Real estate experts say that home buyers today are quickly losing interest in “fixer-upper” homes and are looking for homes that are move-in ready. You could say the thrill of doing it yourself dissipated as soon as Chip and Joanna Gaines stopped filming the hit TV show Fixer Upper.
In knowing the general interests of potential home buyers, the last thing you want to do is sabotage your bottom line with unnecessary renovations and fixes that turn them off. What you do, or don’t do, to get your home ready to sell will determine whether you have multiple showings or just a few here and there.
So before you start your renovations, consult with a licensed real estate agent to find out the features and qualities potential home buyers are actually looking for and that are of most value to them. This is going to help you determine the types of renovations and changes you need to make in time for your first house showing.
Take a look at the 4 biggest turnoffs potential home buyers hate seeing in house showings.
4 Biggest Turnoffs Potential Home Buyers Hate Seeing in House Showings
Turnoff 1: Converted Rooms
If you want to turn off a potential home buyer, let them tour your home and see that you’ve converted the garage into an extra bedroom or home office. When they see that, most potential home buyers don’t even care to see the rest of the house.
Garage space is a feature that’s at the top of lots of home buyers’ wish lists, especially when they’re moving from an area where parking was limited… the last thing they want to see is a home that robbed them of a legitimate parking space.
The same goes for taking a formal dining room and turning it into an office space or playroom. If you’ve made any remodels or renovations like that, it would be in your and your home’s best interest to renovate or remodel it back to the room’s original state and purpose before a potential home buyer sees it!
Turnoff 2: Hideous Curb Appeal
Your home’s curb appeal is the main thing that’s going to make potential home buyers want to see the inside of your home; if you can impress them from the outside, their interest will surely be sparked to check out the inside.
Enhancing your home’s curb appeal can be a pretty easy fix, depending on the condition of your home’s exterior. Sometimes a fresh coat of paint, some brightly colored flowers, a freshly cut yard, and a welcome mat can do the trick. But sometimes a home’s exterior will require a bit more TLC.
If your home’s siding has endured all kinds of weather damage, you may need to get a few quotes from James Hardie siding contractors. If your roof has wind damage, you may need to find a professional roof repair contractor. With your home’s exterior, your mindset needs to be “by any means necessary.”
You don’t want to spend all your money on outdoor repairs, but if your home has roof damage or the siding needs repairs, you may have to cut back in other areas of your renovation budget to take care of the major repairs like roofing or siding.
Turnoff 3: Strange or Unpleasant Odors
This particular turnoff is self-explanatory. If your house has an unpleasant odor, potential home buyers will immediately be turned off. You need to get to the bottom of where the odor is coming from. If it’s your carpet, pull it up; if it’s your furniture from your dog, get rid of the dog! Just kidding, pets are part of the family, but you will need to deep clean your furniture as well as your entire home to ensure its smell is pleasing to the senses.
Turnoff 4: Personal Touches
When it comes to staging your house, one of the top rules a home staging expert will tell you is to get rid of any family photos or anything that will make a potential home buyer feel like they’re walking into someone else’s house. All your staging efforts are done to make the potential home buyer imagine what it would feel like to live there. They need to be able to tour your home and envision their own belongings there.
As you can see, there’s a lot to consider in getting your home “show ready,” but a step in the right direction is to not turn potential home buyers off. Again, consult with a local real estate agent in your area for help.
