Selling A Home With A Few Flaws

(In today’s market, homes may seem like they need to be nearly perfect in order to sell or attract any buyers at all. )

With the surplus of homes for sale on the market, to the tune of 4 million plus, frustrated home sellers across the nation are learning that they may need to make some changes to their home in order to get it to sell.

Those people with extremely unique color schemes or backyards that do not compliment the size of the home could run into a lot of trouble these days as buyers are pickier than ever.

During the housing boom of a few years ago, when houses where flying off the market, your house could be purple and orange and it probably would have sold; in two weeks and for double the price!

But now, times have changed and homeowners who find themselves with homes that may only appeal to the tastes of a few potential buyers, or with other minor problems, may have to make some changes to their home in order to find a buyer.

A December 3, 2006 article by Vivian S. Toy of The New York Times, “Finding that one buyer in a million,” discusses how homeowners can fix problems ahead of time, and get their home to sell a lot faster.

“Very few houses are perfect. One might have an expressway just beyond the backyard, or asbestos insulation in the basement that has never been ripped out. Or it might be perfect only in the eye of its owner, with unusual paint colors or eccentric wall paneling.”

“There are all kinds of things that homeowners love, or simply learn to live with, in their houses. But if you’re trying to sell a house in today’s market, and it has something buyers will see as a challenge or a defect, you may be stuck with a house that won’t move.”

Home sellers first need to be prepared for the onslaught of negative remarks that may come in about their home for overly-picky buyers. Nothing ca be taken personally.

Sometimes, when sellers and their agents know that there is something about the house that may cause buyers to balk, lowering the price is the easiest solution, but there are also other options to explore.

If the problem with your home is something bigger than a paint color, you could have a construction company draw up some architectural plans about how the problem could be fixed and show these to potential buyers.

Sometimes acknowledging the problem in advance is the best solution.

“‘Maybe the bathrooms are too small or the kitchen’s in the wrong place for today’s buyer,’ said L. P. Finn, the director of corporate services at Coach Realtors, which has 18 branches across Long Island. ‘That’s when having detailed professional floor plans can help people look past all the issues.’”

Homeowners who are already on a tight budget and cannot make huge renovations to their home prior to selling will be pleased to know that there are many minor alterations that can be made quite inexpensively.

“Debbie Doern, the manager of Coldwell Banker branches in Larchmont and New Rochelle, N.Y., said that wherever necessary, her brokers urge sellers to paint inside and outside, reglaze bathtubs and polish hardwood floors. ‘We recommend anything shy of renovation,’ she said.”

Back to Articles