Photo from uglyhousephotos.com WHY?????
So your tub has hot pink tiles and the kid’s bedroom is Concord grape purple with an aqua marine mermaid border. All fine choices for your family, if you like that sort of thing. But not so much if you are planning on selling your home any time soon.
Everyone wants to live in a home that is personalized to their needs and tastes. But far too often these tastes conflict with the need or desire to sell the home when for one reason or another you need to move.
On the other hand, perhaps you have put off fixing that leaky shower fixture or the hole Johnny punched in the wall in the den when he tripped over the cat. Or maybe its that cranberry juice stain all over the living room rug that you’ve been hiding under an area rug for 5 years.
Whatever the case may be, you are now in a position where you want to market your home to potential buyers and get the best offer possible to sell your home. You have a decision to make as to whether to invest the time and money to re-tile, paint over, call a plumber, get out the spackle and trowel or simply show your place to the buyers “as is.”
Depending on the problem, this can be a very costly “fix”. But at the same time, you may lose significant selling power if your home gives off serious negative impressions to the buyers.
Houses are sold or not sold based almost exclusively on first impressions. If your home has good curb appeal, is clean and uncluttered and gives potential buyers a neutral pallet for which they can envision their own tastes, furnishings and lifestyle, then you have a serious leg up on the seller who refuses to depersonalize, declutter or invest in creating a positive first impression.
Regardless of what you do to address the problem, you need to approach it from the perspective of the buyer, not the seller. Imagine yourself walking into a home and how you’d react to the potential problem.
But do not just fix something for the sake of fixing it either. If you go for a cheap fix or a fix that doesn’t jive with the style choice of your potential buyers, you could be doing more harm to your chances of selling than good. The key to all of this is to ask yourself this question before you do anything: Is what I am doing to fix this problem going to ad a new problem for the potential buyers, who will likely want to change it again? If this is the case, then it might be better to just leave it as is and let them make the fixes themselves.
I highly suggest that when faced with this type of dilemma that you get the opinion of some real estate professionals. Talk to your listing agent about the issues, see what he or she has to say about the impact it will have on the sale. Don’t forget that your realtor has a lot invested in selling your home too. He or she will be glad to help you stage your home to maximize its appeal to the buyers.
