They say when you’re on a blind date your prospective lover makes their mind up about you in the first 15 seconds.
A new survey has found it might be a similar story when prospective buyers walk through a home open for the first time.
Finder.com.au asked 1000 people what they didn’t like when they walked through home opens and around half of them said they had decided whether they liked a property the moment they walked in the door.
If that wasn’t sobering enough for home opens everywhere, another quarter of the respondents hade made their final decision on the property by the time they had left.
The survey also asked prospective buyers what they hated seeing at home opens the most and it was mould that topped the list.
Top ten home open pet hates
- Mould
- Structural Decay
- Damp smell
- Signs of smoking
- Dirty bathroom
- Peeling paint
- Dated kitchen
- Signs of pets
- Worn carpets
- Messy interior
Mould is not only unsightly in the bathroom where there’s insufficient ventilation but if it’s found on walls at the bottom of the floor in other rooms it can mean there’s structural problems with the property. This can be expensive to fix and will send buyers running for the exit pretty quickly.
Cigarette smells can be hard to eradicate after years of seeping into paint and wood but they can at least be fixed cosmetically before a home open.
Number ten on the list was a messy interior, and prospective buyers would be just as concerned that this is a sign of how the property has been looked after in general as they are of it’s aesthetic fail.
