If you’re selling a house, it’s the little things that could blow a potential sale. If you’re looking to make a good impression, beyond offering curb appeal, and you want to sell your home fast and efficiently, you’ll want to think about the little things that can turn off visitors — and about making your house more welcome to house hunters.
[Read: How to Sell Your Home While Living In It]
Visualize the Walk From the Car to the House
Are your potential buyers able to park in the driveway or do they have to hoof it from the curb because you have several cars taking up space? That may not be an issue if it’s a short driveway and easy trek — in fact, maybe they’ll enjoy strolling up the driveway or sidewalk to what may be their new home. But if they’re trudging through ice and snow in the winter or rain puddles and mud in the summer, or your driveway’s condition makes them wary about repairs, it may be another story.
You also want to think about things such as political signs, says Noelle Larson, an associate broker at Engel & Völkers Atlanta.
“It is a sensitive topic for a lot of people,” Larson says. You probably know not to put up a bunch of potentially polarizing political signs in your yard around sale time. But Larson points out that your neighbors’ signs could inadvertently turn off buyers. If you’re on cordial terms with your neighbors, maybe you can talk to them about it.
“I had a listing in a neighborhood where the home next door to my seller had a political party flag hanging on the side of the garage,” she says. “Feedback from the showing indicated that the buyer was offended and was not interested in living next door to someone that supported another party.”
Think About Your Pets
You love your dogs and cats — for good reason, they’re great — but they can potentially wreck a sale.
“I showed a home to one of my buyers that had nine cats living in the home,” Larson says. In that situation, Larson says she opened the door with a potential buyer “and the smell was so strong and pungent that my buyer didn’t even want to enter the home, so we left.”
There are several other considerations with pets:
— Pet fur. Is there a lot of it throughout the house? That may annoy some people.
— Pet toys scattered about? Maybe the buyers who are animal lovers will be charmed, or maybe not.
— As the seller, you probably will vacate the home during a showing. But are you leaving a pet running loose in the house? Explore whether your dog or cat can stay with a family member or friend during an open house or home tour.
[READ: 5 Things to Not Ignore At a Home Showing]
Have Some Common Scents
“The way something smells is a big deal and can be a big turnoff,” Larson says. “It’s usually one of the first things people notice when they enter a home.”
As noted, pets can create overpowering smells, but that’s not all: Smoking can, tod, as can dirty laundry. Even the wrong cooking smells are turnoffs.
“All of these things not only make the home smell, but it also sends a message that the homeowner doesn’t make an effort to take care of the home, and that is a red flag,” Larson says. “If they can’t even take out the trash, are they really going to pay attention to bigger and more serious issues?”
If you want a smell associated with your kitchen, real estate agents say the scent of fresh homemade cookies works.
Larson doesn’t advise sellers to place candles or use air fresheners in their homes, certainly nothing overpowering. She says some homebuyers will suspect the homeowner is trying to mask a scent that they don’t want the anyone to notice.
Let There Be Light
“Turn on every light and lift every shade and blind,” says Thomas McCormick, a real estate broker and partner at Resources Real Estate in Rumson, New Jersey.
That’s a little obvious — it’s always going to feel more inviting if there’s natural light throughout your home. But also think about your lighting at night. Homebuyers can’t always get to a house during the day. If your outdoor lighting isn’t great, potential buyers might struggle or even stumble on their way to your front door. If your indoor lighting is insufficient and the home looks gloomy or depressing at night, that might work against you.
[Read: How to Use Ambient Lighting for a Cozier Home]
Think About Cleaning
McCormick has an interesting take on the cleaning process. He calls it the “three-room strategy.”
“Not to say that it makes or breaks it, but the first three rooms a buyer enters impacts the rest of the showing,” McCormick says, though he also emphasizes that curb appeal is very important, too.
“Basically, a buyer is judging — consciously or not — and every little thing carries weight,” McCormick says. Even small stuff like dirty light switch plates, clutter on the floor or table tops and cobwebs can really take the wind out of a buyer’s sails (or sales), he says.
He says that generally if a buyer really likes the first three rooms, but then a fourth is a mess, they’re likely to be more open-minded about changes they can implement. Your house probably isn’t perfect, but those first three rooms should be, he advises.
Adjust the Thermostat
“One of the biggest mistakes sellers make is an uncomfortable temperature in the home during property showings,” says Brett Johnson, a real estate agent, investor and the owner of New Era Home Buyers in Denver. “If it’s the dead of winter and the house is freezing, buyers won’t linger long enough to appreciate the space. The same goes for summer, when a hot house has a line of people racing back to their cars.”
He adds: “Comfort matters, and one of the easiest things to manage is temperature.”
Consider Removing Some of Your Photos
If you still live at your home, why shouldn’t you have photos of your family on the wall?
If you’re selling your home, your house is no longer completely a home. It’s kind of like a store. You’re trying to attract one customer, and people who are shopping at your home are looking for their next home — not yours.
“Buyers lose interest quickly when they get the impression that a property is too personalized,” Johnson says.
If you have sports team memorabilia prominently displayed and the buyer doesn’t share your love for basketball or water polo or whatever you’re into, they may not make a connection with the home.
The goal, Johnson says, is to make your house “welcoming but not too personalized so that buyers can envision themselves in the home and make it their own.”
Larson seconds that, saying that photos on every wall make it tough for the potential buyer to visualize what the home would look like if they lived there.
More importantly than the photos, the seller ideally won’t be there when the customers are — or at least they should stay out of the way.
“Sellers can be their own biggest obstacle without knowing,” Larson says. She once showed a home while the seller was present, and the friendly homeowner mentioned being unable to keep up with home repairs and referenced neighbors who had rather loud pool parties as late as 2 a.m. The homebuyers were expecting a baby and quickly decided that the home wasn’t for them.
Even if you leave your family photos and a shelf full of bowling trophies, the most important thing is whether your house is otherwise in great shape.
“Buyers don’t want to buy something and have to put any more money into it unless they get a really good deal,” Larson says. “When they arrive at a showing, they want to see a well-maintained home.”
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How to Make Your Home More Welcome to House Hunters originally appeared on usnews.com
