Identify Your Home’s BuyMes and DontBuyMes and Handle Them Appropriately!

Huh!

This melding of words is to point out the difference between incentives and disincentives — between features and benefits — between reasons to buy and reasons not to buy.

On the positive side, a BuyMe is something that tells a prospective buyer that this is the house that they want and the house is telling them “Buy me! Buy me!” Common BuyMes are a very low price, a paved driveway, a swimming pool, a big lawn, a great school district — in other words, an outstanding feature that will be seen as a benefit to the buyer.

On the negative side, a DontBuyMe is something about the house or property that tells the buyer that they should look somewhere else for a home. Common DontBuyMes are a very high price, a neglected yard, poor internal maintenance, a bad neighborhood — in other words, an negative feature or lack of a feature that will be seen as a reason to avoid buying your house.

Perhaps the hardest lesson here is that BuyMes and DontBuyMes are not mirror images of each other and they are not necessarily the same for all buyers. For example, being in a great school district is not a BuyMe for a retired couple with no children but it would be a BuyMe for a family with 4 school age kids. On the other hand, poor internal maintenance and a neglected yard will almost always be a DontBuyMe for just about every buyer. A very low price will almost always be a BuyMe but only if it is in an acceptable neighborhood and in a good school district depending on the buyer.

Your first task should be to list the DontBuyMes of your home and determine what you can do to eliminate them or to mitigate them. Spruce up your yard and bring up your internal maintenance. Do NOT try to hide the DontBuyMes that you can not fix such as a poor school district. Hiding things about the house can lead to legal problems later. Instead of hiding things, let the buyers ask you what they need to know before buying the house and tell them the absolute truth.

Your second task should be to list the BuyMes of your home and determine how to emphasize them. Put something in your advertising about the top school district in the county. Put the other BuyMes in the advertising like “Priced to Sell” and “Wonderful Private Pool”. Again, tell the truth. When you do, you will be rewarded.

Your twin goals will be to determine what your home’s BuyMes are and what its DontBuyMes are. Be ready to emphasize and highlight the BuyMes. Fix as many DontBuyMes as possible and be open about the others — just don’t apologize for them.

About jdickens

I have owned 4 houses and sold 3 of them. I have rented 2 houses and been the property manager for 5 houses. In other words I have been all over the place with real estate. In addition, I wrote most of the software for the on-line listing system for a major city in the South before the age of laptops and mobile phones. All of the information for all of that activity has been pretty much the same. Hopefully, I can help you help yourself when you are ready to sell your home.
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2 Responses to Identify Your Home’s BuyMes and DontBuyMes and Handle Them Appropriately!

  1. Anne says:

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