Condition Is the New Location in the World of Real Estate

Despite what some “experts” might say, we’re clearly in a buyer’s market. (Let’s hope he was misquoted.)

Photo of an updated kitchen
Updating your home’s kitchen is the first place homeowners should look when contemplating a sale. | Photo: Tre Pryor

Home prices have dropped, a rarity for Louisville, Ky., interest rates are at historic lows and there is a large amount of home inventory for buyers to choose from.

That puts home sellers at a distinct disadvantage.

In an effort to help Louisville home sellers, we published the “Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Louisville Home” last week. Now we’re going to focus on improving your chances of selling quickly at the highest price possible.

What sells a house?

In the past, the answer to the question, “What sells a house?” was the mantra “Location. Location. Location.”

Today, that answer is “Condition. Condition. Condition.” Condition is now the keyword in the world of real estate, here’s why.

With so many homes to choose from, buyers are looking for reasons to rule out properties, pare down the choices, and select a home from their favorites. If a home obviously needs updating, that makes the buyer’s job easy—mark it off and move on to the next one!

Repairing broken items is obvious, but if the faucets in your master bath look like antiques from a Cracker Barrel, then updating them becomes mandatory.

Today’s home buyer wants to move right in with as little to do as possible. Lives are hectic enough as they are with needing to rip up a bunch of carpets, update the old kitchen cabinets, and paint 3/4ths of the entire home.

Buyers love the latest designs for the home

Buyers absolutely love to read the words “updated” and “remodeled” in the home’s listing. The design choices that homeowners make when updating play a major role in today’s real estate market. HGTV is popular for a reason. People love the latest designs for their homes and yards.

Vern Yip, the host of “Deserving Design” spoke at the Real Estate Connect in New York City recently on this topic. His entire presentation can be seen by following this link: Can design sell a house?

The bottom line is, other than a great, low price the most important thing a homeowner can do to sell their home in this market is to enhance the condition before they list it.