All week I have been out showing homes to a number of my buyers!  I have buyers at all different price points – from $100,000 and up!  And whenever I go into these homes, I am amazed at how many of them are not set up to appeal to the buyers who are looking at them!  I am not saying that, as a seller, you should immediately go out and spend thousands of dollars on a home stager and new furniture and new paint!  What I am saying is that if you want a buyer to buy your house, you should make it “buyer desired”.  It means that you should make sure that your home is as welcoming to the buyer as you can make it, so that the potential buyer can envision themselves relaxing after work in your living room, or cooking in the kitchen, or enjoying the spring in your back yard!  I have walked into houses where the number of beer cans & bottles is overflowing the trash can, where the dog’s love notes are throughout the back yard, where the dirty underwear is sitting on the bedroom floor!  This is not a way to make a potential homebuyer want to make your home their home!  So below I am listing what I would call my 10 ways to help make your home “Buyer Desired”! 

First, make your home’s welcome as gracious as possible!  Don’t ask my buyers to remove their shoes – for many buyers it won’t happen and they may even take offense at it!  If you have just put down new carpet, then invest the money in some booties that the buyer can put on while walking through the house!  For many of my buyers where they have small kids, they are busy trying to keep the kids from running all over the place and now you are going to ask them to take the kids shoes on and off?


Second, make sure your home is warm or cool, depending upon the season!  I showed a house one time in the middle of the winter – it was a vacant home and the sellers were trying to cut back on their utility bill.  When we walked into the house, it was like a freezer!  My buyers spent exactly 5 minutes racing from room to room, only to say that this was not the house for them!  Perhaps they would have had a different reaction had they spent a little longer time there – and that they could not do with the temperature at a bone chilling 45 degrees!

Third, make sure your home has the right mood for the buyers!  If you are a smoker, don’t smoke in the house while you are on the market for sale – many buyers are allergic to smoke or don’t like the smell!  If you have a fireplace, set the fire going!  Perhaps some soft classical music!  Maybe even some carpet fresh to give it a springtime feel to the house!  There are many ways to set a mood when the buyer comes into your home – and none of it will cost a lot of money!

Fourth, make sure the scents you use aren’t overpowering!  Don’t burn scented candles in every room – many buyers will think that you are trying to hide something!  If you have a dog or a cat, make sure that their bedding doesn’t have odors and the litter box is cleaned out!  If you use spices, make sure that the lingering odors are gone before the home is shown!

Fifth, make sure your home is showcased to the max!  If you are listing your home in the winter when there are no leaves on the trees & no flowers in bloom, but you have a magnificent garden that you want people to know about, make sure you have those pictures in a photo album sitting on a table with the home brochures so that people will look at the pictures & see just how nice the yard will look in the springtime!  Let in lots of light by keeping the curtains and blinds open!  People like to know they are not buying a dark home!  If you are next door to a home that has an air of neglect to it, ask the homeowners if you can help them clean up the house in order to help you get your home sold!

Sixth, make sure your home is lit up!  Even if your home is being shown at 12 noon, turn on all the lights in the house – people like to walk into a house with lots of light!  Do not play the television!  If you have some dark rooms, put some spot lights behind furniture!

Seventh, make sure your home is one that people will want to explore!  You want to encourage your potential homebuyers to open up the closets, touch the counter tops, open up cabinet doors!  When vacuuming, vacuum in one direction!

Eighth, make sure your home has feature cards!  Feature cards are great because it makes sure that anything special about the house is pointed out!  It is also great to make sure your potential homebuyers are aware of what is and is not conveying with the house!  Perhaps you will be taking the dining room chandelier that your grandmother gave you, but you plan to replace it with another one!  Why not put a feature card in the dining room with a picture of the replacement chandelier so the potential buyer will know what will go there!

Ninth, make sure your home makes the buyer want to linger!  The longer your potential homebuyer stays in your home, the more likely it is that they have some definite interest in your home!  On a hot summer day, perhaps putting some bottles of ice cold water on a table will encourage the buyer to stay!  Perhaps having some comfortable chairs the buyers can sit in while they discuss your home may be a great thing to have in a vacant home!

Tenth, encourage feedback!  Feedback always gives you great information, even if the information that you receive is negative! 

As you can see, it doesn’t take a lot of money to make your home “Buyer Desired” – just making it warm & inviting and doing a few things to make your home feel like home when the buyer walks in is all that you will need to do.  Of course, if your walls are purple & pink, you may need to do a little bit more work!  But for most of the houses that I have been into in the last few months, the sellers didn’t need to do much more than the 10 things mentioned above! 

Let me know how I can help you make your home “Buyer Desired”!  I welcome your questions!