Home Selling Advice
Selling a house, we get advice on an almost daily basis from friends, family, associates, and enemies. I mean everyone. I have learned a very important lesson. Nobody knows what they are talking about. That’s not the lesson. The lesson is, in regard to selling a house, it is impossible to know what you are talking about.
When you are selling a house, the demographic is so diverse that it is not possible to stage a house to meet its needs. I came to this conclusion because the advice, all good, has been literally all over the board and contradictory.
I discovered three categories of advice or rather three traits of the advice giver. A person generally does not fall solely into one category. The traits are Projector, Stereotyper, Proclaimed Expert.
Projector
The projector is an individual who believes all or the vast majority of people hold the same views, perceptions, or likes as himself. The most prominent case of Projector we have seen is in regard to the color of walls. Those that like colors tell us to leave our colorful walls alone. Those that like neutral tell us to repaint everything off-white. Why? Because everybody else will share the same feeling toward wall colors.
Stereotyper
The stereotyper is similar to the projector in that all or the majority of prospective buyers are lumped into one category. The stereotyper, though, does not project his own views but usually believes the masses are idiots and you have to accommodate them.
Proclaimed Expert
I have detected three sources that create Proclaimed Experts, cable TV, unexpected events in selling a house, and too many years in limited area real-estate.
I don’t pay the “TV tax.” There are enough shows available via broadcast, iTunes, and DVDs to not pay a monthly TV bill. But I digress. I have been told, countless times, about house flipping shows on cable. The shows may in fact be interesting. Unfortunately some folks walk away from these shows believing that they are witnessing non-staged, repeatable, cross-demographic truths.
Another form of non-staged, repeatable, cross-demographic truth is the limited data-set cause-effect conclusion. A house sits on the market for a year. The owner removes a coffee table. The house is sold the next day. The house sold, obviously because the coffee table upset the feng shui of the room. Houses are now unsalable with that style of coffee table.
The last type of Proclaimed Expert is the only one that has justification decaring himself as such. The limited area real-estate is generally an agent that has worked a single area for his entire career and starts to apply all traits we have discussed with the justification of the years in a specific location.
My Projecting
Keep it hygienic. Nobody wants to see a funky toilet, old food encrusted on plates or your dirty underwear where you dropped it. And finish home improvement tasks.
Monday, December 18, 2006
