Popular home seller mistakes.
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Real Estate Agents Rank Biggest Home Seller Mistakes
A recent survey of real estate agents by ActiveRain has confirmed that there are certain things a seller should avoid if they are trying to get their home sold for the best price in the least amount of time.
The results of this survey are no surprise to real estate agents, but sellers need to understand that eliminating as many hurdles as possible to the sale of their home will help them achieve their desired outcome.
Of the top mistakes, most are ultimately in the hands of the seller. Here are the top mistakes real estate agents commonly see made by homeowners looking to sell their house.
1. Overpriced Home – Nothing shocking here. This was far and away the most common mistake sellers make that prevent them from selling their home.
If you overprice your home there is a pretty good chance no one is going to want to buy it. Real estate agents do not set the real estate market. A great real estate agent will suggest a price at which to list your home based on comparable homes that have already sold in the market. Overpricing a home to ‘see if you can get someone to bite’ is not a strategy employed by someone really serious about selling. Overpricing a home will lead to missed opportunities with buyers that are serious about buying in the range at which your home should be listed.
The first week during which a home is listed will generally be the time that the most eyeballs are on the home and the largest potential pool of buyers will be exposed to the listing. Setting a price that reflects the market is essential to selling! This is exacerbated in a downward trending market. Many a seller has lost thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars chasing a market down after setting a listing price that was outside what the market was willing to bear.
2. Showing Availability – It’s Difficult to Set a Showing
The chances your home will sell when buyers can’t get in to physically inspect the property are minuscule. Sellers need to understand that listing a home for sale is going to lead to some inconveniences in your normal routine. Many serious buyers may want to physically inspect a property during times which may not be convenient for the seller. Knowing this, motivated sellers need to understand that flexibility in when you allow the home to be sold could have a direct impact on the sale of your home.
It’s not uncommon for a seller to see 8, 10, even 20 homes during a showing tour with their agent. If your house isn’t on that list because you only do showings on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm, you will miss out on ready, willing and able buyers.
As a seller, realize that the more people that can see the home in person, the more chance you have to find the buyer that wants your home.
3. Cluttered Space – Unwilling to Depersonalize or Remove Clutter
Sellers are sometimes unwilling to either make the effort, or unwilling to compromise how they live in their home during the time the home is on the market for showings. Serious sellers realize that by depersonalizing the home and removing unwarranted clutter, it allows potential buyers to more easily visualize their own things in the house.
When you live in your home day in and day out, you become comfortable with your own ‘things’. In many cases, however, your ‘stuff’ can make a room feel smaller than it actually is and in some more extreme cases, your ‘stuff’ can completely distract someone from visualizing the potential of a room. We know you are proud of your kids as the shrine in the living room displays all of their ribbons, trophies and diplomas from the last 20 years. But for a buyer, this is only a distraction.
Many agents will make recommendations about ways to remove clutter or depersonalize your home. Some will even suggest that a professional homestager be brought it to completely maximize the space and create a setting maximizes the buyers ability to visualize their own things. The key thing to remember here is these suggestions are not personal and you may have to be a little uncomfortable so that your house puts its best foot forward.
Click here to read the other 7 home selling mistakes you don’t want to make.