Copy by Graham White Managing Director, Local Real EstateThis might seem like an obvious statement, but when it comes to your own property, I find that a lot of people don’t do this, or more accurately, do not do it enough and at the right time. The reason I feel that this is a relevant topic, is because I believe that many sellers haven’t got the price their homes should probably have achieved in recent months, based on this significant aspect.
The point I am getting at here is maintaining the condition of your home. Like last month’s article I want to elucidate on what actually happens in practice, rather than getting stuck on what should happen in theory. In reality, when a buyer looks at a home and their heart says this is something they could live in, their head however says that there is work that will need to be done on the house in order to make it “liveable”. Suddenly they want to offer but want to factor in the work that they will need to do, and they will over-estimate that cost. In theory however, the price has already been set, or reduced, to factor in the fact that the floors need re-doing, the damp needs fixing, the cracks need to be filled and painted over. And this would have been carefully explained to the buyers, but in reality, they still want to factor it in as they just see a price for a property and what they need to spend on top.
So how do we counter this. The answer is quite simple and relatively low cost: keep on top of your maintenance. I am not actually talking about big items like replacing kitchens and bathrooms but rather repainting every 5 years, fixing a small problem before it becomes a big and expensive problem, maintaining the deck, the floors, the garden. These are all continuous but inexpensive maintenance costs that will reap you rewards when you come to sell.
If every buyer who viewed your property had the impression that the property was “immaculate”, then you would not run into the problems that I have just mentioned. Yes, someone might have different tastes, but they can’t now accuse the house of needing work for them to be able to move into which is a big change in mind shift and the offer you will receive.
One might have the attitude of waiting until it is time to sell and then doing all the work in one go. Firstly, this is now a high cost once off payment, but secondly this does cause delays as you now might have to wait a month or two and that could be critical good selling months that you now lose out on. In practice what happens is the seller doesn’t then do the work that is necessary, puts the house on the market as is, and falls right into the trap that we are discussing. In this scenario the seller must now expect lower offers than what they should potentially get.
Maybe a good way to prove what I am saying is to look at it the other way around. Go ask your trusted agent about the 10 “best” prices they have ever secured. And then ask them were they all immaculate or were they in need of some TLC? I’d be surprised if any TLC properties make the top ten.