5 Ways to Make Your Home Sellable to Seniors
If you’re motivated to sell your home, there’s no understating the value of staging. Investing in attractive designs and necessary improvements can ensure you present your property at its best in a competitive market.
But beyond general strategies that broaden its appeal to everyone, including painting your walls neutral colors or polishing curb appeal, you may also want to consider specific audiences—namely, senior citizens. They represent a huge portion of the buying audience and perhaps even a majority, depending on where you currently live. Check out these five tips to make your home irresistible to senior homebuyers.
Improve accessibility
First of all, you’ll need to ensure seniors can safely utilize every square foot of your home, so consider making simple upgrades that can ease navigation. For instance, remove obstructions like saloon-style doors and add lighting to dark hallways or closets. It may also be worth investing in more intensive changes, such as replacing stairways with ramps or installing safety railings, if you can expect a large percentage of seniors house hunting in your neighborhood. Consider reaching out to a real estate agent to discuss this likelihood and which projects are worth targeting.
Perfect your kitchen and baths
If you’re already planning on making serious renovations in your kitchen or baths, focus on optimizing them for seniors; these rooms are frequent problem areas for the elderly, who may have trouble completing essential tasks in these rooms’ traditional layouts. Install countertops and sinks at a lower height, replace deep cabinets with stacked drawers, and swap to appliances with convenient features like exterior water dispensers and large-text digital displays. And for the greatest impact, upgrade any bathtubs or shower-tub combos to walk-in showers that include sleek safety railings.
Opt for low-maintenance materials
Home repairs may be necessary for you to make your home more sellable—both for aesthetic reasons and to avoid home inspectors identifying costly work, which could kill a deal. But you’ll need to be prudent with your choices to charm senior buyers, who may be seeking a low-maintenance investment. For example, if you need to replace your roof, opt for a metal one. If you’re swapping out any windows, upgrade them to aluminum-clad options. These materials may be selling points due to their durability and low likelihood of needing future maintenance.
Eliminate unnecessary clutter
Seniors often experience mobility difficulties or limitations, putting them at greater risks for slips and falls. To make these buyers feel right at home, you’ll need to optimize foot traffic. Pare down the amount of furniture in each room to increase walkable space, remove floor items like pottery and lamps, and apply rug grippers under all area rugs. Also remove any decor from the spaces around entryways and near doors, where buyers touring your home may run into them.
Showcase senior-friendly features
When you put your home up for sale, ensure that your listings include descriptions and images that may appeal to seniors. For instance, you could underscore any safety features you added and promote a finished in-law suite or basement as ideal spaces for multigenerational living. If your home is on the smaller side, boast its suitability for people looking to downsize. You can also generate excitement about your home’s location by emphasizing its proximity to amenities like medical services or senior-friendly entertainment opportunities. Load your listings with enticing details, and you may see tour bookings start to roll in.
While you shouldn’t stage or renovate your home to appeal to a single market, you can optimize it for senior homebuyers while also preserving its appeal to the general public. Contact a real estate agent for further advice on selling based on your location and local buyer demographics. Approach the selling process with forethought and expert guidance, and you can help increase your chance of not only selling your home but also earning excellent offers from eager buyers.