In 2002 when I first got my real estate license I took a class at my brokerage about how to show properties. Seems silly right? How hard is it to unlock the door? But this class was about practical tips…ways to stay organized and make sure the buyer is focusing on the important factors of the property. I remember some of the tips from this class still today, and I still follow them. They were GOLDEN and I am grateful I learned them early on. One of these tips, and basis for this blog, was to never sell a house to a buyer with an “adverse situation.” What the heck is an adverse situation? It is something that will ALWAYS affect the resell-ability of that property. I remember the teacher saying, “When my past clients call me up and ask me to sell the house I helped them buy, I don’t want to THEN explain to them that the fact they back to a major road will affect their value.” That hit me. I sat there without one sale under my belt thinking about having to say something like that to fictional clients calling me years in the future. I knew then that I did NOT want to EVER be in those shoes.
One thing I must admit here, unlike most real estate agents, I prefer buyers. I prefer buyers HANDS DOWN. About half of my business is listing properties, representing sellers. I don’t hate doing that…but it is a lot less enjoyable process for everyone than house shopping. Selling involves a lot of prep work, and a lot of stress during showings, especially if the sellers live in the home. Buying, once you know how much you can and should spend, and where you want to be..is FUN! It is SUPER fun really. I don’t care if you are buying a shack or a mansion, you are looking for your next HOME. Your imagination can run wild, you can find that backyard pool you have dreamed about, or the laundry shoot from the upstairs bathroom. What about the jack and Jill bathroom between your kid’s rooms….like the Brady Bunch had? SO COOL, and not that hard to find! I love walking a home and KNOWING we found it. I love watching buyers get excited…I love catching the glimpses between husband and wife when we are in their next home for the first time. How could you not enjoy this? It is a pure win. So I don’t mind showing houses…I don’t mind working with buyers that want to see a lot of homes to figure out what they want. I enjoy the process. I enjoy breaking down with the buyer what is important to them…their must haves, and their deal killers. Everyone has these…and it is my job to pay attention to what they are. After working with lots of buyers over the years…I know the deal killers I hear again, and again , and again.
Even if the regular deal killers are not deal killers for YOU…you should still stay away from them. Why? BECAUSE WHEN YOU SELL I WILL HAVE TO REMIND YOU OR TELL YOU THAT THE ADVERSE SITUATION YOU HAVE LIVED WITH FOR FOREVER IS A DEAL KILLER FOR MOST PEOPLE!! What does that affect? Your marketability. If you have an adverse situation in your property you will not get the same amount of money as the EXACT SAME HOUSE would get without it. So if you, with your adverse situation, and your neighbor, without that situation, both spend $20,000 updating your kitchens….guess who will reap the most benefits from that? Both of you, right? The same amount, right? NO!!!! You will NOT see the reward of the update like your neighbor because you have an adverse situation that is turning away a percentage of all potential buyers. It will also take you longer to sell…because you have to find those few people like you that didn’t make your adverse situation a deal killer. Selling your house SUCKS, read about how much it sucks here, so to KNOW that you will statistically take LONGER to sell is not an attractive situation for pretty much anyone. It isn’t for me as your real estate agent. And not because I want to get paid…but because the longer you are on the market, the harder it is to sell your house. Buyers will try to negotiate you down on your price MORE if you have been on the market for a while, AND if you have had several price drops. Doesn’t seem right, does it? But it absolutely how it works.So, I am that annoying person that will point out the negative things about a house before you buy it. I will even ask to NOT show you a house if it has an adverse situation that I know SHOULD be a deal killer for you, even if it is just a deal killer because of future marketability. It is not fun to LOVE a house and think you found your next HOME SWEET HOME only to have your real estate agent say, “UMMMMMMM…..welll, I am thinking this house should be a NO.” I will be raining on your parade, peeing in your Cheerios, killing your vibe. I get it, it isn’t fun for me either. Plus, you aren’t going to really care about what I am saying at that point because you will be in LOVE, you will be emotional, you might even be placing your furniture and having the kids pick their rooms. So I am going to give you my list of adverse situations that I know A LOT of buyers will avoid. I won’t say that I agree with these buyer’s opinions or reasons as to why these are deal killers…but since they are …they should be deal killers for all home buyers. If you think you are going to live in your next home until you die, you are probably wrong, but even if you do die while owning that home you don’t want your heirs to be straddled with your adverse situation. And you may say you are shopping for a HOME, not an investment…but I can only respond to that to MAKE IT BOTH. Your next home, and every home, should be both your home and an investment. SO LISTEN TO ME!!
Here they are, my list of ADVERSE SITUATIONS you should make DEAL KILLERS:
Power lines. Ones you can see from the back yard. Especially the main power lines that run along the canals, the ones you can HEAR. The silver lines have electricity on the outside of the lines, the black lines have it on the inside. Stay away from the silver lines completely, and as much as you can from the black ones. No one likes those, and they are the BIGGEST deal killer on my list.
Major roads. You don’t want to back up to, face, or side a major road. What is a major road? I consider a major road to be the ones we have every mile here in Arizona…such as Gilbert Road, Lindsay, Val Vista….the roads on the grid. You might think the privacy of not having a neighbor right behind you outweighs the noise, but not to MOST people, so avoid this situation. Interior roads CAN be a benefit…maybe a neutral one that will appeal to some buyers, but not turn off most buyers. So, backing or siding another road in the neighborhood is ok, just not a major road, or freeway.
The Boonies: This one is hard, especially because being out in the boonies might be temporary…businesses and freeways may be on their way….eventually. You might work from home. You might think being further out is no big deal. Plus, the further out you go the less expensive the homes are, and the NEWER! You get shiny and brand new, and BIGGER for the same money that would buy you 25 year old fluorescent lighting and brass fixtures…and a smaller house. But people that DON’T work from home will add those extra 20 minutes into their commute both ways, they will know that you are 14 miles from the closest ice rink for Junior’s hockey, or that driving 30 minutes into town for a good restaurant selection will keep them home more than they want. If they can find something similar even a little closer in they will take it. Also, if you buy in a large new build community, and you decide 3 years later you want to be closer to work, you will have to compete with the shiny new new builds to sell your home…and people will choose shiny and new over your 3 year old rotten house.
The West facing Backyard: This might just be an Arizona thing…because people are always so surprised about this when they aren’t from here. You don’t want a west facing back yard if you can help it. I think the main reason people feel this way is because you usually have the most windows along the back side of your house, and when the sun is starting its decent around 5pm in the summer months it will shine in all of those windows and heat up your home. If your kitchen is in the back of your house you really won’t want it getting boiling hot right before dinner time. In my two west facing back yards that I have owned my biggest complaint was trying to barbeque, or watch the kids in the pool in the afternoons. The sun would go straight into my eyes and just make me miserable. But I might buy another west facing house in the future if I thought the trees would block the worst of the sun, or that I could plant those trees…but that is a big maybe…I would rather have any other facing back yard than west.
Backing to a business: I bought my first house when I was pregnant with my daughter. The next few years of sleep deprivation are a blur, but one thing I do remember is a neighbor of mine backed to a grocery store. My house was further back in the neighborhood (with a west facing back yard), but her house actually backed to the back of the grocery store. Guess when grocery stores get their deliveries? Yep…all night long. And those delivery people don’t care if you are sleeping at 4am, or if you have a new baby, or if you value sleep at all…they will make jokes, laugh, call out to each other, and bang the doors open and closed. As she complained about this I realized how miserable that must be…something to avoid at ALL costs. Even if the business the house backs to doesn’t have night deliveries, it is most likely ugly. People won’t want to back to ugly if they can avoid it, so you should avoid it too and not buy that house.
My last adverse situation is the only change-able one on this list. The problem is…it might not change easily, in a timely manner, or enough to keep it from being an adverse situation. This is the BARKING DOG. You know this dog…it might be small, big, or medium, but when it hears you it barks. It might want to eat you or play with you, you don’t know, but it barks. Occasionally the owner will yell out to dog telling it to shut up, but often that owner just ignores the barking, and expects you to too. You go outside with the kids to play in the yard, the barking starts. It doesn’t stop until you go back inside. You have a mommy group over to do water color painting with your 4 year olds for play group….and you decide to save your sanity and set up the easels outside. Weather is beautiful, such a great idea….but that dog barks the ENTIRE time you and your play group are outside….and by the time you go inside you are planning a dog murder. I spent countless hours planning to murder two beagles when I lived in my second house. Those things howled all the time…ALL THE TIME, they didn’t even have to hear me first. The dogs survived, but they prompted the sale of that house after only a year and a half. I know now that I could have called the police and made a noise complaint…but even if I knew that then I am not sure I would have wanted to call the police on my neighbor. I knew they weren’t home, and they were actually really nice people. If you hear a dog when looking at house, skip the house. Seriously. Especially if you have a dog that will talk back to the one you hear…shudder.
That’s it. Those are the only things on my adverse situations list that I would recommend you avoid even if you don’t care about them. You will be glad you aren’t saddled with those situations and the negative comments from buyers when you are trying to sell your house. You will thank me then…I know you will!!
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