5 Common Home Selling Mistakes
Selling your home can be surprisingly time-consuming and emotionally challenging, especially if you’ve never done it before. First-time home sellers easily make lots of mistakes. With a little know-how, however, many of these pitfalls can be avoided altogether. Find out how to avoid home selling mistakes, without losing your mind. Following these five tips can get the highest possible price for your home within a reasonable timeframe.
Getting Emotionally Involved
When thinking about home selling mistakes, you need to start with your emotions. It is helpful to start thinking of yourself as a businessperson and a home seller rather than as the home’s owner. You’ll distance yourself from the emotional aspects of selling the property, that you’ve undoubtedly created many memories in, by looking at the transaction from a purely financial perspective.
Not Hiring an Agent
Another of the biggest home selling mistakes is not hiring an agent. Selling your home on your own is ill-advised, especially if you haven’t done it before. A good agent will help you set a selling price for your home that is fair and competitive. This will increase your odds of a quick sale. An agent can also help by interacting directly with potential buyers, so you don’t have to. They also eliminate tire kickers who only want to look at your property but have no intention of putting in an offer.
An experienced agent will also be better at negotiating home sales than you, helping you get more money than you could on your own. Plus if any problems crop up during the process a professional will be there to handle them for you. Lastly, agents are familiar with all the paperwork and pitfalls involved in real estate transactions and can help make sure the process goes smoothly.
Skimping on Listing Photos
So many buyers look for homes online these days, and so many of those homes have photos that you’ll be doing yourself a real disservice if you don’t offer photos as well. There are so many poor photos of homes for sale that, if you do a good job, will set your listing apart and generate extra interest.
Good photos are
- Crisp and clear
- Taken during the day. This when there is plenty of natural light
- Showcase your home’s best assets
- Use a wide-angle lens, if possible. this will give potential buyers a better idea of what entire rooms look like
Trying to Hide Significant Problems
There’s no use hiding any problem with the property since it will be uncovered during the buyer’s inspection. Either fix the problem, price the property to account for the problem, or list the property at a normal price but offer the buyer a credit to fix the problem. You may turn away a fair number of buyers who want a turnkey home if you don’t fix the problem in advance. it is a good idea to have your home inspected before listing if you want to avoid costly surprises once the home is under contract.
Not Preparing Your Home for Sale
Sellers that don’t clean and stage their homes are throwing money down the drain. Not doing these things will, not only, reduce your sale price but prevent you from getting a sale at all. Declutter and clean thoroughly. Put a fresh coat of paint on the walls and get rid of any odors. This will help you make a good impression on buyers.
It will go a long way toward helping you put your best foot forward and achieving that seamless, lucrative sale every home seller hopes for if you avoid the costly home selling mistakes listed here. Call us today for more home selling tips. We’d love to help you sell your home quickly and for the most money possible.