Seller Tips -

10 Ways to guarantee your home will Not sell

If you want your home to sell – Don't scare off prospective home buyers!
If your home is unkept and looks like it needs lots of deferred maintenance, chances are it’s not going to sell.
Your home’s current appearance may cause prospective buyers to turn away and not even consider it and move on to the next property.

Avoid these 10 turn-offs that will make your home unsellable:
  1. Odors – A smelly house is an unsold house. If the house smells like cigarette smoke, pets, or mildew, you can say goodbye to any prospective home buyers. Do whatever it takes to eliminate odors altogether – but this doesn’t mean dousing your rooms with sprays that only mask odors.

  2. Pets – Your pets may be your pride and joy, but prospective buyers may not see them that way. At the least, buyers may find your pets irritating or they may be allergic to them; at worst, they may be afraid of them. Have any and all pets (dogs, cats, etc.) removed from your house entirely during showings, if at all possible. If that’s not a feasible solution, then put them in their crates and place them in a safe location.

  3. Dirty Bathrooms – Let’s face it, dirty bathrooms are gross to just about anyone! Mildew-encrusted shower curtains, dingy toilet bowls, tattered towels, moldy sinks are not pleasant things to see! Take the time to clean, paint, scrub, re-caulk, and redecorate until each and every bathroom shine like new.

  4. Dark Rooms – Do rooms in your house get mistaken for caves because they’re so dark? Then you need to brighten things up as soon as possible because most buyers aren’t crazy about overly dark rooms. Take the time to clean all your windows (inside and out), prune back tree limbs that may be overshadowing your home, replace heavy drapes with lighter alternatives, install some brighter light sources (or add more of them), and repaint dark-hued rooms with lighter fresh colors. If you can afford them – Consider quality skylights.

  5. Busy Wallpaper – You may love that paisley wallpaper in the master bedroom, but a buyer may feel very differently. In fact, most would probably prefer choosing their own wallpaper – if they even like wallpaper at all. The best thing you can do is strip all the wallpaper out and then repaint. Important to note: Do not paint over the wallpaper!!! Buyers will notice if you do and will know that stripping it will now be even more difficult and costlier.

  6. Damp Basements – Do you know what a damp basement screams to buyers? Don’t buy this house, the foundation leaks! Find out whether it’s caused by clogged underground drains, downspouts facing the wrong way, a lack of rain gutters (or gutters that are clogged), or (the worst-case scenario) a faulty foundation and fix this problem now before it worsens.

  7. Bugs – Unless your potential buyer loves to live with bugs in their home – they will not be buying your home if they see a bug of any kind. Get rid of them!

  8. Bad Curb appeal – Make sure your yard is well-manicured, your sidewalks are clean and clear, your doors and windows aren’t sagging, and your paint isn’t peeling, and you roof is in good condition. A buyer won’t even get out of their car or their agent’s car if your home doesn’t look inviting from the street.

  9. Overgrown Gutters – Trees should be growing in your yard, not in your gutters – Clean out the gutters.

  10. Clingy Sellers – It’s best to be out of your home when agents are showing the house. If you stick around, home buyers are going to feel uncomfortable previewing all the features of your home and you don’t want your home getting a reputation as “that house with the hovering owner”.