Home Sellers Be Aware

For many years the idea of buying a less than perfect house on a good street and putting in a lot of sweat equity to improve its value was the goal of many homebuyers. My first home was a ‘fixer upper’ and many of my friends and family approached their first real estate investment the same way.? That thinking does not always apply in today’s real estate market.

One study by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) showed that young buyers, especially, are giving priority to a modern home or one that has energy efficient features over one that is older and in need of a ‘facelift’. Case in point, I am working with a first-time homebuyer and for him the thought of doing any major (or even minor) renovations is a deal killer. He has his sights on a house that he can move into, unpack boxes, and rejoice in the fact that everything is great and he doesn’t have to fix anything.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) research also found that “45% of buyers who purchased new homes did so to avoid renovations, especially concerning issues with plumbing or electricity” (www.nar.realtor).?

Curb Appeal and First Impressions Still Count

This move-in ready trend has important implications for home sellers who have begun, in earnest, to put their homes on the market. According to Realtracs, the inventory of homes in Nashville has gone from 1.2 months in March of 2022 to 4.6 months in July of 2024.? This significant rise in inventory has allowed homebuyers to be selective. Home builders are aggressively marketing their homes as well, so buyers are, in some cases, seeing brand new homes priced at or below comparable, older homes that need some sort of update or renovation.

Buyers watched home prices skyrocket for several years, and now they either can’t afford (or don’t want) to put more money into a house that is pushing the envelope of what they afford. Home sellers that want to successfully sell their home need to plan on getting the house in shape so that it becomes ‘head turning’ to would-be homebuyers. Sellers with homes that obviously need painting, landscaping, plumbing, electrical work, or other repairs should get the work done prior to selling to improve the odds of a buyer(s) wanting to make an offer. Otherwise, the chances of the house sitting on the market, absorbing multiple price reductions, could increase. ??

The shoe is now on the ‘other foot’ so to speak and home buyers have advantages that were clearly in the hands of home sellers not long ago. Home buyers have more choice, more time to consider offers, and more leverage to ask for things like interest rate buy downs and home repairs. Selling a home ‘as is’ without doing anything to make it more presentable, is not a great strategy. It not only lowers the potential asking price, but it also reduces the number of serious buyers who may want to make an offer.

As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression and that certainly applies to real estate. Often a fresh landscaping job and a coat of paint can make a big difference for buyers. They see the house for the first time pulling into the driveway, they love the neighborhood, and the house looks great with all the flowers, fresh mulch, and trimmed bushes. Suddenly, they begin searching for reasons why they may want to buy the home instead of being turned off even before stepping across the threshold. Many things go in and out of style, but curb appeal and first impressions have not.

Pricing is another critical strategy for selling a home in the current market and this will be addressed in an upcoming blog so stay tuned and stay in touch!