What else are you hiding?

What else are you hiding?

I was out with clients one day, looking at a handful of homes to see if that was the day we would find the right home for them.  We walked into the second or third home of the morning, and one of the first things we saw were the beautiful hardwood floors. So far, so good, since those were on their wish list.  We looked around the rest of the house, and it met most of their needs. We were thinking we had a contender.  But then…..

The story

My client noticed that the throw rug under the couch was way off center. He lifted up the corner of the rug with the intent of straightening it out.

“Uhhhh, what is this?”

Underneath the throw rug, the nice hardwood floor was missing a section; and the floor was lower than the rest of the room.  It looked as though there had been a door in the floor that they removed. Of course, there may have been some other explanation. The bottom line was that there was a problem hidden under the rug.

The first thing my clients said was, “If they are hiding this, what else are they hiding?”

Even though the home looked as though it might have met their needs, they were no longer interested.  They didn’t trust that there wasn’t some other defect hiding somewhere.

Feedback Given

The listing agent later called to get feedback. I indicated my clients were not interested in the home.  When she asked why, I told her that they saw the missing floor boards under the couch. I told her they were concerned that if there was an issue hidden there, there might be another issue elsewhere.

The agent’s response was that the seller would definitely fix the floor if that was the issue. In fact, they were planning to fix it before it sold.

I explained to her that the problem went beyond that particular floor issue.  That really, my clients felt that if the floor issue had been hidden, something else could be hidden as well.

Bottom line

Bottom line? When selling a home, hiding blemishes and flaws and thinking they will go unnoticed can backfire.  There might have been nothing else wrong with the home. My clients simply didn’t trust that that was the case. So they passed. They left that house thinking,

“What else are you hiding?”