Like many things in our lives, the coronavirus pandemic changed the process of homebuying. Isn’t that an exciting process? Visiting homes, imagining your new life there, and thinking about the renovations you need to make⦠these are just some of the things that come to mind when picking a home to buy. But the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to enjoy these things now. We have to resort to everything virtual-meetings, shopping, and homebuying.
It is this phenomenon that home sellers and their real estate agents should remember. Yes, homebuyers are paying for a house they didn’t even see in person. But no, that doesn’t mean you should be lax in trying to sell your house fast. If you want a good deal with the most minimal of time frame, you have to design a virtual house tour in a way that homebuyers won’t be able to say no.
Clean Up
How many homes have not been sold because the present owners forgot to tidy things up a beat? While your home can be charming, it will lose that charm the moment potential buyers see the pile of dirty plates in the kitchen sink or the basket of dirty clothes in the laundry area. Sure, they want the tour to be as realistic as possible, but that is not an excuse to show them how untidy the home can be. Remember that even celebrity mansions will look ugly if dirty clothes are thrown around the sofa.
Change the Light Bulbs
Imagine touring potential buyers with flickering lights overhead. Using fluorescent lights can also make a home look bland and lacking character. Consider changing the light bulbs into those warm ones. They create a nice glow in any room. When people see these virtually, they will feel the warmth and coziness of the home. That can push them to make an offer for it.
Remove Personal Items
In an open house, homeowners remove personal items such as photographs and souvenir items because they are distracting to the potential buyers. Seeing photos of the current occupants of the house will make you question why they didn’t want to stay in there anymore. Is there something wrong with the house? These kinds of questions do not help make a successful sale.
Go for a Minimalist Look
The problem with rooms being too cluttered is not only that they look untidy, but they look smaller, too. Remove excess furniture; those that do not add value to the room. Go for a more minimalist design, which means you only need the sofa, lamp, and coffee table in the living room. The bedroom should only have a bed, side table, and a chest of drawers. Strip the rooms down to their bare necessities. There’s no need to over-accessorize the rooms.
Repaint Rooms With Neutral Colors
If you really want to sell your home, make sure to use neutral colors only. Some people have aversion to certain colors, but almost everyone has generic feelings for neutral shades of gray, taupe, white, and beige. Try to play with earth-toned colors because people tend to gravitate toward them. Besides, potential buyers will appreciate the rooms more if they can see them in less aggressive colors.
Make the kitchen cheerful and sunny with a touch of yellow paint, but never overdo it and keep major design elements in neutral colors. For the living room, stick to taupe, beige, and white because these colors look clean and attractive. Even for the bedrooms, go for white and gray with a touch of green and blue because these are calming colors that put minds at ease.
Set the Table
In a virtual tour, the viewer is focused more on aesthetics than ever before. The overall look of your property should compensate for the fact that the interested buyer cannot physically inspect the quality of the construction. Instead, the buyers focus on how the house and its different components look like. Setting the table allows them to put themselves in the room with you and the real estate agent. It visualizes for them what the dining area can look like once they’re living there.
Doing virtual tours will never replicate nor come close to the excitement of an open house. But for now, these tours would have to do for real estate agents and potential homebuyers. Until the pandemic fully ends, homebuyers will have to adjust the parameters of how they judge a property. Thankfully, though, these virtual tours are giving them an opportunity to be the same discerning buyer they would have been in the real world.
