You’ve made the leap and relocated to Orlando, enjoying the wonderful weather, all the entertainment, but, your old home isn’t selling. Now that your former residence is sitting empty and you’re here in the Sunshine State, the fact it’s not getting serious attention is beginning to worry you and you’re wondering how it is you’ll generate viable purchase offers. After all, it’s very expensive to pay for two mortgages and you certainly don’t want to endure the frustrations and headaches of renting your old home out. So now, you’re looking for the biggest reasons empty homes don’t sell because you can think of any other obstacle that’s keeping qualified offers from coming-in.
Biggest Reasons Empty Homes don’t Sell
The fact of the matter is, selling a home, regardless if you are or are not present, presents a number of challenges. It’s not an easy process because you as the seller have to maintain the property as perfectly as possible, but, leave no hint of your personal life. It’s a weird but real dichotomy — buyers like a home that looks move-in ready, but, do not want a home that’s being lived-in. Another way of putting it is — buyers like the model home look and feel but want it to be customizable to their particular wants, needs, and tastes.
If the listing for your home hasn’t been attracting buyers for a few weeks in a fast-paced real estate market, or for a few months in a slower one, you certainly have good reason to be worried. A home doesn’t sell due to a variety of factors, some of which you can control and some of which you can’t. —Realtor.com
It’s understandable why sellers are reluctant to put any money into a property they won’t own in the near future. However, it’s often this unease which can lead to being unable to see the bigger picture. The trick is to get the look and feel of a model home without spending a lot of time and money. In fact, there are certain tricks you can use to sell an unsold home fast. In the case of an empty house, though, there’s a few more challenges sellers face. Here are the biggest reasons empty homes don’t sell:
- An empty home has no canvas on which to paint. When a house is empty, it provides nothing for buyers to build upon. It’s just a bare, cold canvas that invokes more trepidation and fear rather than seeing its positive attributes, great features, and wonderful amenities. In fact, all of these will look out-of-place precisely because the home is empty.
- An empty home has no preconceived layout to expand on. By definition, empty homes are bare and because these residences are without furniture and decor, there’s no visible layout for buyers to see and expand on with their imaginations. The lack of furniture and decor presents a problem of what should and can go where; it’s simply too overwhelming for the vast majority of buyers.
- An empty home is one that shows every single flaw, nick, and ding. One of the single most biggest obstacles empty home present is these clearly show every single flaw, nick, and ding in the floor, walls, ceiling, and any other surface that’s in the home.
- An empty home does not help to invoke any positive buyer imagination. If it’s one thing any experienced real estate professional will tell you about trying to market an empty home, it’s that buyers lack imagination. It’s not really the lack of vision, but rather, an inability to imagine a design for room after room on-the-spot and see all the possibilities.
The bottom line is, if your old home is empty, you need to make it look homey, cozy, and inviting. You can do this by staging it temporarily to make it more presentable and attractive to qualified buyers.