That’s great…. Well kind of.
Buying and apartment can be a very emotional experience. When inspecting an apartment, you envisage yourself living there and cooking or having friends over or sitting on the balcony. Our homes are a reflection of our selves including our personalities, values and aspirations.
Normally, when an apartment is sold, it’s dressed up in a style that exudes a homely elegance and evokes those emotions in your mind. Sometimes you may walk into an apartment and it is a mess. Usually this means the apartment is leased to someone who is not too worried about people walking through their messy home and they don’t feel compelled to help out the owner and tidy it up. When you get past the shock of a poorly presented apartment, it may become a real opportunity for you.
Firstly, other buyers will be turned off by the poor presentation and either not inspect it at all or walk in and walk straight out. This obviously reduces buyer competition which is good for you.
Secondly the owner doesn’t actually want the apartment to be presented like this but obviously they cannot wait for the lease to end (at which point they could tidy it up and present it properly) so they must be extra keen to sell it. This could suggest they are a bit more negotiable on the price.
It could present a real opportunity for you and you may have to use your imagination to envisage the apartment looking more ‘homely’, and how you would style it to understand what life could look like there for you.
The downside is that you may not be able to see everything you want with the renter’s property in the way. This also makes maintenance or repair work that needs to be done less noticeable. Whether it’s large carpet stains under the couch or damaged paint work behind the painting.
A totally empty apartment is often considered best for the buyer, with no set dressing and no renters furniture in the way, you are able to see the apartment in all its naked glory. Still, a leased apartment offers up a lot of opportunity, so don’t shy away from those offerings.
