This spring, in this market, many Lamorinda home buyers are cautious. They are serious about finding a home. They are financially qualified — but cautious.
It’s caution at play when buyers make offers and then back out; when open houses are busy but no offers come in; and when listings sit on the market for weeks.
So what can a seller do? Meet that caution with love-appeal.
- Make your home emotionally appealing. Buyers want to fall in love, I have learned as an agent. And when they do, usually the other details fall into place. Look for what’s delightful in your property and amplify that. If that delightful quality has faded with time, it is now really important (and completely do-able) to get it back in shape. Delightful houses sell, because if buyers fall in love, their caution becomes secondary.
- Don’t count on buyers wanting to do their own upgrades. A recent poll found that 72 percent of buyers say they wouldn’t buy a house with projects. In my experience, buyers imagine that updating a kitchen takes six months and six figures—and so they prefer to spend six figures more for a house where it’s done. In fact an agent can work wonders with a month and a tight budget, taking your property from “needs updating” to “move-in ready,” and a higher list price.
- Glorify your outdoors. Our Lamorinda buyers increasingly come from urban settings, longing for our beautiful landscape, our larger lot size, and that California indoor-outdoor living. Whatever outdoor spaces you have, make them magical. While buyers are imagining having their parents and friends over for brunch in the East Bay sunshine, they will be falling in love with your home.
- Select an agent who wants to do this for you. Not all agents enjoy or undertake a project beyond fresh paint and staging. Agents are happy to talk to you, and it’s worth gathering varied ideas on what would make your property truly sing. Agents who love this process can tell you what they think is worth tackling, get you estimates that you can choose from, and oversee the tradespeople.
- Don’t take the process personally. There will be at least one thing in your home that you think is absolutely perfect, and that the agent recommends changing. It’s not because you have bad taste. It’s because the agent needs to prepare a property that buyers will walk into and imagine themselves coming home to each day. Those very things that have made the house feel like your home all these years are the things that will hinder a buyer’s imagining it as theirs. A sensitive agent will help you transition from thinking of it as your home, to “their new home."
And always, visualize the happy ending: Someone loves your longtime home, they’ve paid you a fair value for it, you’re handing them the keys and moving on. With smart planning and a little help, you will get there.
In My Honest Opinion, by Gillian Judge Hogan © 2023
