Yesterday, I received a rather ugly reminder; A reminder regarding the importance of regular home maintenance. As I was mapping out my day, making sure all the little ‘fires’ from the day before had been extinguished and that I had my ducks in a row for ‘today’, I heard Susan call out one of those phrases with the power to send a chill up my spine: “Tim, we have a plumbing issue!” Groan…
Now, I’m actually pretty handy around the house and generally handle most all maintenance items at home and on our rental properties (when time permits) but plumbing is NOT something I enjoy and plumbing problems don’t appreciate being placed on the back burner… nope, when water is pouring out onto the floor at about 100 gallons per second, someone’s gotta do something and do it fast!
Without going into all the boring details, plumbing issues (for me) always require at least 3 trips to the hardware store and more than one complaint that “I’m getting to old for this kind of stuff” but, unable to get a plumber on short notice I opted to handle the problem myself. (Hopefully I will complete the job today.)
Now back to the premise of this little rant – home maintenance. More often than not, we find sellers that have not kept up with all the maintenance issues. Not because they didn’t care but just because other things in life took precedence and, as long as nothing goes noticeably wrong… well, “out of sight, out of mind”. So now it’s time to sell and the seller thinks, “I’ve lived with these little problems why can’t the buyer do the same?” The issue isn’t whether the “can” live with them, but are they willing to “buy” your problems? And the answer is no – at least not at the price you probably want for it and with dozens of other homes just like yours that are in good condition they won’t even consider it at a reduced price. They’ll just move on to the next, better maintained home, on the list because they don’t want to buy “problems”.
The bottom line is, if you’re trying to sell your home and your agent is telling you that you need to take care of certain maintenance issues, listen to them. They really do know what they’re talking about and they are trying to help you get the most profit from you sale possible. The maintenance issue may only cost you a few hundred dollars but buyers invariably magnify their cost many times over. In their eyes, that $200 repair is going to be a $2000 repair and they wonder what other issues are present that they don’t see. Make the repairs and make your life easier.
Okay, so now I'm heading back to the hardware store… the good news is, this is my third trip so I must be almost done. J
ABOUT THE BLOG OWNER
TIMOTHY H. FENNELL, PA
Tim Fennell is a Florida licensed Real Estate Broker with Legends Land and Realty, Inc. in Jacksonville, Florida.
His strong background in business development, real estate investments, counseling and marketing greatly enhance his skills as a Listing and Internet Marketing Specialist.
Tim and his wife, Susan, have over 30 years experience in Jacksonville Real Estate sales, marketing and investing. Both are Accredited Consultants in Real Estate (ACRE®). When you're ready to be consulted with, rather than sold to, give Tim and Susan Fennell a call.
Visit Authors Website →