After every showing, buyers get back in the car, the doors close, and they finally say what they were thinking. They won’t say it to you. They say it to me.
I’ve heard those car conversations for over 10 years in Gig Harbor, and as an investor who has flipped homes and owned rentals, I’ve sat on the seller side too. On one of my own flips, the first feedback I got was that the dining room light bulbs didn’t match. I tell clients that every week, and I still missed it. When you’re in a space every day, you stop seeing it.
Here are 12 things buyers say in the car, real versions without names or addresses, and what to fix or plan for before you list in Gig Harbor, Port Orchard, Tacoma, or anywhere in Western Washington.
The Seller Is Home (or the Camera Is)
The seller is in the garage, gardening right outside the window, or the dog is staring from the hallway. The dog counts. Buyers go quiet. They skip the closets, don’t sit down, and don’t talk about where their furniture would go. They just want out.
Cameras do the same thing. I once walked buyers into a home with a camera aimed at us from the fireplace. I covered it with a piece of paper, and within seconds the listing agent called: the owners wanted it removed. My buyers went silent until the car door shut.
Washington is an all-party consent state for recording private conversations, so cameras capturing audio during showings can create real problems. I’m not an attorney, so talk to one for specifics, but my advice is simple:
- Turn camera audio off before you list.
- Put a small “Cameras in use” sign by the door.
- Leave for showings. Walk the dog or grab a coffee.
Buyers can’t fall in love with a house when they feel watched.
The House Is Dark
Our clocks fall back in November, and by December the sun is down around 4:30. Most showings happen after work, so for about half the year buyers see your home in the dark.
Last winter, near Christmas, I showed a home where the back rooms were so dark I ended up touring with my phone flashlight. There was no offer. A dark house doesn’t feel dark to a buyer. It feels small, dated, and a little sad. They won’t say “the lighting was off.” They’ll say “didn’t really love it.”
This is the cheapest fix on the list:
- Every bulb working, all the same warm tone (around 2700–3000K on the box). No mixing blue-white and yellow.
- Lamps on smart plugs or timers so they’re on for every showing.
- Blinds open, and shrubs trimmed back from the windows.
- Porch and path lights on.
- Twilight listing photos. They stop the scroll.
Buyers: if you love a house, see it once in daylight and once at night.
They Can’t Even See the House
Your first showing isn’t the showing. It’s the listing photos, then the Sunday drive-by. Around here, the drive-up has its own problems: moss on the walkway and roof, rhododendrons swallowing the porch, a gravel driveway that shows exactly how last winter went, trash cans out days after pickup, a faded front door, worn house numbers.
Recently my buyers pulled up, rolled down the window, and said “No” before they ever got out of the car.
- Pressure wash the driveway and walkways.
- Lay fresh bark.
- Paint the front door if it’s faded.
- Replace worn address numbers and fill potholes.
- Put the trash cans away before showings.
Buyers don’t start the showing at the front door. They start it at the mailbox. (Buyers: a tired drive-up often means less competition. Look past it and price in the fix.)
The Things You Can’t Fix
The hum from Highway 16, power lines out back, a steep driveway that turns into a ski slope in an ice storm, a view that became trees 15 years ago. For buyers relocating from California, Arizona, or Texas, a septic system or well may be brand new territory.
This year I had buyers under contract when the records showed the septic for the main house, and the ADU, were never permitted. My clients’ first thought wasn’t the cost. It was, “What else are they hiding?”
The problem isn’t the issue. It’s hiding it. Price it honestly from day one, disclose it clearly, and sell what it gets the buyer: a bigger lot, a shop, privacy, a better price per square foot. Use Washington’s Form 17 seller disclosure as a selling tool, not something to get through. If you’re on septic or a well, have inspections done and paperwork ready, and explain how things work.
Buyers: what can’t be fixed is your negotiating leverage. What kills deals isn’t the issue. It’s the surprise.
Where’s the Yard?
Big fir trees, heavy shade, a lawn that’s mostly moss, a backyard that’s basically a hillside. In Western Washington, a flat, usable, sunny yard is gold, and when it’s missing, buyers quietly subtract it from their offer.
I recently showed a wooded lot with drop-offs and wetland areas, and the first thing the couple asked was, “Where’s the dog going to go?”
Give buyers the answer:
- Pick one usable spot (deck, patio, or a flat patch of lawn) and stage it with a couple of chairs.
- Thin branches to let in light. Check city or county tree rules before removing larger trees.
- Clean moss off the deck and stairs. Wet green boards look like rot, even when they aren’t.
Buyers aren’t buying a yard. They’re buying a picture of themselves using it.
The Small Stuff That Isn’t Small
Moss on the roof, plants growing in the gutters, soft spots on the deck, peeling paint. A buyer sees a dirty gutter and thinks, “What else haven’t they taken care of?” The number in their head is always bigger than the real one.
On one inspection, I represented buyers when we found recalled siding warping on one side of the house. Repairing that side might have been enough, but my buyers wanted the whole house addressed, and we negotiated about $45,000 off the price. Buyers don’t price the repair. They price the fear.
Getting a house ready to sell in Washington means fixing what the rain did first. Walk your home in this order: roof and gutters, crawl space, trim and paint, deck, furnace filter, then every drip, crack, and dead light switch. Fix what’s cheap and know what’s not.
Consider a pre-listing inspection. Better to hear it from your own inspector than have the buyer’s inspector read it to you in the middle of your deal.
The Smell
If you watched my last video, you know I can’t smell at all. I don’t trust my nose, and I don’t trust yours either, because you can’t smell your own house.
Around here it’s usually dampness: the crawl space, the basement, the closet on an exterior wall in November, plus wet dog and wood stove. Then there’s the opposite problem, the house with 14 plug-in air fresheners that makes buyers wonder what you’re covering up.
- Run a dehumidifier.
- Have the crawl space checked.
- Replace the furnace filter.
- Open the windows and air it out. Clean, not scented.
- Have a friend with a good nose walk through before you list.
Buyers forgive a dated kitchen. They don’t forgive a house that smells like a secret.
The Kitchen
So many homes here were built in the ’80s and ’90s: oak cabinets, tile countertops with dark grout, an almond dishwasher. Buyers do remodel math in the car, fast, and usually too high.
Please don’t gut your kitchen to sell. You won’t get that money back, and you’ll choose finishes the buyer doesn’t want. Here’s what I do on my flips:
- Paint dingy or dated cabinets.
- Update the light fixture.
- Resurface or replace the countertops if needed.
- Upgrade the hardware to something larger and more modern.
Get bids both ways. Sometimes new cabinets and counters cost less than paint, new counters, and hardware combined. You’re not selling a new kitchen. You’re selling one they don’t have to redo on day one.
The Weird Room
The formal living room nobody sits in. The dining area with no table. The split staircase that goes to the same place. The basement with one treadmill and 14 boxes. If buyers can’t picture what a room is for, in their heads it doesn’t count.
You can’t move walls before listing, but you can give every room a job. A formal living room becomes an office. A bonus room becomes a gym. (I’d put a Pilates reformer in there, but I’m biased.)
One listing had an odd little room at the end of the laundry room. I laid out a Pilates mat, a few weights, and some upscale drinks so it felt like a spa, and everyone commented that they’d love a workout room.
A room without a purpose is a subtraction.
Too Many Floors
When every room was updated in a different decade, you get carpet here, tile there, real wood, then two kinds of laminate, with a seam in every doorway. Every flooring change makes a house feel more chopped up and smaller.
You don’t need hardwood everywhere. Pick one floor, run it through the main living area, and replace any stained carpet.
One floor makes a house feel bigger. Five floors make it look like a project.
Too Much of You
Every family photo since 1982, a fridge covered in magnets and schedules, a sports wall in the corner. None of it is wrong. It’s your life. But buyers can’t picture moving in while you’re still everywhere.
I once listed a home with doll collections lining the top of the kitchen cabinets, dollhouses throughout, and storybooks to match. Buyers couldn’t see past it.
Pack up personal collections before you list. You don’t want the house full of you. You want it full of your buyer’s future.
It Didn’t Look Like the Pictures
This is the reason underneath all the others. Buyers saw your photos and your price, drove 40 minutes across the bridge on a Saturday, and walked into something less than they expected. That gap between expectation and reality is what loses them.
Every other item on this list makes the gap bigger. Overprice the home, and every flaw gets measured against that price. Over-edit the photos, and you might win the click but lose the buyer at the front door.
I once had a seller who listed above my recommended price. When it sat, she blamed the photos and kept reshooting at different times of day, chasing pictures that didn’t look like the house. Buyers still drove up to the real thing.
I’ve seen a dated home priced right sell fast, and a beautiful home priced wrong sit for months. Every time, it was the gap. Price the home for what it is, keep the photos honest, and make the house beat the photos. I’d rather hear, “Wow, this is better in person.”
Buyers: when a home is better in person than online, move fast. Everyone else scrolled past it.
The 30-Second Driveway Test
Before your first showing, pull into your own driveway around 4:45 on a weekday. Turn the car off, sit for 30 seconds, and say out loud the first three things you’d say if this weren’t your home.
That’s the car conversation buyers will have. Now you’ve heard it first.
Get an Honest Walkthrough Before You List
If you’re selling in the next 6 to 12 months, let me walk through your home with you. In a quick 15-minute call or visit, I’ll tell you what buyers will say in the car, before they ever see your house.
Download the free Sellers Checklist, my room-by-room list of what buyers notice that you’ve stopped noticing.
Contact Lianne Hall at 253-853-6200 to schedule your walkthrough in Gig Harbor, Port Orchard, Tacoma, or anywhere in Western Washington.