Selling a home online

No matter how you decide to sell your home the interior as well as the exterior has to show well, unless it is a renovators dream. Here are a number of considerations you will want to keep in mind before selling a home online.

1. Smells

Smoking and all other dreadful smells is bad for the sale of your home.Smoking is not only bad for your health it is bad for your bottom line. As soon as you enter a home that is occupied by smokers the smell hits you.

Not only is the smell over powering, but the nicotine remains in the walls and stains the paint and the wall paper. And if that is not bad enough nicotine actually grows on your walls.

Pet smells linger in the air, and a lot of people are allergic to dogs and cats. Even if you are great at cleaning your animals, many buyers that are allergic to them will not even come into the home.

If you are inclined to forget about cleaning your pet or pet’s area, the urine scent, and the spots that it leaves will definitely cause even pet lovers to look elsewhere for a home.

What is even worse, it the stains are bad even a great carpet clean will not work, as the urine will have gone through to the subfloor. You will have to rip up the carpet, treat it with a special urine disinfectant, then replace the carpet.

This bad habit can cost you up to $10,000 and make it near to impossible to get a good price if you are considering selling a home online.

2. Carpets in Bathrooms!!!

Who has carpet in their bathrooms? Unfortunately too many owners that are preparing to sell their homes over look this unsightly problem. Carpets in the bathroom are bad, bad and even worst.

Unless you have maid service, we all have to clean the bathroom from time to time, and I am sure you have noticed that while we all aim for the water bowl, some of us miss.

If you have kids, they miss most of the time, and boys just don’t aim straight. Unfortunately, all that stuff, including hair gets stuck in the carpets, and this attracts bugs and bacteria. You may have seen a few bugs around your toilet bowl lately.

Just the thought of it is nasty and smelly, so imagine what your buyers will think. If you have any thoughts of selling a home online, remove that carpet.

In addition, since most people are thinking about the environment, you could replace the carpet with a floor that is ecologically compatible for bathrooms, and use it as a selling point. If the carpet stays, it could cost you $2000 -$3000 in the sale of your home.

3. Selling a home online with themed rooms

The one thing that always surprised me when I walked through a home for sale are those Themed rooms. You know the ones I mean, the ones that are decorated to look like a Star Trek theme where the entire room looks like the inside the Voyager ship with LCD lights and aluminum inlays as featured on the TV show.

Then there are the Sailor or Nautical theme rooms that double as a bar with Bold Nautical Stripes like Navy, white, and lots of wood paneling. Of course there is sand with anchors, signal flags, sailboats, and lighthouses.

You get the picture. As the purchaser, you start to feel like you need a life preserver, as your begin to get sea sick from the thought of the cost of ripping out all that wood paneling.

As a homeowner, it might have brought you a lot of joy, but the only thing a buyer sees is a lot of expense. This is such a major issue that it could cost you at least $8,000, and make it near to impossible if you are thinking of selling a home online, and even worse your home could stay on the market much longer than it needs to, especially now that we are in a buyer’s market, or worse still not sell at all.

4. Extensions

Extensions of any kind done without a building permit, and plain ugly extensions. In the 70s people were building decks, putting in pools, renovating their basements to make it into a rental property and adding apartments, and sun rooms to their homes at an alarming rate.

Many of the decks collapsed, or were built over municipal property and caused disruption in communities when lines were accidentally cut.

Today buyers are savvy and will ask about every extension, addition or thing that is out of place. If you built without a permit, then they will ask you to deduct the price that a permit might cost. What about that rental apartment, is it built to code? What if the purchaser insists on it?

Additions to homes that are just plain ugly take value away from the value of your home the instant the buyer sees them. In many cases the new buyers will have to replace your work themselves, and you can expect to reduce your selling price by as much as $30,000 to $40,000.

5. Finally, “eye catching” exteriors, and I don’t mean that in a good way.

If your only intention of selling a home online is to do so to your immediate family or relatives, then having fancy Italian fountains, and statues of David might appeal to them, but not to anyone else.

Other examples of things not to do with your exterior are Pink Flamingos, garden gnomes, ducks or angels. Signs like “Beware of Dog” are not inviting to many buyers either. Junk in the garden, or just plain messy gardens are definite turn offs.

When you are preparing your home you have to be aware that the market has changed, people are busy, both male and females work, some work two jobs, and don’t have the time to rip out walls or renovate around your handy work.

If you have additional questions regarding selling a home online contact me, or you can contact me to schedule an appointment for me to take care of your real estate needs.