Three recent studies evaluated the way that home buyers think and feel during the purchase process. Here are three interesting findings about the psychology of home buying that all sellers should know:
1. A recent report by the BMO Financial Group evaluated the psychology of home buying and found that a whopping 80% of buyers knew whether or not a home was right for them within seconds of seeing it. In fact, a lot of buyers decided before they even walked in the door!
The findings from this study have major implications for every seller: curb appeal matters! Perhaps more than anywhere else in your home, be sure to keep your home looking neat and tidy outside. Consider power washing, cleaning up your landscaping, hanging a new flag, replacing your welcome mat, or adding a few small potted plants – anything to keep your home looking pretty, fresh, and welcoming as buyers pull in.
2. Surprisingly, buyers tend to be wary of the number “9” in a sale price, according to a study by Old Dominion University. Instead of pricing your home at $199,999 for example, researchers actually recommend adding the extra dollar and placing your home for sale at $200,000.
Here’s what’s so interesting: If you’re buying a bath towel for $19.99, for example, you may be wooed into this “charm” price and feel as though you’re really getting a bargain by technically paying under $20. However, for a major purchase like a home, this charm pricing can make buyers wary. Experts speculate that buyers may feel as though the sellers are behaving desperately or deceivingly by pricing their home in this manner.
3. Home staging matters! A recent study looked at 63 unstaged homes that lingered on the market for 143 days – that’s quite a long time. Then, after these homes were professionally staged, they sold just 40 days later. That’s a pretty impressive finding.
In a perfect world, we would all have professional home stagers – but that simply isn’t in the budget for many of our clients and we understand that. While these professional stagers may be more affordable (and worth it!) than you might think, we also recommend that our sellers do a little research and prep their homes themselves. There are some fantastic resources available online, and we’d love to show them to you.
When you’re thinking of selling, just give us a call at (215) 699-5555. We’ll give you honest, accurate info about your home’s value, and provide you with tips and useful, practical advice to get it ready for the market.