10 Reasons Why Empty Homes Don’t Sell Easily
Reason 1: Empty homes don’t sell easily because they lack that emotional connection
An empty house doesn’t have any imagination nor feeling, which normally turns a house into a home! With only 10% of the buyers able to actually visualize the house’s potential, an empty house is likely setting itself up for disappointment for 90% of buyers.
Without any existing furniture to initiate the buyer’s imagination and feelings, it gets quite tough to get emotional about the empty home. After all, an empty property is nothing more than a series of rooms, consisting of four walls and a ceiling, put together under one roof, while a furnished property immediately becomes somebody’s home.
Reason 2: Empty homes don’t sell easily as buyers have no point of reference
Buyers struggle to picture how their furniture would be set up when walking into an empty room. Contrary to popular belief, empty rooms don’t look bigger but actually smaller. A furnished room will give the buyer a measurement scale to compare things to.
Reason 3: Empty homes don’t sell easily as buyers tend to focus on the negatives
If there’s nothing in the room, one tends to focus on the negative elements. Why would any buyer in his right mind get excited about the negative aspects of a home? Unless of course they’re looking for a bargain, in which case the level of their offer will reflect that thinking.
Reason 4: Empty homes don’t sell easily as curb appeal will most likely be lacking
Going up someone’s driveway or pathway, one cannot but notice the colorful mail box, welcoming door mat, warm porch lights or the nicely tucked away window curtains with a faint reading light behind them. There are so many elements one can add to a house to turn it into a home.
Reason 5: Empty homes don’t sell easily as people first try to sell the home vacant
Doesn’t the old adage say, “You only have one chance to make a first impression?” It takes a person on average 5-10 seconds to have made up their minds and walking into an empty home isn’t that inducive to getting them excited about the property!
Reason 6: Empty homes don’t sell easily as price seems to be the only marketing strategy
We know that location is a given factor, which cannot be changed. That kind of leaves us with the price as the only marketing strategy. With no clear emotional elements available to influence the buyer’s decision, any adjustment in price seems unlikely to happen to the upside, if anything it’ll be to the downside.
Reason 7: Empty homes don’t sell easily when staging is considered a cost
How many homeowners are aware of the upside potential of staging? How many agents are convinced that staging adds dollars to the net bottom line for the seller? The complaints about layout and use of space are very well known. Yet, most agents are more likely to suggest a price reduction a couple of weeks into the marketing of the property than initially going for the staging option (with the former costing a multiple of the latter)?Is one erring on the side of caution by referring to staging as a cost or has it become an investment?
Reason 8: Empty homes don’t sell easily as they’re hard to differentiate from the competition
Let’s start the home buying process: you’ve decided to look what a particular housing market has to offer. Just like the other 94% of home buyers, you open up the laptop and go online to one of the popular property listing portals. Within minutes, you’ve found a few interesting listings, displaying a series of pictures and attractive descriptions.
One little problem for those selling empty homes: your interested buyer has now 3 other listings open with exactly the same-looking empty living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms et? Unless your empty home has a particular feature, why ought any interested buyer prefer your empty home over the other 3?
First impressions come back into play with a vengeance. The abovementioned process might literally take seconds and guess how quickly a decision has been made not to click further on your property pictures and expansive description? How many interested home buyers might do exactly the same and skip your empty home listing for something else that drew their attention?
Reason 9: Empty homes don’t sell easily due to less buyer traffic
Having an open house at an empty home isn’t ideal either. As mentioned above, there are a number of reasons why there would be less buyer traffic coming to listings of empty homes. Open houses would definitely not be attracting too much buyer traffic.
Reason 10: Empty homes don’t sell easily as there’s perception of desperation
As they enter an empty home, interested buyers must be wondering why that particular house is empty. At some point, the thought of there being more room for negotiation enters their minds.
Unfortunately, many such homeowners are genuine sellers, looking for a fair-market price for their property and didn’t think much about the fact that selling their empty home might actually affect their final sales price negatively. Whenever possible, make the extra effort in keeping as much of the home furnished as possible, or at least involve a stager in helping out getting the property marketing ready! At this point, it ought to be clear to both estate agent and homeowner that home staging does have a positive effect on the entire home selling experience. A staged home won’t leave the buyers doubtful about the use of space, but will allow them to visualize the rooms with their own furniture and envisioning spending family time there.
Bottom line: empty homes don’t sell as easily as occupied homes.