Selling a home for the price you want is a difficult task in itself, but it gets even more difficult when your home is not exactly enviable. There are many factors that can make it difficult to sell a home, with location, design and lack of maintenance being the most common.
With that in mind, we decided to create this guide to help you overcome these obstacles and help you sell that difficult home. Read on!
A Poorly Located Home
No matter how many times you’ve heard that location is the most important thing in real estate, the truth is that sometimes sellers don’t pay as much attention to it. It’s easy to forget about location when it’s your own home and you’ve lived there long enough to enjoy the other positives of the home and neighborhood. However, location is important to buyers, especially in a market with a large supply. Buyers will pass up homes that are not as well located, due to a slightly lower level of housing, but in a better neighborhood.
Some neighborhoods may be considered by most people to be bad areas, even though the homes in those bad neighborhoods are located across the street from a good and desirable area. The reality is that a bad location significantly affects the price of a home.
Having a home near areas such as those described below often affects its market value:
- Major roads with lots of traffic
- Railroads
- Commercial areas
- Industrial areas
- Cemeteries
- Areas with high noise pollution such as airports
- Areas with high waste traffic
- Schools
- Government program buildings or housing
- Stadiums
- Farms or factories that emit bad odors.
How to Overcome Objections to a Bad Location
The best way to overcome an objection is to negotiate the price. You can also resort to pointing out hidden advantages that might provide what are generally considered disadvantages. For example:
- Cemeteries are generally quiet places
- Living near a school means you can keep an eye on your children.
- A home in a high-traffic area is much less likely to be broken into.
- Living in a commercial area can be convenient and save time when shopping.
Design Problems
If your home is located in a good area, other factors, such as poor design, can still turn off buyers. Not all design problems can be easily corrected and are often considered an incurable defect. So if it costs more to repair than you’ll receive for your efforts, it may be better to sell the home for less. Here are some examples of design problems:
- 1 – Very narrow doorways and hallways
- 2 – Stairs leading to the entrance
- 3 – Hallways leading to entrances
- 4 – Adjacent bedrooms
- 5 – Bedrooms on different levels
- 6 – Dining room in the center of the house
- 7 – Bedrooms with access from the living room
- 8 – Guest bathroom in inconvenient location
Houses That Need Renovations
In the case of deteriorated homes, it is best to hire a construction company. Unfortunately, many times the solution is to tear the house down or sell it far below its value. Houses that require a lot of work don’t sell for the same amount as those that don’t. In addition, some buyers may even demand compensation for future problems that may arise and are not visible to the naked eye. Some buyers will be interested in purchasing a home as a renovation project, but even then, the price will inevitably be less than other homes of the same size and in the same neighborhood. So, when your home has defects that you are not able to deal with, it is best to be reasonable and compromise a little with the price.
We hope that these considerations have been useful to you. Now you are a little more prepared to decide what to do when you want to sell a home which is in poor conditions. Do you have any other tips? Share them with us in the comments below.
