…and has dirty orange shag carpeting, and faded purple walls. I really do.
Buying a cosmetically ugly home is the VERY best way to protect your investment. Our little group of REALTORS® (www.CenterCityCondos.com) have sold over 3,000 homes and one distinction we can brag about is our ability to pinpoint condos which are “diamonds in the rough” and finding condos that can be improved without being OVER-IMPROVED.
One distinction that we can brag about is the fairly sizeable profits a lot of our buyers make when they call us a number of years later to resell their Center City condos. Now granted, a lot of that has to do with the market conditions, and the fact that Philadelphia real estate has been on an upswing for the past dozen or so years. But, a significant reason many of our Philadelphia condo buyers make money is because we guide them to properties that are diamonds in the rough.
Buyers are probably going to find the smelly, ugly Center City condos discounted (disproportionately) lower than one might expect…because few other buyers are emotionally attracted to these “dogs”. My goal is to get buyers to see past the simple outdated or unattractive cosmetics that are inherent in a number of downtown Philadelphia lofts, condos, and townhomes.
I feign deafness when I hear a buyer tell me that the place is perfect, except I don’t like the carpeting. Or that the appliances are old and the inside of the refrigerator smells like the inside of their gym bag. Those issues are what I call PHONE CALL UPGRADES. You pick up the telephone, you dial the local Home Depot or Lowes and you set an appointment for them to come out and replace the appliances and carpet. You place one call to a painter who repaints all the faded purple colored walls. These are one step-one call upgrades. This isn’t brain surgery. We are not moving the kitchen which would involve moving gas lines, water lines, replacing flooring, redoing baseboard moldings on and on and on and on. Simple stuff – “One Phone Call” stuff.
And that is where many buyers see a huge increase in their resale price: simple, light cosmetic work. The kind of work that takes a pee smelling, dirty orange shag carpeted piece of ick, and adds significant emotional value through the use of good decorating skills, cleanliness, and minor cosmetic upgrades that are readily visible to the eye.
Buy ugly. Buy smelly. And sell oohs and aahs! Then sing and dance all the way to the bank.
Ready to discover your own diamond in the rough? Give me a call today at 215-521-1523 or drop me an email at mark@centercity.com. We’ll smell out those “dogs” and find you a real ooh and aah buy!