Sacramento Real Estate Blog

(If you’re wondering why you would sell just the bathroom and not the entire home, please refer to the earlier post about “selling” a kitchen.)

Oh good, you’re back. I hope you’re beginning to get the idea that selling a home is more than just selling the real estate that the home seems to be. The reason why homebuyers really pick one home over another can be pretty complex. Just for a small smattering of choices in a home buyer’s mind, let’s name price, floor plan, location, proximity (or distance!) from friends and / or relatives, childhood nostalgia for an area or type of home, size of home, features and amenities, neighbors, and so on. And these are just the ones they admit to. Or even are aware of! There could be hundreds or thousands other reasons that lurk just under the conscious mind of the supposedly always-searching-never-really-finding-just-the-right-dream-home home buyer.

But this post is about bathrooms, isn’t it? So let’s get to the top five ways to entice this elusive home buyer into seeing your bathroom as superior to all others he or she has seen.

1. Sell the Dream

I don’t know if, in the past, bathrooms used to be a room that was mainly considered in a practical manner. Did home buyers ever walk in to one of these and think, Great. It has a shower and a toilet and a mirror. Oh, and a sink to wash my hands and face. Perfect. Done. The point is, no one today thinks of a bathroom as a particularly practical place. Remember the kitchen and the fantasy of the gourmet cook? Well, a similar fantasy pervades the bathroom. But it is one of relaxation. There isn’t a single person who doesn’t want a bathroom to resemble a spa. Okay, well, maybe my husband is one. But as a homebuyer, would he deny me that if I wanted it? Of course not.

The fact that home buyers want a bathroom to be a place of relaxation and comfort might be a new phenomenon but it is one you should not overlook. In fact, knowing this is an inroad into the mind of your home buyer. Do what you have to to make the bathroom as relaxing and peaceful as you can. Accessorize without overdoing it. Use a spa theme. Create the fantasy. Home buyers love it!

2. Banish Clutter & Messes

True story: I once found a blender in a bathtub. Don’t ask me what it was doing there. Suffice it to say it was a spare bathroom and listing pictures were not taken that day. Unless you want to be a source of humor for the home buyers to recall at every housewarming - including their own - don’t use the bathroom for storage. Even if it is an extra bathroom, you don’t want to give the impression of it being derelict. In fact, a bathroom can be worth thousands of dollars! Just ask an appraiser. If you have an extra one of these, consider yourself lucky.

Every bathroom must be clean, however. Any trace of any of the following will make the potential home buyer turn tail and run: mold, used floss, pet hair, human hair, dandruff, old band-aids, used cotton swabs, ear swabs, well, you get the idea. Clean might as well mean disinfected. Just don’t go crazy with the bleach. You want the bathroom to smell clean, but you don’t want to give the homebuyers the impression that they’re in a hospital!

3. High End Fixtures Sell

Part of the reason the little soap and shampoo sachets in upscale hotels are so attractive to bring home are not because you’ve paid a lot of money to stay there. It’s because the impression they give you is one of opulence. And you feel like you’ve brought a little bit of the opulence home by using the shampoo you brought with you while you stayed there and “stole” the little packets. Don’t worry - you’re not a kleptomaniac! You were taken in by the luxury of the place.

Creating luxury in a home for sale is easier in the bathroom than anywhere else. If you do have a sizable budget, that would definitely make it simpler, but again you don’t have to be extravagant. A singular piece like a bowl wash basin or a particularly large beautiful mirror with details carved on it, or even a high end light fixture that draws attention to itself can add to the feeling of opulence. And don’t think of it as unnecessary, either. One Realtor® I knew had a listing with a claw-foot tub and he very nearly sold the house because of that tub! In the advertisement, the lady who asks that architect to “build a house around around this” sets down a faucet, she seems ridiculous, but it might not be too far from the truth. Choose your fixtures wisely. It can be the difference between your home and an REO with the same floor plan.

4. Remove all Signs of You!

This can be a tough one and no one likes to hear it, but it’s so important. Especially in the bathroom. Home buyers usually look at resale homes because they are less expensive and less of a gamble in terms of being in an established neighborhood than new home developments. But they don’t necessarily like the idea that someone else has lived in the home before them. Why are newly remodeled homes so attractive? For the same reason: they ensure that they are not going to find anything that belongs to the previous owners in there.

So when home buyers do come through your home, you might want to find a safe spot outside the bathroom (maybe a storage cabinet somewhere that’s not as likely to get opened) to put your shampoo, makeup and whatever personal effects you like to use in the bathroom. My personal pet peeves include razors and lipstick, but there are a host of others. So hide those! Remove all signs that you are selling a place where you still live and get clean every morning. It’s tough but very important to a selling a home.

5. Make Necessary Repairs First

Nothing will put a potential home buyer off like a leaking faucet or a water stain close to the edge of a bathtub. You can have a spa theme and the bathroom can smell wonderful. You can even have high end appliances, but home buyers have a special vision I like to call “problem oriented” and spot red flags like leaks and water stains before they see the features. So unless you have fixed everything that needs to get repaired, I would advise against putting your home on the market.

Sometimes it’s a very simple fix and sellers might not even think about it, but it’s a good idea to walk through your home and be critical to the limit of it. Remember you won’t be living in it any more, so why not consider it critically? Fix everything that needs to get fixed. If it’s in question, it must be repaired. And bathrooms are where most of the repairs need to take place because water damage can develop into a serious problem very quickly. Don’t scare your home buyers away!

If you have a home improvement budget before you put your home on the market, it’s a good idea to pay the most attention to the bathrooms and the kitchen. Next time, we’ll be discussing the living room and the extra bedroom, so come back!