What do buyers look for in terms of the house itself?
Many agree that location is a decisive factor, but so are tangibles like the price and condition of the property (is the price worth the additional huge sums of money to put this house back into mint condition? How much time will I need to renovate the dilapidated portions of this house?).
Buyers will be on the alert for the following:
Start with the outside of the house and ask yourself the following questions – because these are the questions that your potential buyer will be asking!:
* Do these garbage cans, discarded wood scraps and building materials strewn about carelessly an indication of the seller’s negligence?
* Are the gutters and roof in place? When was the last time the seller changed the roof?
* Apart from the human occupants of the house, are there termites and other insects that live here also?
* These overgrown bushes and trees are distracting. What is it that the sellers don’t want us to see?
* Is the lawn is looking unhealthy? Is the rest of the house like that?
* Have the patios and decks been converted into storage areas? Why can’t we see what they actually look like?
* The paint is peeling off; is that why the house looks so drab and uninviting?
* Why are there no lights outside the house? Is this the owner’s way of saving on utility bills? Is this a safe neighbourhood?
The above questions are just a few of the many questions buyers are likely to ask with respect to the outside of the house. A house’s exterior constitutes the buyer’s first impression. And we all know what they say about first Impressions.
* High and low pricing: sellers who like to make a killing price their property way too high, making it out of reach to buyers who are looking at similar properties in the same location. Don’t be priced out. Going to the other end of the spectrum, you’ll know that you priced your house too low when it’s bought the same or next day after you or your agent advertised it. It was “snatched” by someone else because it was way below market price.
Obviously, you as seller will try to get the highest price you can get for your property so you start with a high price.
The buyer, on the other hand, will offer the lowest possible price he can negotiate. So you start high and he starts low. This creates plenty of room to negotiate – the gray area that lies between the highest and lowest prices.
This is where sellers can make the mistake of not demonstrating sufficient flexibility to the buyer!
This is the reason there are high and low prices in real estate – what Albert Lowry called practising the give-and-take principle. “Such give-and-take is part of the bargaining process… It gives you both room to negotiate… As you and the buyer make proposals and counterproposals, you are inching closer to agreement… Then at some point one of you will yield no further.” Develop the extra sense to know when to stop negotiating.
T J Madigan
http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-articles/selling-your-property-what-buyers-look-for-69544.html
2 users commented in " Selling Your Property – What Buyers Look For "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWhich is the biggest benefit of offering buyer concessions when selling your home?
1. You can raise the price and make it look like a better deal for the buyer.
2. Your property will usually sell quicker.
3. You don’t have to do as much work to the home.
Really none of the above. I’ll address each then add some additional:
1. – You can sell your house for what ever the market will bear. While you may get a bit more offering seller concesions the money doesn’t go to you. It goes to pay closing costs. Remember that no matter what you are offered for your home, if it doesn’t appraise for that price the borrower wiill have to come up with the additional cash to make up the difference.
2. – A seller concession won’t make your property sell any quicker. An estimated 65% of potential buyers will ask for a seller concession at the time of offer anyway.
3. – If I’m going to make an offer on your home two very important things have to happen first. I have to be able to afford it, (yes, a concession will help do that) and I have to like it. If your home is badly in need of repair no seller concession (short of the money needed to do the work) is going to make me buy it.
So now, what advantage does offering a seller concession give to the seller? I’ll name just a few:
1. – Many first time home buyers are shut down by the fact they don’t have the money needed to complete the transaction, ie: closing costs. By offering a seller concession to cover these costs you open up the market to buyers that might not otherwise be able to purchase.
2. – Offering a seller concession actualy makes you MORE money. How? Well lest’s assume you are listing your house for $200,000 – Statisticly you will end up selling for $180,000 – Now let’s say you accept an offer of $192,000 with a 6% seller concession. You recieve the $180,000 – Your buyer gets to borrow the addiyional $12,000 to apply to their closing costs – even though they are borrowing the money you are taking the loss – At the end of the year you claim it on your taxes.
You got your price and a $12,000 write off. There in lies the true benefit of a seller concession.
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