What Buyers Focus On Most When Touring A Home, According To Eye-Tracking Software

Turns out, it isn’t all about the stainless steel appliances.

One of the many mantras in the real estate world is the saying “kitchens sell houses,” but until now there has been very little information about exactly what it was in a kitchen that would make buyers pay attention. With the help of a few homebuyers wearing glasses that track eye movements, we are beginning to have some hard facts.

It isn’t the shiny metallic fridge or the latest high-tech dishwasher their eyes go to when they first walk in the kitchen. It’s the oven. Many of the buyers in the study would go so far as to look inside the oven, and some of them would even turn it on to see how well it worked. So if you’re selling your home, make sure the oven is so clean it sparkles inside and out. If it isn’t in working order or has a few bad burners, you don’t necessarily have to get it replaced, but you might consider offering the buyer a credit for a new one.

Bedrooms are one of the next priorities in a house that can make or break a sale and eye-tracking software reveals a buyer’s eyes go straight to the bed when they walk into the room. Most likely buyers are wondering if their bed will fit in the space and if there is enough room to fit the rest of their furniture as well. This means if you’re in triage mode when it comes to decluttering on short notice, make the bedrooms a priority over other rooms in the house.

Outdoor accessibility was another big takeaway from the study. When buyers walked into a room that accessed the backyard their eyes immediately went to the outdoor space and the doors that opened out to it. Make sure the windows and doors (if they have glass) are as clean as can be so they show off the view to the outdoors in the best way possible.

But how about those stainless steel appliances? Are they worth it in the end? This study wasn’t designed to measure whether people’s eyes looked at stainless steel more than other types of finishes, but I’ll pass on the main reason why they have become so much of a trend: They can make a small kitchen look much bigger. The reflective surface acts the same way a mirror does by bouncing light around the room and giving the impression of spaciousness. To continue with the mirror example, a designer once told me hanging a mirror is almost as good as adding a window to a room. Stainless steel can have the same impact within a kitchen so it is still worth keeping it in mind if you are going to buy a new appliances.