I have a favor to ask....

These past two days have seemed to be getting away from me it feels.  I had another one with a little more depth post planned for today, but every time I sit down to try to finish writing, my attention is needed else where (i.e. a two year old). 

So, I am asking a huge favor from you guys today.

Please feel free to respond in the comments below, on facebook, privately, anomously, whatever you feel comfortable with.  I just want some help and some opinions.  Even if you have never ever commented before, please comment on this one for me and you never have to comment again (though I'd like you to anyways).  Mmmmkay, Thanks!

 When buying/looking at houses, what are the things as a buyer, that stick out to you?

What I mean with that is, like..finger prints on the wall, mismatched hardware in the bathrooms, crappy paint jobs, etc.....those are just things that come to my mind.

I mentioned on other social media that we had our first showing this past weekend.  Originally we were supposed to have two, but one potential buyer who asked us to leave for two hours so he could come look at it, ended up being a no show, no call.....can we say RUDE!!!  Please do not waste my time!!!  The least he or his agent could have done was call to say we won't make it.  I had to keep a two year old busy outside of the house for over three hours early Saturday morning.  This guy obviously doesn't realize the way to the Mabrey's heart. If you know us, you learn quickly not to waste our time. Let's just say that is not the best way to make us want to possibly work with you to come to a lower price. We'd rather sit here longer and wait for someone else who will be a little more respectable of our time to come along.  

NOT BITTER AT ALL!!!

Anyways....moving on.

However, the potential buyers that DID show, we have yet to hear any feed back from.  So, I'm just curious as a general question.....what are the things that you look at when looking at buying a house?  That way, I can go ahead and start addressing some of those possible things.

Even better....for anyone who has been to our house, what are the things that stick out to you? 

I promise my feelings will not be hurt.  I know our house is far from perfect.  We've learned that there are things about our house we've had no problem living with, while it bugs other people. 

For example: When our house was a foreclose (before we bought it) it was vandalized at some point and white paint was thrown all over the fireplace and their are spots of white paint on the living room ceiling from where the vandals threw paint around.  We fixed the fireplace, but we have never painted the ceilings and when you look at a certain angle, you can see the spots.  It has honestly never bothered us and on our "one day we'll get around to it" list.  However, it evidently bothers my cousin-in-law because he mentions it almost every time he comes to our house for the past (almost) three years now. It's not something we take offense to, in fact, I usually laugh when he mentions it.  Like I said, its something that doesn't bother us, but he notices every time and he's been the only person so far to mention it before.

So, help a girl out.  I feel like we have a few big projects to work on and I'm afraid we may focus too much on those and not the little things.

I appreciate any advice. 

Thank you in advanced for your help....cause I know you're going to help me, right?!?!  : )

P.S. The reason why I am asking is because we are in a higher (but fair) price range for our area and we really will not get much traffic coming through our house.  So, I thought it would be easiest to get the most feedback from you guys.  Thanks again!!! : )

Comments

The Edberg's said…
From a buyer prospective, I really love a nice welcoming curb appeal - does it look friendly and safe, are there cobwebs/critter catchers on the porch, are there any flowers, etc. Since I am a tall gal, I also tend to notice short toilets, cabinets, head room on stair wells, etc. because I know I'd be bending down just to use those things, kind of out of your control though. One thing I'd spend some time on is improving lighting, whether that means cleaning windows for natural light or adding more lamps/brighter bulbs for artificial light, I'd rather see the flaws then have dark spaces that come to life after purchasing a home. Good luck!
Jennifer Owens said…
So here's a bit of what I know from friends who have been in the selling/buying process lately:

Perhaps HGTV has spoiled everyone. It seems as though there is now an expectation for anyone looking at a potential home for it to be "staged." A few friends who have been trying to sell have run into problems here because they have small kids at home and are trying to have their house on the market too - it's quite hard to live in your house and sell at the same time so I've heard!

If I were you, I would look up some staging tips online to see what kinds of things you can do to make your own personal touches a bit more neutral. Like removing family pictures and specific kinds of decor, etc. It sees to help those I've known with these issues. There are some minimal changes you can make for things to be more appealing to any buyer.

From what I've heard, it's a grueling process, so hang in there!
Heather said…
I would say that I look for SUPER dark or tons of random paint colors.... I know, I know, I can paint them. But, after buying a home and thinking I didn't mind painting, it got really old on the 5th room of painting over eggplant, gold and other colors that took at least two coats of primer and two coats of paint.

We were too young (read dumb) when we bought our first house 6 years ago, that we are still living in now, and while we have every intention of putting it on the market in the next few months... I know there are some things that we need to address too.

On this next time around I'm going to pay close attention to the condition of flooring (other than carpet). After moving in we noticed many issues with our hardwoods that we have throughout the house and the tile floor in the kitchen that had grout chipping. Good luck to you and David!!!

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