Kisses of Death (or at least wounded)

I know first hand from listening to my buyer/client comments what to help other buyers look for and what to avoid. I call my list of things to avoid, "Kisses of Death". I call it that because if your house has one or more of these physical characteristics, it may be harder to sell and sometimes almost impossible to get people to even look at. I have had buyers not even stop and get out of the car if the house we are looking at has one of these. Each client has different taste but some items are fairly universal:

"Kisses of Death" in no particular order:
1. Not having a separate tub and shower or no tub available. There is a current trend of converting the master bath to one big shower. Be sure there is another tub in the house or this one will hurt your resale.
2. Having the master bedroom upstairs. When your young and spry this may not make sense. As you get older and not as spry, you don't want to have to climb the stairs every day. 
3. Not having a fireplace. As a whole, Texas isn't a place you would think a fireplace is really needed but when you want to warm up, theres nothing better than a roaring fire.
4. Living on a busy street. Even if kids aren't part of the equation, I've never had a client who prefers car after car passing in front of their house - or behind or next to.
5. Having high lines (the big ones, not telephone poles) adjacent to your property. There are 3 camps of thought on this one: #1 - they cause cancer, #2 - they don't cause cancer and, #3 - I don't know but its better to be safe than sorry. If a buyer has the choice, they always choose not to have power lines hanging near by.
6. Not having a garage. Not that we put cars in them or anything but not having one is a killer. **In some older neighborhoods a garage is a bonus and not having one doesn't hurt resale. Having one only helps.
7. Having a garage that was converted to an interior room. Unfortunately they typically look like a conversion. For the owner it may make sense but for a buyer, not so much in most cases.
8. Having commercial property adjacent to your property. It just doesn't feel right to have a warehouse towering over your property.
9. Living too close to Apartments or a duplex community. At certain points in ones life there is value in living IN an apartment. When you own a house, there isn't any value in living near apartments.
10. Having cats living inside the house. I apologize to all the cat lovers but its true. Dogs inside are not ideal but buyers don't object to them as much. Most of the time if you can't smell an animal, its ok but allergies trump all.


Here is a way to look at it, would anyone ever say “I don’t want this house because it has/ doesn’t have (fill in the blank with an item from above). I have never had a client say "This house just doesn't smell enough like cats", or "If it didn't have that fireplace it would be perfect".

Do you have another one for the list? Id love to hear about it.
Your Friend in Real Estate
Kenneth Collins

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