This is a guest post, courtesy of Matt Doyle, Vice-President and Co-Founder of Excel Builders.
There are some odd people out there, so it should come as no surprise that some homes have truly odd features as well. Real estate agents trying to sell a house like this will have a hard time, but it’s nothing that can’t be overcome this by presenting the features in the right way…
PERIOD FEATURES
Some people really like old houses and antiques, but they aren’t exactly in style. So if you have a feature, a room or an entire house that looks like a period piece that school kids visit, here’s how you can still sell it:
- Talk up the Aesthetic: talk up the unique visuals that historic homes or features have to appeal to people’s sense of classic style
- Share the History: there is a sizeable minority of people that truly love historical things and dream of owning historic homes or having antique/period features
- Stress the Durability: point out the ways the old home was been built to last in a way that they just aren’t anymore
In truth, old homes or houses with period antiques and features might have a more restricted audience but they are not usually impossible to sell. There are always people who love quaint old homes and features who look longingly at them as they walk by and dream of owning one someday.
CONVERTED GARAGES
Most people like to use their garage as an actual garage, and park their cars inside or store outdoor equipment, supplies, and tools. A few people, however, choose to convert their garage into something else, whether it’s a gaming paradise, a man cave, or an extra room to rent out.
Emphasize the extra room when it comes these homes, or improve a buyer’s interest by doing the homework on costing a plan to put the garage back to its original use. Consider advertising to hobbyists.
It would pay to learn about any interested buyers ahead of time so you can think of a way to spin the use of a converted garage room to what they might want.
BUILT-IN PET FEATURES
Some people really like their pets, and build or remodel their homes more with their furry loved ones in mind than with how the heck they could resell the home afterwards. Thankfully, a lot of people like their pets a lot so here are some ideas on how to present such features:
- Storage space: bring up how pet stairs, hideaways, and so on can be repurposed into extra shelving, closets, or drawers for normal storage
- Natural light: demonstrate how the extra windows at various levels for pets to look out of also allow more natural light into the home
- Green spaces: repurpose outdoor cages, sheds, dog homes, and cat enclosures into a greenhouse, garden, planter, and so on
If your prospective buyer just so happens to be a big pet lover, they might be willing to pay more for the upgrades. Make sure you have alternative options to suggest for the ones they don’t like.
DIY REMODELING
One increasingly popular trend these days are for people to remodel their home, or maybe just specific rooms, by themselves. This is usually done in order to save money. Online articles, videos, guides, and social media posts on sites like Pinterest embolden people to remake their home according to their unique styles and dreams. Here’s how to flip the script on the most bizarre of DIY features:
- Suggest repurposing: think of ways that weird wall fixtures can be repurposed for more conventional use
- Suggest cover jobs: downplay the extent that the features stick out and advise ways that the features can easily be worked around
- Easy solutions: recommend quick and easy ways to fix any problematic features into something the potential buyer might actually want
Unfortunately your work will really be cut out for you depending on just how extensive and poorly executed the remodeling was. You can do a lot of research to appear very knowledgeable on how they can be worked around or fixed, and hopefully your apparent expertise will help reassure the buyer.
BIZARRE FLOOR PLANS
Sometimes a home is built, or remodeled, in a way that has a truly odd floor plan. Rooms that are way too big or too small compared to normal, windows or stairs or doors that are out of the way, and unusual locations for key rooms like kitchens or bathrooms are some examples. Here are some tips to sell homes with such odd floor plans:
- Emphasize size matters—sell buyers on the total space of the home as people tend to care more about that than how the space is arranged
- Introduce unique possibilities—talk up how this odd room would make a perfect bar, or that window is great for setting up a bird feeder, and so on.
The good part of weird floor plans is that they will be attractive to people with imagination and a sense of challenge. The more you know about a prospective buyer the more you can talk up the unique features in ways that make them more appealing to them.
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