Perceptions: Good And Bad

By: Anessa Cohen

All of us transfer a piece of our lifestyles and our personalities into the furnishings and ambiance of our homes. This is wonderful for our comfort as well as for the love of the décor we have created while we enjoy life amongst the things that give us good memories and make us feel good.

Although this is great for the time that we’re living in our homes, when that time comes that we decide it’s time to go to the next step of selling our house and moving to the next one, just sticking the sign onto the front lawn and beckoning buyers to come and buy so you can leave has to be more thoroughly thought out to achieve the best price you can for your home.

They say the first 30 seconds a buyer looks at a house makes or breaks the positive or negative feelings that follow them as they view the rest of the house. If they experience a strong negative feeling immediately upon entering your house, that negative feeling will affect everything else they see afterwards as they go on to view the entire house after the initial 30 seconds.

How can you make your home generate positive energy to that buyer as he (or she) sees your home for the first time? The answer is that sometimes by downplaying all of the things we’ve placed in our homes for our own comfort that to an outsider can look odd or over-crowded or just turn them off as they enter our house for the first time. By simply removing some of these items, we can make a world of difference between a positive and a negative feeling.

Tall weeds growing among your flower beds because no one has time to pull them or we forgot to ask the gardener to do it make your house look unkempt and poorly maintained as the buyer gets out of the car and looks at your home up close for the first time. The same goes for the leaves that no one got around to raking in the fall.

Boxes of junk loaded on your porch or front stoop or yard—I know, you’ve been meaning to get around to sorting through it and getting rid of it or packing it away in the garage. Sorry, but it’s a real turnoff to people approaching your home from the outside. It makes them wonder if the outside is loaded with junk, what awaits them on the inside?

Opening the front door only to be confronted with mountains of shoes is also a turn off, even if to you it means that by removing your shoes upon entering, you are demonstrating how clean your floors are.

Kitchen counters loaded with stuff—even if it is expensive stuff—only points out to a buyer that you do not have enough space for all your things, so maybe there’s a shortage of counter and cabinet space in the kitchen.

Too much furniture in the living room or other rooms so the buyer has to enter the room sideways in order to not only see the room from the inside, but once there to visualize how large the room is since the furniture is eclipsing the size of the room is not a way to project to buyers how spacious the room really is.

I have listed only a few things that many sellers do not even consider when they put their homes on the market for the first time. When preparing your home for sale, never underestimate the importance of that first 30-second look and make all the necessary changes. n

Anessa Cohen lives in Cedarhurst and is a Licensed Real Estate Broker (Anessa V Cohen Realty) with over 20 years of experience offering residential, commercial and management real estate services. You are invited to visit her website at AVCRealty.com. She can be reached at 516-569-5007. Readers are encouraged to send any questions or comments by email to [email protected].