10 Costly Mistakes To Avoid When Selling Your Home
Home buying is often driven by emotion. When selling a home, it is your job as a home owner or listing agent to appeal to the analytical AND emotional side of home buyers in the market for a home like yours. By creating excitement around your listing you are likely to sell faster and for more money. That is the goal, right?
- Not Enough Photos – It’s a crime how many real estate listings hit the prime time without any photos or just one of the exterior! What are you hiding???
- Poor Quality Photos - There is a big difference between great real estate photos and the ones you took with your iPhone. Standard photos make your home look smaller and darker than it needs to. Not good. The result is fewer interested buyers and less excitement about what you have to offer.
Paint – Whenever possible, consult a professional stager with a proven track record for success. If that’s not an option, stick with neutral colors that are going to make your home feel fresh, bright and inviting. Leave the Cabernet red walls to MTV cribs.- Curb Appeal – Potential home buyers are going to make a major judgment call before they even walk through the front door. If you normally cut your lawn once every two weeks, make it once every week while it is on the market. Groom the edges and hedges like you are entering a contest for the best yard in the neighborhood. Plant some inexpensive annuals to brighten up the appearance. Hire someone if you need to. It is worth the investment.
- Pricing - I could spend hours on this subject. To be brief, the right price is not about what you are hoping to make. It is about determining the most you would be willing to spend on your house if you were a buyer in today’s market. Being realistic about this will save you thousands in avoided price reductions.
- FSBO – For Sale By Owner sounds like a great way to save money, but is it really? Put your home buyer shoes back on and ask if you wouldn’t be looking for a price savings of at least the amount the seller is saving on commissions. Considering that most serious home buyers are working with an agent, how are you going to attract these home buyers and an agents to your listing? How are you going to create excitement around your home being on the market? Even if you offer a commission to buyers agents, they are going to pray that their clients don’t like your house because they are going to have to do more work for the same or less money than they will for a home being listed by another Realtor.
- Credits - Let’s say your Arlington townhouse has wall-to-wall carpet that is stained an worn in obvious areas. Should you just offer a $4000 credit to the buyers to replace the carpet on their own? No. Remember that home buying is a highly emotional decision. Brand new carpet is going to appeal to the emotional side of potential buyers a lot more than $4000 at settlement will. They want to see how nice it looks before they buy it.
- Limited Exposure – Potential home buyers should not be able to go to a single real estate website without tripping over your listing. The person selling your home should be an expert on where to find home buyers and how to get their attention.
- Difficult to Access – People are busy in this town. If your home is not available to see when they are available, then they are going to move on to the next one.
- Days on Market – Thinking about reaching for an ill-advised price for 30 days and then coming down if it doesn’t sell. Don’t. The first 30 days are crucial. The longer your home sits on the market, the lower its perceived value will be and the less leverage you will have when negotiating a purchase contract.
You may want to check out a similar article where we discuss the 10 Steps to Selling a Home. Or, why you should consider Arbour Realty when selling your home.
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Great suggestion under #7 Credits. New carpet does sell the house quicker and for more. By not giving the buyer a credit you can often save the seller some money in addition to making the house more atractive. When you give a credit it opens up for discussion and negotiations. I’ve seen a $4,000.00 credit grow to a $6,000.00 credit when an agressive realtor makes the amount of credit an issue. If the homeowner had done the carpeting prior to putting the home on the market it becomes a moot point and takes the dollar amount off the table. It also makes you remove the clutter.