Why First Impressions Sell Homes, From an Unusual Angle

By Darren Ricketts

Darren Ricketts is the Team Leader of the Ricketts Group at eXp Realty, serving clients throughout Eugene, Oregon, and the surrounding areas.

I’m a pretty tall guy. At 6’8”, I experience most houses a little differently than the average person, and never more so than when I’m walking through a charming 1940s home like my brand new listing at 2190 Jackson here in Eugene. The ceilings are right there. The doorways are an adventure. I’ve got a real talent for spotting low-hanging lights before they spot me. So let me walk you through it and show you the world from my point of view, because underneath all the ducking and dodging, there’s a lesson about selling your home that matters no matter how tall you are.

First, a disclaimer I give everybody: don’t judge the house based on me. Judge it based on how it looks to you. Yes, the ceiling’s close to my head, and yes, when we get to the kitchen I can see clean over your refrigerator, so if you ever have me over, make sure the top of that fridge is clean, because I will absolutely judge you for it. When I look out most of these windows, I’m seeing about half of the view everybody else gets. None of that is a knock on the house. It’s just my particular vantage point, and this house wasn’t built for me. Not a lot in the world is. You get used to it.

Here’s where my height actually comes in handy, though. It turns out being able to see the tops of things gives you a pretty honest read on a home. I can tell you the exact shape the roof is in without a ladder. I can see how clean a space really is. And it makes me pay attention to something every seller should be thinking about: how a house presents, and the impression it makes the second someone walks in.

First impressions set the tone for everything. When a buyer comes through your front door, the first thing they see decides how they feel about the rest. In this house, that first look does a lot of work:

• The living room reads clear and appealing, with cute furniture and a style a buyer can picture themselves in.
• The dining room feels like established, usable space.
• The two bedrooms let a buyer immediately imagine how they’d live there.

That’s not an accident. That’s staging doing its job.

This is why I tell my clients that staging money is money well spent. It’s one of the most effective things you can do to prepare a home, because it’s working on the buyer’s first impression, which is the one that sticks. And staging isn’t only for empty houses. If you’re still living in your home, that’s completely fine, part of my job is helping you get it ready so it looks like nobody lives there, even while you do. Clean, bright, uncluttered, ready to go.

Curb appeal counts just as much. We’re in the middle of August, so the grass is dry, that’s Oregon in late summer, but you can still make a yard look sharp by cleaning it up and keeping the edges tight. A buyer’s impression of your home starts before they ever walk in and continues after they walk out, so every angle matters.

Now, does this actually work? Yes. This listing went on the market and we had five showings in the first day and a half, with two agents already talking offers. That’s not luck. One of the things I tell my clients constantly is that your first three days on the market are the most important days you’re going to get, and quick action out of the gate is very often the best action you’ll get. A home that’s staged, clean, and ready on day one is a home that’s set up to win those three days.

So that’s me, a 6’8” agent signing off from a very cute 1940s house that wasn’t built for my height but shows beautifully for everyone else. If you’re thinking about listing and you want fast action from the very first day, let’s talk about getting your home ready the right way.

Call or text me at 541-852-2565, email me at darren@rickettsgroup.net, or visit blog.rickettsgroup.net. I’ll help you make a first impression your buyers won’t forget, even the ones who can reach the top of the fridge.