Overlooking Cosmetic Features When House Hunting

Have you ever met a person and immediately before giving them a chance you thought, “I do not like her earrings, so we would not be friends”? Highly unlikely unless those earrings sorely offended you, right? Well sometimes when people are house shopping we see them do the exact same thing with homes. People will walk into a room, ignore everything great about a property and only zero in on an ugly paint color in the kitchen. Today let’s discuss some of the cosmetic features you can overlook easily when buying a home. We refer to these things as the “jewelry of the home”. You can always change “the earrings” if the home is in the right location, right school district and in right price range. In this housing market, sellers are not having to make the upgrades, freshen up their spaces or do the “extras” they would usually need to do to get the most money for their home. Because of that, buyers are going to have to be able to overlook, look past and have some vision when it comes to finding the right purchase.

Overlook The Jewelry Of The Home

Some of the biggest items that turn people off tend to be things that you can easily swap out. A great example would be trying to ignore the ugly light fixture over the dining area because a couple hundred dollars spent and about 30 minutes of your time can make that eyesore disappear and change the look of the room completely.Another repeat “offender” is ugly or dull paint colors. It is true that painting is not a whole lot of fun and it is time consuming but you would be AMAZED at how much of a difference a fresh coat of paint makes in a room. If you have trouble envisioning the space with new “jewelry”, there are some great apps out there that can help! You can “paint the walls” as well as “drop in new light fixtures” to see if that makes you feel more at home. 

Our Real Life Example

When we bought our current home, there was an ALL Hunter Green bathroom – floors, walls, tiles, everything. Truthfully, it was enough to turn off everyone before us and send them right back out of the door. I knew that the layout of the home was awesome, the location was perfect, the price was right and those were the things we could not change. Everything else, was just “jewelry”. We moved in, painted and stenciled the tile floors, painted the shower tile and painted the walls. Now we have a gorgeous bathroom in our perfect home and all it took was $500 and a weekend of elbow grease. The alternative of NOT getting to live in this amazing home because of some super ugly cosmetics (more than 1 by the way) would be terrible. This is where having a great realtor can make a huge difference in your home buying experience. Your MilHousing Network Realtor can help you brainstorm, help you see a vision, and give you tips on how to renovate on a budget by connecting you with the right experts. Having the right people in your corner can make all the difference.

What NOT to Overlook

On the flip side of the issue, never overlook the neighborhood, the lot, your safety, the commute, the school district, the HOA rules that bother you, or the size of the home you need to be comfortable. Those things are deal-breakers because you cannot change them and if it bothers you now, that feeling with only intensify with time. 
Happy House Hunting Involves Some Give and Take

Anything that can be changed or fixed with a little cash and a little work can be overlooked when you are house hunting and should never be the deciding factor in your ultimate decision. Remember, an ugly backsplash can be fixed in a weekend but if you miss out on a great house because you cannot overlook that backsplash, you could be spending EVERY weekend looking at houses trying to find perfection that may not exist.