This Debate is Still Raging On! Pre-sale Repairs, Are they Worth the Expense?



How much is ignoring that repair REALLY costing you?

I came across this article in the New York Times....http://nyti.ms/z7gECP

So, of course, it brought out the home stager/writer/ home buyer in me...

This market is unlike any in our lifetime. The pool of buyers has shrunk exponentially AND the pool of available properties has grown exponentially...translation: buyer's market!
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Since mortgages are harder to come by, and the "buy-hold-long-enough-for-the-value-to-go-up-then-sell-and-buy-a-bigger-house" days are gone, buyers know they'll be in their homes a lot longer, possibly forever!

So what seems minor to a seller, i.e., chipped paint, old light fixtures, etc, will turn off a buyer.  In most cases, they're looking for move-in ready and if they see too many projects in a property, they will move on to the next...it's just that simple.

What sellers have to realize, and especially those that are upside down in their mortgages, is that ignoring problems is costing them money than they realize:

• Every month that house sits unsold, the mortgage payment is due, taxes are due and maintenance has to be paid for. 
• Buyers seeing numerous repairs and therefore making offers thousands below asking, will put sellers in a possible scenario of bringing money to the closing. 
• The longer a property sits on the market, the less likely it is that it will sell for the optimal asking price. Property values in many parts of the country are still trending downward.

This is why stagers are more important than ever.  We can come in with an objective (buyer's) eye and find a property's "offenses" and fix them; increasing the chances of not only a sale, but getting asking price or really close to it.