Definition of Needs Work

In this episode of “Russell Realty Minute Podcast,” Evan Russell, owner of the Russell Realty Group, talks about a house that “needs work.” He defines what the phrase could mean based on your personal preference.

“Those terms are all different depending on your view on the situation and how handy you are or aren’t.” – Evan Russell [01:32]

What You Will Learn:
[00:00] Intro
[00:18] It needs work
[02:41] Outro

Resources:
Visit our website: https://www.therussellteam.com/

DEFINITION OF NEEDS WORK

Welcome to another episode of Russell realty minute with your host Evan Russell. Where Evan shares his real-world real estate experience with you, if you like what you hear, please be sure to give them a quick review right here in iTunes. Thank you for listening.

One of the biggest comments we get when we ask for feedback, either for representing a seller or if we’re taking a buyer through a home, and we ask them, hey, what’d you think about it? Or let’s take it from a seller’s perspective, hey buyer, what’d you think of the home? If they don’t like it, the typical things are they don’t like the layout, or “it needs work,” right?

So that’s where we’re going to focus, we’re going to focus on the needs work, what defines needs work, right? Your definition of needs work, my definition of needs work are different. Your level of handyman-ness or your ability to fix things is different than my ability to fix things.

Some people think wallpaper is a big deal. If it has wallpaper, it “needs work.” Needs work can mean a variety of different things, and it’s kind of just a general answer if somebody doesn’t like the home, right? They’re not going to insult a home. Say gee the carpets are ugly or gee the wallpaper is ugly, or I hate what they do with the kitchen, he’s going to say it needs work or it needs updating.

So if we focus on the needs workpiece, that needs work could mean a lot of different things. Again wallpaper, new flooring, it’s chipping paint. Or it needs work, maybe the bath was functional, but it’s got pink toilets and a pink seat. And that may be defined as needs work. So needs work needs updating; those terms are all different depending on your view on the situation and how handy you are or aren’t.

Are you able to replace tile? Are you able or willing to bring down wallpaper? Are you able and willing to fix siding? Those are the things that would stand out in the comments where someone would say, hey, the home needs work. My idea of needs work would be replacing the two-prong outlets with the three-prong outlets. My idea of need work would be to replace the flooring.

If the flooring is all scratched up, or if the carpets were extremely dirty, it needs to be replaced. That’s what I would say needs work. But some people may say they just don’t like the kitchen, they don’t like the layout of the bathroom, or they don’t like the layout of the kitchen or the floor or the wall, oven or something along those lines, and then they may say it might need work.

Need work is a general answer for we don’t like the house, kind of plain and simple. Needs work, it’s not worth the price. I don’t see the price-to-value relationship. I don’t want to do the work or the “updating that it needs”; therefore, I’m going to pass. So the term needs work could mean a whole lot of things, but at the end of the day, it really means I’m not interested.