An out-of-date kitchens, or bathroom are one of the top reasons a potential homebuyer may withdraw an offer, accoridng to a new research survey.
The research, by market research firm Populus revealed that 57% of buyers would reduce their offer and 8% would go as far as pull out altogether due to a poor taste, or out-of-date kitchen. and/or bathroom.
SellingUp conducted an exclusive survey with Populus, one of the UK’s leading market research firms, in order to look into some of the reasons that potential buyers may be put off entirely, or encouraged to make a reduced offer. The research included some 1000+ respondents.
The only other niggle beating a poor kitchen and/or bathroom was a ‘Poor energy efficiency rating’ which suggested that 59% of buyers would reduce their offer and 16% would withdraw entirely.
Whilst a ‘Messy or dirty home in need of cleaning’ saw that 55% of buyers would reduce their offer and 15% would withdraw entirely, ‘Lack of storage’, ‘Evidence of Pests’, Burglary risk’, ‘Messy or Overgrown gardens’ were all rated in the region of the 40% of buyers reducing their offer.
What is more telling of these figures is that whilst a poor kitchen is essentially an excuse for a buyer to haggle with the seller its the high rankings of what would cause people to completely withdraw from a home purchase that should be focused on as these are real motivators.
As the results show, ranked in order of importance to would-be-buyers, Noisy Neighbours are the pinnacle turn off (at 70%), followed by ‘Evidence of Pests’, Burglary risk’, ‘Sellers Rudeness’ and ‘Noise from Aeroplanes’ which would dissuade nearly half of all home buyers to walk away, regardless of the selling price discount on offer.
The silver lining is that whilst a poor kitchen would see you reducing the house price, you can do something about it and even just a fresh counter top, replacement doors and newly painted (in neutral tones) walls which can be done on a modest budget can improve your chances.