What Sells Houses?
This is a question I think agents get asked by buyers and sellers often and I think they are the questions agents actually ask themselves.
Some say it's the location or the size or the age of the home or perhaps the view etc - and this may be true from a helicopter perspective, but if there are several competing properties in the minds of active buyers what more intimate features might apply the heaviest weight to their decision making? No matter how good the agent is, certain factors of a home will sway buyers and in my experience (and it's just my experience of selling real estate) four major items sell property ---
And they are Kitchens, Bathrooms, Decks & Garages.
Kitchens are the heart of the home, we congregate, entertain and tell stories around them and it's the place where we cook, eat and wash-up. As such, the design and aesthetic of a kitchen will call buyers to action. I've sold houses on kitchen's alone. To a lesser extent bathrooms speak to prospective purchasers - whether it be the actual design/layout or the physical number of them - buyers love bathrooms. Two bathrooms are always better than one. Showers are way more popular than baths and if you can't have them offered separately then a shower over a bath will trump just a bath any day of the week. Separate toilets are also high on some people's shopping list and sometimes there are cultural reasons behind this.
Nothing adds value to a home with the least financial outlay like outdoor living does. Whether it's a full blown Ibiza-grade paved patio with all pillars and grapevines or just a modest timber deck, people love to commune outside around a BBQ or a firepit. We are social creatures and as Kiwis we love our outdoors so if there's six chairs, a table and some outdoor lights sitting just off the dining room window then people will have their sharpies out ticking boxes on their shopping lists.
Finally, garages. Two are better than one, internal access is a winner and if it has an over-height door for a boat or the boys toys then its game on! Throw in a workshop with a bench and well, then it's simply game over!
