Common Mistakes Made By Sellers

- Not qualifying your real estate agent

Without an experienced real estate agent who is familiar with the ins and outs of the sale process, your home may languish on the market. These days I see a lot of agents that are only doing the job part time. If you are not a full time agent, you cannot keep up with the trends in the market. Be sure you have an agent that is familiar with the market and works at it full time.

- Starting too high on price

Your first 3 weeks on the market are going to be when your home gets the most traffic and interest. If you are too high to start, you will have buyers pass it by and they will never come back. The old adage of starting high and correcting it when it doesn’t work will not produce the results you are looking for. In many cases you will continue to chase the market down and lose more money than if you just started at a reasonable price.

- Waiting for a market rebound

The thing everyone needs to understand is that you are buying and selling in the same market. If you are waiting for your house to increase in value, the house you buy will have increased as well. So while you may get an extra $10k, $20k, or $30k, you will pay an $20k, $30k or more for the new home you are buying. The key is to try to maximize your dollar when selling, and make your money when you purchase your new home.

- Not making repairs

When a buyer looks at a house, they always assume that everything will cost $5000 or more to fix. A paint job is $5000. Getting the hardwood floors done is $5000. The list goes on and on. In actuality, these repairs can be done for a fraction of that cost, but most buyers are uneducated on the actual cost and secondly, want to use it as a tool to knock down the price. Either way, you could spend a small amount early on, or lose a lot of money down the road.

- Taking offers personally

No matter what the offer, remember that it’s not a personal attack on you or your home. Most people I have worked with over the years get insulted when someone comes in low on their house, but do the exact same thing when they are buying. You have to try to take the emotion out of the offer and look at it as a business transaction. If an offer is not what it should be, sit down, look at it, and figure out something realistic that can work. These days, you don’t want to let any buyers off the hook.

- Making your home hard to show

Anyone that has ever sold a house knows that it is an inconvenience. You have to keep it clean all the time, leave at inopportune times, and have people intruding on your personal space. It really isn’t an ideal situation for anyone. However, if you don’t allow people to come into your home, it will never sell. Try to do whatever you can to accommodate buyers getting in your home. Like a band aid, it’s easier just to get the process over quickly than to let it languish for months and months.