Five Things That Put Buyers Off a Property Before They Even Step Inside

Here is what tends to do the damage before they even get through the door.

The first impression of your home is no longer the moment a buyer pulls up outside. It is the main exterior photo on Rightmove or Zoopla, usually taken on whatever day your agent happened to book a photographer. If that photo shows a bin on the driveway, an overgrown hedge or a car blocking the front, that is what buyers see first, often on a phone screen at half past nine in the evening. Some will scroll past without clicking through at all.

It is worth asking your agent to schedule the photography on a day when you can have the front of the house looking its best, even if that means moving some things temporarily or cutting the grass the day before. You only get one front exterior shot and it does a lot of work.

Research by eXp UK found that an overgrown or poorly maintained front garden is the single biggest factor that creates a negative first impression with buyers, with around a quarter saying it would put them off before they had seen anything else. That is a significant number of people walking in with their guard already up.

It does not need to be a show garden. Buyers are not expecting perfection. What they are looking for is evidence that the property has been looked after. A lawn that has not been cut, weeds growing through a path or a hedge that has taken over the front of the house all suggest the opposite, and buyers start wondering what else has been left.

Broken guttering, missing tiles and dirty or damaged windows are the things that buyers who know what they are doing pay close attention to before they have even been inside. They are not particularly expensive to fix in most cases, but left unaddressed they raise questions. A buyer who spots a cracked tile on the roof before the viewing starts is going to spend the whole time inside wondering what else might need doing, and that thinking tends to show up in their offer.

Clearing blocked gutters, replacing broken tiles and giving windows a clean are all low-cost, high-impact jobs that are worth doing before your property goes on the market rather than after the first viewer has come and gone.

The front door is the last thing a buyer looks at before they come inside, and they are standing in front of it for long enough to notice its condition. A door that is peeling, faded, or just looks worn signals that the property has not been kept on top of. A tin of good exterior paint and an afternoon costs very little and makes a genuine difference. The same applies to the door furniture. A letterbox or handle that is corroded or loose is a small thing that creates an impression it is not worth creating.

This one is easy to overlook because most people stop noticing things that are permanently outside their own front door. Wheelie bins that are permanently visible, old plant pots, bikes left against the front wall and recycling bags left out all affect what a buyer sees when they pull up. None of these things say anything serious about the property, but first impressions are assembled from small details and this is the easiest category to do something about with very little effort.

If you are thinking about selling and want an honest view on what is worth doing before you go to market, and what is not, we are happy to come and have a look. Call us on 01925 767000 or book a valuation at courtyardhomes.co.uk. We will tell you what we genuinely think rather than just telling you what you want to hear.