Vacant Homes Can Be REALLY Cold

Selling Your Home

Selling a vacant home is enough of a challenge in a healthy market, let alone in this strong buyers' market.  Add to this, selling in the winter just adds insult to injury.

Many home sellers choose to winterize their home to avoid the risk of pipes freezing or breaking when no one is home to keep an eye on the home.  Even with a property manager, days could go by before anyone notices, and the risk of causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage is a pretty great risk.  Even if the home is not winterized, most sellers will turn the heat down to 50-60 degrees, which is not very inviting to a potential home buyer or their agent.  Buyers won't linger, and, oftentimes, won’t see the qualities and amenities that your home has to offer if they are being constantly reminded that their hands and and/or feet are cold.

If this isn't bad enough, now consider a cold, vacant home without furniture.  I know--a vacant home, by definition, is empty.  However, some sellers will leave some or most of their belongings behind to try and add some warmth to the home, no pun intended.  While this can help, it isn't the best way to appeal to a buyer and, in turn, expect a buyer to emotionally connect with your home.

A vacant home is, by definition, much harder to sell.  Even the smallest imperfections will show as well as dated features, scarred walls and floors, carpet stains, odors, etc.  Staging your home becomes extremely important and, in a strong buyers’ market, can mean the difference between an offer and no offer or a good offer and no offer.  Remember, buyers want to emotionally connect with a house—we, ourselves, have seen buyers do this over and over again. 

Think about this—most homebuilders across America spend a great deal of money creating the “model home” so that all potential buyers feel like they are in a home.  Sometimes it is a little disconcerting to buyers when they finally move into their new home and it has white walls, no window treatments, and bland carpet, but nonetheless, the model home is what created the emotional appeal and moved them in the direction of purchasing a new home.

It is no different in the resale market--whether it is a new home or a resale home, buyers want to walk into a “model” home.  Staging a vacant home is extremely important for this very reason.  As we have stated on our website and in some of our blogs, staging is a wonderful, effective solution for creating emotional appeal.  And although this particular blog is about vacant homes and the importance of staging, we believe that staging is always an option regardless of whether the home is a new home or a resale home—buyers are always looking for the “perfect” home.

Date: Tuesday, December, 9th 2008 @ 11:29:52 AM
Views: 140

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