Picture this: You're looking for a new house; you finally see one for sale that looks great (from the outside); and you make an appointment to take a tour. Then, when you tour the house, you notice dead bugs in the corners of the home, the closet door is off the hinges, and kitty litter is all over the kitchen floor. Are you really going to buy the home now? Most home buyers wouldn't.
The National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (NAEBA) recently conducted a study among their online members to discover what they found annoying or undesirable when searching for a new home. And some of the answers will surprise, or disgust, you.
Here's a list of the most annoying/undesirable things buyers encounter when previewing a home:
1.) Broken door locks preventing access to the home.
2.) Pet "deposits" in the back yard or dirty cat boxes.
3.) Missing light bulbs in the basement.
4.) Sellers that ask you to remove shoes and then have wet carpet or dirty floors.
5.) Having loose stairs on a stairway or missing banisters.
6.) Low hanging dining room light fixtures in a vacant home.
7.) Closet doors that fall off or are not adjusted properly.
8.) Going into a vacant home and hearing animals in the walls.
9.) Scary Halloween decorations that are left out -- after Halloween is over.
10.) Dangerous children's toys left out.
11.) Dead cars in the driveway or yard.
12.) Homes on large lots without a survey or description of the lot boundaries.
13.) Political signs.
14.) Graffiti on a home for sale.
15.) Dead birds or other dead animals in or around the home.
If you find yourself running into any of these annoyances when you're looking for home, take a mental note. If you ever need to sell your home, you don't want dead birds in your lawn, doors hanging off the hinges, or for your home to appear dilapidated in any way.
Try to succeed where the other home sellers have failed, and ensure that your home is extremely clean and in tip-top shape.
