Sellers: What Are Buyers Looking For?

After I went on an appointment the other day, I was really struck that all four houses, for what they were, showed really well. To start, they were all row houses. Two were grandma houses, one was cleaned up (new kitchen, new hardwood, paint and trim), and one was a complete rehab and very modern and innovative.

It usually doesn't happen in the price range, in which we were looking, that all of the properties would show well. What did they have in common? They were all clean. One had furniture, but no knick knacks or pictures. Why is this important? There are no distractions. The buyer can picture themselves living in the house. When it is clean, they can imagine that they can move in without a big cleaning job, and they can look around and see the good attributes of the house.

I had this subject on my mind, had the television on this morning, and they were talking, on the TODAY SHOW, about a how to make your house look good for both you, and when selling the property without spending a fortune. The biggest piece of advice, which was given, was to paint the walls in light and neutral colors. Of course, I have seen examples where bold has worked, but it seems you need to be very careful when using bold colors. Next, they advised sellers to keep the house straightened, and remove pictures and personal knick knacks.

They gave an example of someone with a white tiled bathroom with hot pink paint. The owner loved the hot pink, but the advice was that no one really wants someone else's bathroom, and it would be good to paint the walls white and make it look like a new, clean bathroom.

Then, they spoke about quick fixes in the kitchen, which can make it look much better. They were as follows:

• New Back Splash
  
• New Cabinet Doors versus All New Cabinets
• New Knobs and Pulls
• Add an Island
• One "Status" Appliance

The next piece of advice they gave was for the buyer. I thought it was the absolute best piece of advice in the segment and that was to not buy a fixer upper unless you can fix it up. I would add to that .... or unless you can afford to have it fixed up in a timely fashion.


So, when I am going through a house, and I am talking about a row house, the following are the things I am looking at with my prospective buyers:

1. Cleanliness
2. General Condition of Kitchen and Bathroom
3. Basement: at minimum should be clean and neat, and in good repair. Hopefully it will also be dry.
   
4. Heater
5. Water Heater
6. Electric: Fuses or Circuit Breakers? Number of outlets in each room? Are there ground fault circuit interrupter outlets in the bathroom and kitchen (GFCI)?
7. Soil Line
8. Age of windows
9. Treatment of front of house and back of house
10. State of yard and wall
11. Lastly, decor and features such as anything high end or closets, etc.. In Philadelphia, we have that great store called IKEA and if there are no closets, you have a great opportunity to buy attractive, and functional wardrobes in place of the closets. For me, I prefer the wardrobe. I know, however, from showing houses that most people prefer closets.
    

Other things that seller should consider are the conditions of the roof and chimney. These things cannot be checked by the buyer, but instead by the home inspector, but the seller should be aware of the age and condition of these two items when selling their house.

For those of you not from Philadelphia, the yard in the above
picture is really big for a South Philly Yard!