If you want a successful home sale, avoid these six mistakes.
We all know that selling a home can be a stressful process—both when preparing it for the market and having it on the market. If you avoid these six common mistakes when putting your home on the market, you’ll make the process smoother and less stressful:
1. Choosing the wrong agent. You need an agent who’ll be responsive to your needs and knowledgeable about the homes in your area through their own experience. You also need an agent who’ll be honest and straightforward with you. In other words, someone who’s willing to tell you the truth when you need to hear it—not just tell you what you want to hear.
2. Overpricing the home. Even in this crazy market, it’s critical to price your home appropriately. All the homes that are getting multiple offers were priced correctly from the get-go so be sure to brainstorm with your agent and come up with the right price for your home.
3. Failing to make little repairs. If your dog chewed something up, for example, or the home has peeling paint somewhere, buyers will notice these things immediately when they walk through the property and consider them red flags. Save yourself from future heartache by making these little repairs now.
“Even in this crazy market, it’s critical to price your home appropriately. ”
4. Failing to declutter. When buyers look at your home online and see your stuff lying around instead of all its features, they may not even bother seeing it in person. My rule of thumb is this: If an item isn’t coming with you to your next home, sell it, donate it, or give it away right now. Pack up everything else and store it in your garage or, even better, an off-site storage facility.
5. Not allowing adequate access to the home. We’ve found that for every 10 showings a seller declines and has to reschedule, eight of those buyerswill walk away. Once your home is on the market, it must be available to be shown at all times. You need to get buyers into your home at times that are convenient for them—not times that are convenient for you.
6. Getting too emotional. Think about the sale of your home like the sale of an asset. If a buyer wants to change something or remodel, that’s fine as long as they’re willing to pay you the price you want. Your goal should be to make the most money possible from the sale.
If you have questions about this topic or have a topic you’d like to see me discuss in a future video, don’t hesitate to call or email me. I’d love to hear from you.
