your inspection uncovers plumbing, electrical, and/or roofing problems and you’re unwilling to negotiate, you can kiss that sale goodbye.
10. Bad Taste – Your poor decorating choices and failure to keep up with trends from this year — or century — may haunt you when it’s time to sell. Few buyers are able to see beyond a bad paint color or poor decorating. A few simple updates can help your decor look fresh and give buyers something to fall in love with. Not sure where to start? Call me today. Together we will develop and implement a plan to get your home sold fast and for top dollar.