If a seller has lived in a property for any length of time, many just don't see the property in its actual condition. They remember it from "before" and no, that lived-in look that people discuss doesn't mean buyers overlook the condition when looking at the property. People put their homes on the market without cleaning (yes, hard to believe) or organizing or removing the clutter outside or inside and excess furniture & those 3 things don't require $, just time and elbow grease. This will alone will knock down your home's value because buyers don't want to move into a dirty, cluttered, furniture filled house that appears much smaller than the sq footage shown in the marketing.

Most buyers want light, bright and clean. Some sellers like very dark, cave-like properties and finding any working lights so the buyers can see the property is difficult to impossible. I don't mind finding light switches, but I don't carry extra light bulbs around to see the property. I do carry flashlights and the flashlight app on my phone just in case.

Other objections:

• Lack of landscaping or overgrown landscaping (not by a day, by weeks)
• Dirty roof and siding
• Dirty windows and doors
• Not finding the entry to the house
• Broken fences or gates
• Fascia board in bad shape - wood rot or termites or missing
• Non working windows or doors
• Old rusted out sheds
• The lawn, walkway and driveway littered with toys so that entry is difficult - it only takes a moment to put things away or at least out of the way so we have a path to the door
• Old roof that kills the sale even if everything else is great (insurance premium is too high for the buyer). An old roof is 20+ years old. Check with an insurance agent or online to get info that applies to your area.
• Laundry all over the place (outside the laundry room)
• A/C filter so filthy that the dirt is showing through the a/c vents (this shows lack of maintenance on the HVAC system - and indicates that other systems weren't taken care of either during the time the seller owned the home).
• Basic, normal, everyday repairs not done - for years example: that missing tile in the kids bathtub surround, broken garage doors, mold (!), missing doors or holes in the walls, leaking pools etc.
• Makeshift repairs that scream the seller doesn't care about the house
• Bad odors in the house hurt your price too - this includes animal odor, cooking odor, mildew or anything else. You need a 3rd party to tell you this because if you have lived there you may think it's normal and not recognize it as off-putting.

I could go on for paragraphs. You would be amazed at how some people don't maintain their homes at all. I've had sellers' say: 'If its good enough for me, then it's good enough for the buyer', not understanding that the buyer has choices. They will either reduce the price to account for all of the work + the hassle factor or move on to find another property.

Those sellers that take the time and effort to prepare their property so a buyer can move in and not have to get to work right away to make it habitable are rewarded at the closing table. Those that go the extra step of fresh paint, appealing exterior and fixing what needs to be done are rewarded even more at the closing table - and with a quicker sale.

I'm sure others have more to say, but you get the general idea. Clean and organized, light and bright, sells. Properly prepared homes sell faster and for more money.

Old, overgrown (as in, can't be trimmed) shrubs, shrubbery covering the windows or front walk, weeds in the sidewalk/driveway and foundation beds. The list goes on...

As a potential buyer that wants a very specific home, I'd look right past any bad landscaping.. But I'm in a hot market and married to a landscaper so .... :)

Old roof and/or windows would catch my attention though. They can be expensive to replace so I would definitely take those into consideration when making an offer.