As I mentioned in my last post about pre-inspections, buyers are demanding move-in ready homes more and more frequently. You may be wondering why.
In my experience, it’s for a few reasons.
Whether a buyer is purchasing their primary residence or a second home, buyers are maxing out their lending amount to get the biggest bang for their buck. And, due to the changes to the mortgage rules, some buyers may be required to provide a larger down payment, especially for homes valued over a million dollars. Combined with closing costs, legal fees, land transfer taxes, etc., they may not have available cash to fund renovations to their new home. Some financial institutions do allow for a percentage of costs of renovations to be included in the principal mortgage amount, but it is not my clients’ first choice.
In addition to the lack of funds, I’m finding that buyers also have a lack of time to dedicate to doing renovations, particularly on their own if they are trying to save money. Between demanding careers and family obligations, there’s little time for enjoying life, which is what most people want to do. And I know they’d rather be spending time with friends and family than doing renovations in a home.
Further to that, many people have enough stress in their life. They don’t want to be worried about managing contractors and choosing products, never mind tackling the work themselves. Renovations can be stressful. They can put strain on relationships and often end up going over budget. Today’s buyers just want to cut that out of their lives.
And finally, I’m finding that more and more buyers want to purchase homes in the conditions they see on TV. From full-fledged renovation shows to properly staged properties, what people see is what they want, and they don’t want to do the work to get it.
The benefit of this to buyers is that by putting a little money into updating their homes, they can get the highest price possible back in return. But before you go investing in updates to your property in preparation to sell, please call me to do a home assessment. I’ll give you my expert opinion about what needs to be done. You can call me directly at 289-338-0767.
