A house only a mother could love

Posted by admin - March 14th, 2008

I’ve heard the following phrase more times than I care to admit:

“Well, after all, I LOVE this house. All we need to do is find someone just like me to buy it!”

Unfortunately it always applies to the sellers who are convinced that they’re not that bad off, after all, they bought the house, and love it, so all they need to do is find someone who loves it as much as they do. Case closed!

This is kind of a mixture of rose colored glasses, and a belief that there are a lot more of “them” out there than there really are.

I understand that for some sellers, no matter what they do, the house is not going to sell for the price they need. They’re $30,000, $50,000, $75,000, etc. upside down and they can stage and clean and declutter that bad boy all they want, it ain’t gonna sell!

This post isn’t for them, they’re pretty much stuck.

This post is for you Mr. and Mrs. Seller who don’t want to bother to replace your front door, or fix the loose shingles on the roof, or replace the fence latch, or clean and declutter, or replace your turquoise shag carpeting, or vacuum the dead miller moths out of your soaking tub because you never use it anyway, or paint over that wall in your son’s bedroom that is adorned with a GIANT painting of the Georgia Bulldogs, or replace the cracked tiles in your kitchen, etc. etc. etc.

Ever hear the phrase, “He has a face that only a mother could love…?”

The excuse that you love it so much you just need to find that buyer (who’s just like you) who will instantly fall in love too, despite all its foibles, and beg you to let them write an offer on the spot won’t fly in this market. Your chances of this happening are very small and it makes you appear, to the buyer, as if you aren’t very serious about selling. After all, if you were serious you would have done what needed to be done. You would have put your home’s very best Easter Sunday outfit on.

Buyers don’t want to buy your problems. And believe me, that’s what they see your bedroom wall with the giant bulldog on it as - a problem - a problem they’re going to have to correct with a bunch of paint and an entire Sunday afternoon. It is HIGHLY unlikely they’re going to have a son (or daughter), who happens to cherish the Georgia Bulldogs AND who wants to devote one entire bedroom wall to proclaim that love.

They look at the cracked tile in your kitchen and they begin to calculate in their heads, how much will it cost to replace, can I do it myself, will I have to hire someone, how long will it take, will I have to move the kitchen table, and so on.

Don’t set your home up to fail from the get go! Replace what needs to be replaced, fix what needs to be fixed, clean what needs to be cleaned and potential buyers will walk into your home and think, “Wow! I could move in here immediately and not have to do a thing to it! I love it!”

photo credit: krispayne

photo credit: darkpatator