“As you go through life, make this your goal. Watch the donut, not the hole.” (Burl Ives)
That would be good advice for real estate as well as for life. Too often both the sellers and the agent involved in marketing the house put too much time in on watching the hole – things that aren’t there; instead of things that are. There are almost always shortcomings in most houses, whether it is the design and layout, a smallish kitchen, small bathrooms, no garage or whatever. Those are the holes that can't be easily fixed. What needs to be the focus is the donut. That might be the great location, the cozy warmth of a smaller place, the features of character that may not be found in newer homes.
You and your Realtor, working together, can figure out how to best show the donut and minimize the attention paid to the holes. Some Realtors give staging advice themselves and some may bring in a stager. It’s amazing what someone with an eye for furniture placement and accessories can do to make the donut look so great that you don’t even see the hole. Sometimes it may require a little paint to change the character of a room or just removing some of the stuff in the room to make it feel bigger. Little things, like adding knobs to kitchen cabinets can change the look of the whole kitchen and is a relatively cheap update. Just doing a deep clean on your bathrooms to make the tile and grout sparkle can change your view about that room. There are many other small and inexpensive tricks that your Realtor will be able to suggest.
One way to make some of the holes disappear is to take care of all of those little maintenance things that you’ve been putting off. That broken switch plate or missing plug cover is a hole in your donut. The piece of door molding that your cat has used as a scratching post for the last few years is a hole in your donut. That water stain on your ceiling from a leak that happened before you got the roof replaced is a hole in your donut. That wobbly bottom step on the front porch or the loose hand railing are holes in your donut. You may have grown comfortable living with those things, but a buyer will just see them as holes in your donut. Fixing them lets the buyers keep their eyes on the donut.
So, while it is good advice to stay positive and keep your view on the donut; when the time comes to sell you’ve got to fix those holes that you’ve been living with. Ask your Realtor to help you by walking through and helping you make a list of the holes that need attention. You may be surprised at the number of things that he/she sees that need attention and that you’ve just gotten so used to that you don’t even notice them anymore. You want your home to come across as a crème puff and not a stale old donut.
