If you are considering selling your home any time soon, you might want to think about how it will be viewed by potential buyers as there are several things that are property turn-offs and could be the deciding factor in whether someone wants to buy your house. While there are some major factors, such as your home’s location and size that you cannot alter or change easily, you may appreciate some tips on how to make the best of your home and how to make sale happen faster. Here are our Top 10 Property Turn Offs:
1. Clutter
If a potential buyer walks in the door and is greeted by the sight of piles of clutter and junk, it’s likely to be a no-go. Clutter provides a distraction for potential buyers and can also give the impression that the house isn’t big enough and has no storage space, presenting them with problems from the onset. By having a clear out, or storing items that aren’t currently a necessity, you’ll create a more modern and cleaner look, which provides viewers with more opportunity to imagine their own possessions throughout various rooms in the house. Britannia Ryans provides reasonably priced and easily accessible storage solutions in a range of options including self-storage, mobile storage and containerised storage, which you can take advantage of while you are sell and moving or long term. Ensuring you tidy the house of general clutter and giving everything a home will again demonstrate a more pleasing aesthetic for potential buyers.
2. Dirty bathroom or kitchen.
These rooms are usually what sells a home and are the two most frequently used rooms and can often be the most personal. When people are viewing your home, they are trying to imagine themselves living there, so if they have no choice but to imagine themselves cleaning their teeth in a mouldy room or preparing dinner in a stained kitchen sink, this may set off immediate alarm bells. A simple solution is obviously grabbing some cleaning equipment and getting to work on scrubbing away the dirt! If a hard day of cleaning isn’t going to be enough to solve the problem, then consider spending a bit of money on redecorating as it could just be the difference between a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
3. Smells.
Even the slightest smell can set the viewer off with a bad feeling about the property. Think about it – they are walking through a home permeated by an unfamiliar or even foul odour. This will be a forever nagging issue, despite all its other features meeting their criteria exactly. Be sure to control this by taking out the bins before any viewing and removing any smelly trainers and shoes from the hall. You may also need to remove signs of pets (food and beds), and put the dog in the garden or take it for a walk. It’s also worth airing the property before a viewing or having a few scented candles or air fresheners placed around the house to ensure a fresh and clean environment throughout the house.
4. Smoking.
The affect smoke can have on a house’s interior may cause several thousands of pounds worth of damage. This is a huge figure to be losing out on, so if you or anyone in your family smokes, it’s time to banish smoking to the garden so the house can have some breathing space before putting it on the market. A good clean, a lick of paint and some fresh air will make all the difference and will improve your chances of a quick sale at the right price. You may also need to clean the carpets and upholstery if the smell has become ingrained.
5. Peeling paint, damp patches and cracks in walls.
If these are present in your home while trying to sell, this will be an instant negative for your potential buyers. Immediately presenting them with a problem such as damp will already indicate that there may be a lot of work to do and not all buyers are prepared for this. Minor factors such as peeling paint is easily fixed by a quick paint job. However, damp patches and cracks in walls can present deeper lying problems involving the structure of the house and potentially large bills and costs on top of a house purchase. Unless buyers are property developers or looking to do a lot of work themselves on a property, it’s something they’re unlikely to want to take on after the stress of a house move. Getting these problems sorted before it goes on the market will not only make it a quicker sale but will also likely secure you more money for your property.
6. A jungle Garden.
Gardening is not a popular pastime for all and you may not consider it an important factor when viewing a house. However, people are more and more wanting outside space they can enjoy, so a viewer could take one look at an unsightly patch of green and make this a deciding factor over whether to go through with a sale. It also suggests to a potential buyer that the garden is unmanageable and out of control, which may put other less keen gardeners off taking it on. Invest time to make sure the grass is mown and well kept. Add some pots with plants and somewhere to sit. As long as a buyer can either see the potential in a slightly neglected garden or that they’ll be able to manage the space easily, this will be positive step forward.
7.Noise.
A major turn off for potential buyers can be the worry of possibly being kept awake by transport noise, whether it be trains, a busy road or planes flying overhead. Now, these are things you cannot simply move or change. However, you may be able to mitigate these turn-offs by improving the soundproofing of your home by installing either double or triple glazed windows. Keep the windows in the room closed during viewings, so buyers can appreciate the effect of the soundproofing. A good thing to remember when you’re tired of complaints about the noisy transport system that surrounds your home, is that you were aware of these factors when you viewed the house and you still chose to buy it, so it’s likely that someone else will be willing to overlook it too!
8. Layout.
Most homeowners like to add their own personal touch to a house to make it their own. For example, they may have a preferred style and system to getting around their home or layout for where their furniture should go, blocking doors or openings. However, remember that what personally suits you is not likely to suit another! While it might be heart-breaking to remove the personal stamp you’ve put on your home, you should do everything you can to make your home as easy to get around and depersonalised as possible, so that it appeals to a wide audience. This will mean that buyers viewing your home will see more potential for what they can do with the space within the house. With older properties in terraced housing, it is normal to be setback with factors such as having to enter the bathroom via a bedroom or having the dining room and kitchen separate. While this isn’t something you can change easily, you should be aware that this might be a factor in why some people are dissuaded from putting an offer in on your home and that it’s nothing personal.
9. Flood Plains.
This may seem a blindingly obvious factor due to the dreadful effects flooding has had on the UK in recent years, and the difficulty the country has had dealing with heavy and prolonged rainfall. You may be located on a flood plain that’s never had any experience of flooding, so it’s important to make that clear to the people viewing your home. No one wants the stress of having to stock up on sandbags during the winter months so make sure you’re honest about the likelihood of this.
10. A recent death in a property.
This can be a massive turn off for potential buyers, if they hear that someone has recently died in the property. It can also be a deciding factor before even viewing it. As a result, this is completely out of your control, so all you can do is your best when presenting the property. If it meets all the criteria a prospective buyer is looking for, it should be enough to persuade them regardless.
