Biggest Mistakes Home Sellers Make

Pictures of islands.

There are lots of mistakes people make when selling their home and they can all lead to getting a lower price than you wanted to simply not selling your home at all. It doesn’t matter what sort of market you’re selling in, either. If it’s a booming market then making some of these mistakes will cost you money because you could’ve gotten a higher bid and when we’re talking about selling homes a higher bid can be thousands of dollars, which could go a long way. If it’s a down market then making these mistakes can prevent your home from selling at all or driving the price way down.

The biggest and most common mistake is listing your home for too high a price. There are lots of reasons this happens. It makes perfect sense that someone would overvalue the place they live. It means a lot to them and is most likely to be filled with memories, each of which irrationally adds to the value (those memories are not going to be shared with the new owners so they add nothing for them). It’s wonderful that you have so many cherished thoughts and feelings about the house (you raised your children there, it’s the first place you bought with your wife, etc) but no one else has any attachment to those thoughts so don’t let them inflate the price you put on your house.

People are naturally desirous of more money. Everyone is! It’s not a flaw to want more money for your home but if you get caught up in that thinking you might let your desire for cash sink your ability to sell the house. This becomes a problem because real estate agents will often suggest a higher list price than is realistic knowing that you’ll sign them because you want the money. Then later they’ll try and convince you to drop it or they’ll simply be unable to sell the house because it’s too expensive. Those are not great real estate agents and even though it seems like it they’re not working with your best interests in mind.

What you want is someone who takes time to do research. They need to look at comparable sales in your area (similarly sized homes with roughly equal furnishings, etc), what the market is doing, etc. It’s not a simple process and it takes an experienced agent with talent and passion for what they do. If someone works hard at being a real estate agent you’ll be able to tell because the presentation they give will be impressive in many ways. That’s the person you want selling your house.

You need to make sure your home is in good condition before you put it up for sale and another big mistake home sellers make is overlooking that. They seem to assume that because the home has a good structure or it’s in a good location that buyers will overlook the bad condition and simply imagine what the home could be if they put in the work that’s necessary when buying a place. It would be a wonderful world if that were the case, but sadly it’s not. Buyers see what you present to them and in most cases they can’t actually overlook it even if they say they can. It’s a subconscious thing, really, and no one has control over that.

What you do have control over is how you present the home and how the buyer’s subconscious perceives it. That means you need to do some work. You didn’t think selling your home would be free of work, did you? The first thing you need to do is a superficial sweep of the home. Get rid of the all the junk laying around. Clean up the toys in the kid’s room. Get rid of all the loose papers around your desk. Clean up your messy DVD collection. If you have to box stuff up and put it in storage that’s what you’ll do because this is important. Have you ever toured a model home at a development or seen one on a TV show? They look pristine. It seems like someone has lived there but not left their mark. That’s what you’re aiming for with the superficial sweep.

After that you need to dig a little deeper. Are there cracks in the tile in your kitchen or bathroom? Does the closet door squeak horribly when you open it? Does a window stick every time you open it? Does the shower drip constantly? Is there gross dirty caked into your shower tiles? All that stuff needs to be taken care of so the buyer feels like they’re moving into a well cared for, loved home. The newer and fresher you can make it feel the easier a time you’re going to have selling it.

Inexperience is an issue when selling a home and so many people make the mistake of either trying to sell their home themselves or hiring an inexperienced agent. You could sell it yourself and try to save on fees but the truth is you need the help of a good, committed agent to get maximum value for your house and to sell it quickly. There’s nothing more stressful than having your home sit on the market for months when you’re itching to move and get on with your life. Relieving that stress is well worth the fees the agent charges.

Hiring an agent with experience will also save you from making all sorts of marketing mistakes. Something as simple as taking bad photographs can seriously impact your ability to generate interest in the home. Remember, the first thing most people are seeing is your listing and if the pictures don’t sell it they’re not stopping by. Real estate agents will also buy ads or send out mailers and doing that all yourself would be a challenge and most likely an annoyance. Why bother with all that if you don’t have to. When selling your home, don’t make any of these mistakes.

Big mistakes for the first homebuyers. 10 home seller mistakes. 

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