The kitchen is the nucleus of the home, a hub and a central place where daily life takes place. Potential buyers will gravitate towards this room when touring expired listings back on the market in Manhattan. You want to encourage your expired listing clients, especially those for whom the kitchen might have had a negative impact, to clean that space up. Here are things in the kitchen that send potential buyers running from homes for sale.
1. Any Trash
This is a huge turn off when touring a home. When used pet cans or supplies are left thrown on the floor or the trashcan is overflowing it makes such a horrible first impression of the home. Even trash on the counter or a lingering odor of a too-full trashcan will send buyers strait out the door. Encourage clients to leave themselves a window of cleaning time before each showing to do last minute touch ups.
2. Pet Clutter
Sometimes any evidence of pets can be a turn off to potential buyers. We might have grown accustomed to the cat roaming on the kitchen counters, the litter box in the kitchen or food cans or bowls right out in plain sight. But you’ll want to mention this to your clients and prod them to hide the evidence of pets. Perhaps even have a family member take the pet for a walk or outside for a while for the duration of the tour so you don’t run the risk of the cat lounging on the counter!
3. Accumulation of Stuff
The kitchen sometimes becomes the landing ground for random stuff. It piles up given the busy nature of daily life. But that’s why having your clients set aside time for those chores before each showing will help. They can do a sweep to ensure the sink is empty of dirty dishes, the mail is cleared off counters and stowed away, the random kids toys are stashed, and any other random items find a home. Show off the counter space you have for buyers to see the actual working area of a kitchen.
4. Evidence of Pests
While we can’t control whether or not a home has a pest problem, we can keep it at least under control. Stress upon clients the importance of keeping up with their pest control services if this is a concern. And above all, ensure there isn’t evidence of pests in plain view. If it’s gotten so bad there are droppings on the floor, buyers are sure to notice and that will stick in their minds. Buyers don’t want to purchase a home knowing they’ll have to shell out significant funds to get a pest problem back under control.
Taking care to notice any of these red flags in the kitchen and bringing them to your expired listings’ attention will help you sell more of those properties in Manhattan!
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