What Not to Do When Selling Your Home
So you have decided that you want to sell your home.Avoid these selling mistakes when putting your home up for sale as they can cost you time and money!
It is important to not put up unnecessary roadblocks in the sales process now that you have decided to list your home. The number one goal is to sell your home quickly and for the most amount of money. Accomplishing this requires avoiding some common mistakes that home sellers don’t realize they are doing. When breaking down why some homes sell and some homes sit on the market for a prolonged period of time, we can boil the problems down to few denominators.
1. Overpricing the Home
This one may seem simple but sellers usually think their home is the best of its kind and therefore have a number that they wish to get for the home. Remember all a home is worth is what someone is willing to pay you for it. Usually the home they are selling is the most valuable thing they own. They may have poured money into it for years. They may also be unwilling to accept that the market has not been kind to their home. Of course, none of this matters when it comes time to sell.
The reality is that buyers don’t care about the feelings of the sellers. They are more concerned with getting a fair price. A good realtor will have years of experience under his belt and be well versed in market statistics and pricing. If you want to wait until conditions are more favorable for a higher price, you can. But if you want to sell now, you need to price competitively. So ask yourself. “Am I willing to price the home to sell, or am I simply fishing for what i think its worth?”
2. Hiring the wrong REALTOR
This one may seem a bit redundant. But you would be surprised at how many people make a huge mistake here. Not all REALTORS are built equal. There are numerous real estate agents offering their services. But only some of them are well-qualified to sell your home. Do they know they area? Have they been selling for long? What are their statistics like – percentage of homes sold, percentage of homes that sold for close to the original price (means he or she knows how to price the home)? Does the agent have a good reputation, one you can verify by talking to clients that were happy with their transactions? If you are interviewing an agent and they can’t answer these questions, I would say that is a huge red flag that the agent may not be the right one to sell your home.
Take some time and interview several different agents before you decide on one. The fee for hiring an agent is worth the cost, but only if the agent is good. Most homeowners do not take the necessary time to thoroughly interview agents. This can be a costly mistake!
3. Choosing to Neglect Obvious Repairs
There is no home that is perfect. Not even when freshly delivered from a builder. Every home has something that needs to be fixed. There are just some repairs that need to be done before you put your home on the market, that is if you want your home to sell for top dollar. Sometimes it is difficult to know what those repairs are, which is why it is helpful to have an experienced agent to discuss your home with(See number 2). But there may be some repairs you are already aware of that you know, deep down, must be dealt with. All home sellers should be aware of how to prepare for the buyers home inspection (Our next article will cover this, stay tuned…). Taking care of obvious and common issues is just good business!
If your carpets are stained and smell from inside pets, it is not something that buyers will overlook. They will actually look for more things wrong and offer you a lower amount. If your roof is literally falling apart, depending on where you live may lead to bigger problems and leaks in attic again resulting in no offers or low ball offers. Landscaping is another area that is hard to ignore. Move in ready properties fetch top dollar in the marketplace. What may cost you a few thousand today may result in tens of thousands when it comes to offer time.
4. Not Having the House in Show Ready Condition
This is another area where home owners sometimes don’t see that there is a problem. You live in the home every day, so it seems normal to you. But if the home is in disarray, it will not be appealing to people that come looking to buy.
Most of the time it is easiest to just hire a professional cleaning service. They can come in and clean up all the nooks and crannies of the home, making sure that anywhere that buyers look will be presentable. You should also clear out any clutter that is present, probably by renting a storage unit and placing the items there. You want the home to look as spacious as possible, and closets and basements full of junk do not help.
This is another area where having an agent can be so helpful. He or she can look over your home as it is now, and tell you what needs to happen to get it ready. This may include repairs, professional cleaning and redecorating. But, even if it seems like a lot of work, at least you know when it is completed that your home will look its best.
5. Making Showings Difficult
It is important to understand that when you decide to sell, you are embarking on a journey that may take some time to complete. Through the process, you will need to be ready to do what it takes to make the sale. This may include keeping the house extremely clean, and being available when the house needs to be shown. A lot of seller’s want to control when the house is showed because they are only concerned with their schedule. Buyers have multiple schedules and accommodating the showing times will greatly increase the number of people that you can get through your home.
If you can do these things, you will make the job of your agent a lot easier, and will help make the sale happen much faster. By avoiding all of these these common home sale problems you will increase the chances of sitting at a closing table relatively quickly with a smile on your face.
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