Here’s a fast fact to consider: If you offer your house for sale and potential buyers notice the carpeting is dirty or has visible stains they’ll quickly categorize your home as a “fixer upper”. Even if every other component of the house is in perfect shape. Once the word gets out that your home is a fixer upper its market value will take a substantial hit. So if you haven’t been getting the kind of offers you anticipated when you first put your home on the market you might not have to look any further than the dirty carpeting to understand why. Professional carpet cleaning from Steve’s can solve this problem.
Professional Carpet Cleaning: The Home Seller’s Best Friend
When potential buyers enter a home for the first time they typically make a beeline for the kitchen. If they don’t like what they see there they’ll quickly decide the house is not for them. But there’s another thing that can turn a potential buyer off even if they love your spacious, well-designed kitchen: dirty carpets. The fact is there are a number of ways dirty carpets can make a negative impression on a potential buyer including:
- Overall Appearance - It doesn’t matter if a potential buyer loves the location of your house, is smitten by the design and landscaping and thinks your kitchen is the stuff of dreams. If they see dirty carpets they’ll either give you a polite but empty “We’ll call you” or they’ll come back with an offer befitting the fixer upper we mentioned earlier. Having dirty, stained carpets is like having peeling paint on the walls. No one will see anything else.
- Unpleasant Odors - Carpeting can make your home more beautiful, comfortable, quiet and energy efficient. But if you have pets and you don’t clean the carpets regularly it can also make your home smellier. Chances are you’ve become immune to the smell of pet urine but someone entering your home for the first time has not. Few things will flip a potential buyer from “enthusiastic” to “turned off” faster than being hit with the odor of pet urine when they step inside. Even if your carpet seems spotless chances are that if you haven’t had it professionally cleaned recently it’s harboring some unpleasant pet-related odors.
- Undermining Trust - Dirty carpets don’t just shine an unflattering light on your home, they shine the same unflattering light on you personally. Right or wrong when people think someone is trying to sell them something that is dirty or unkempt they begin to wonder what else that person may be trying to get away with. Their trust level drops and they become less willing to entertain the idea of doing business with the owner of the dirty carpets. A house is the biggest purchase most people will ever make. Therefore trust is an essential part of the sales equation. If a buyer thinks the seller is trying to put one over on them they’re going to move on to the next house.
- Lowering the Value of Your Home - Maybe the most important way dirty carpets can influence the sale of a house is by negatively affecting its actual market value. The fact is an old house that is thoroughly cleaned and beautifully staged will command a higher price than a comparably sized new house with dirty carpets. It may not seem fair but the fact is big purchases are as much about feelings as they are about numbers or anything else. If the potential buyer isn’t completely comfortable with a house they are either going to take a pass on the sale or else come back with an offer that is far below the seller’s asking price.
Real estate agents are all too aware of the negative power of dirty carpets. One of the first things they’ll recommend when they size up your home is professional carpet cleaning. Remember, when a potential buyer tours your home they want to see possibilities. They want to imagine themselves and their family in the house. They don’t want to be reminded of you or your pets. Nor do they want to have to dodge wine stains from your last New Year’s Eve party. You can solve this problem by searching for “carpet cleaning near me” and then visiting the Steve’s Carpet Care website and getting in touch.
Renters Need to Leave Clean Carpets Too
Folks who rent apartments need to make sure they leave the premises in the same condition as when they moved in. This means making sure all the lights are working, that the drains aren’t clogged and that the fridge is clean and undamaged. One thing they sometimes forget about is the carpeting. But if the carpets have become stained or just generally soiled during the time of their tenancy they’ll likely have a hard time recovering their security deposit.
The same is true if you rent a carpeted office space. You need to make sure you leave the carpets looking at least as good as when you moved in. Otherwise the owner of the space is going to withhold the security deposit. You can save yourself a lot of headaches in both instances if you call Steve’s professional carpet cleaning service before you move. We offer a full line of important carpet cleaning services that will help ensure your security deposit is returned to you in a timely fashion.