Understanding Potential Home Buyers.
DIY and Pro Help With Your Home Projects
 Lifestyle Buyers When you are selling to a lifestyle buyer, you must present enough of a picture that they can imagine themselves living the lifestyle they desire in your home. They could be first time home owners or moving up, either way they are looking for something they don?t already have and it is your goal to make it easy for them to imagine that they will have it if they buy your house. These buyers will pay more for house that will not require significant effort to make the house meet or exceed their expectations. These are the buyers you want to focus on if you want to get top dollar for you house. You don?t have to make it perfect, you just need to make it nice enough that buyers can visualize themselves living in your house. Many of these people will be emotional buyers and if you can WOW them in the first 5 minute of looking at your house then, the sales pitch is over. Bargain Hunters Bargain hunters may still be looking for a lifestyle but they are looking at the bones of the property and thinking that if they get it cheap enough, they can fix the problems. Luckily some these buyers are so optimistic that they will underestimate the cost and time to fix the problems and pay too much for the property. Another word for this buyer is a sucker and you may but should not plan on selling your house to a sucker. Bargain hunters will look past the lack of maintenance and think that they can get a better deal on the house since many buyers will be discouraged by blatant problems. These people also have a threshold where the property improvements exceed their ability to say - I can fix that-. Then they will walk away and look for a simple project to tackle. Based on your commitment (time and money) and the condition of your property, you should decide whether you are targeting the lifestyle buyer or the bargain hunter. If you are trying to get the best return on your investment (time and money), then you need to fix the simple superficial problems and the "show-stoppers" or structural problems. Structural Problems Serious problems like a leaking roof must also be fixed if you want to get a fair market value. Many of these problems will actually stop a closing since the insurance company will not insure a property with a leaking roof. The best option is to shop around for a reasonably-priced contractor and pay them to fix the problem. If you don?t, the cost of carrying the house (mortgage and insurance) during the selling period can exceed the cost of the repair. If the local market is not HOT, a house with structural problems can stay on the market for years. If you don?t have the technical competence to hire a contractor, then plan on deep discounts on the price of the house. Simple Problems Simple superficial problems include clutter around the house, dirty bathrooms, or a need for touchup paint. These are all problems that are easy to fix and give a huge return on your investment. Other article on this website give some suggestion on what areas are the cheapest and easiest to fix. Either way, you will not want to spend more than you must to solve the properties problems and present the best image to potential buyers. View more articles about Selling Your Home. The information on this site is provided for reference only and is provided "AS IS", "AS AVAILABLE" with no guarantee of accuracy. Information comes with no warranties, express or implied. Use the information from this site at your own risk. See our disclaimer for more details. |