Selling a house can be more difficult than buying one. You want to get done with it as fast as possible and get the most profitable deal as well. Your potential buyers are skimming through your competitors’ houses as well and in a competitive real estate market if you make some blunders you are bound to fail. Although veterans also make some mistakes while selling their houses, first-time sellers are more prone to making the biggest home-selling mistakes. If you are selling your house or are stuck with your house being listed for over a month, read this post to learn the mistakes to avoid when selling your home.
Trying to do things on your own
There are many sellers who try selling their homes without any professional help. Some sellers are too confident in their home selling skills, while some want to avoid the extra cost of hiring a real estate agent. Real estate agents bring a lot to the table. They have professional experience, a huge network, they know the market condition, and a lot more things that make having a real estate agent by your side very convenient. I highly recommend first-time sellers and inexperienced sellers to take help from a real estate agent.
I’m sure you might have an idea of the benefits of hiring an agent but let’s understand what will happen if you try to do it on your own.
- Your listing may not be done properly with good photos and clear descriptions.
- You will have to wait a long time for a good buyer to come your way. Agents have a huge network so things get done at a faster pace.
- You will have to hunt and then hire a good real estate photographer, home inspector, and staging expert. Agents have many professionals in their close contact who can start working immediately and give satisfactory results.
- You will not know if the buyer is actually qualified to buy the property. Hence you might be wasting your time entertaining unqualified buyers as well.
- You might get overpowered during the negotiation, especially if the buyer has an agent.
- You might end up making the wrong decision.
- You might have to figure out the legal stuff on your own
- Worst case scenario, you might end up with scammers.
Wrong timing
Selling your house in the winter might be the wrong move. Winters are a time to have fun with the family, go out for a vacation, and munch on delicious cakes and chocolates. Not many people want to stress themselves with buying a house in the middle of a festive season. In simple terms, if you list your house during the winter, your house might be visible to only a portion of your prospective buyers. And when it comes to marketing, the more reach you have, the better it is.
Evaluate your house correctly
Deciding the price is the most crucial part of the home selling process. Your local real estate agent should be able to help you price your house correctly. The market value will depend on a lot of factors like the location, age of the house, condition of the house, size, and much more. If you want to sell a fully repaired and upgraded home, you may price it higher than the typical market price or establish a competitive selling price to attract multiple buyers. If you are selling your house to repay an existing mortgage, make sure you price the house higher than the mortgage.
One more thing you need to remember is that you cannot set an unrealistic price. Nothing is more lovely to you than your home. You could feel that your residence should provide you with at least a certain amount of money as a result. Your home’s value might not match what you believe it to be, in reality. You will never attract quality buyers by setting your pricing too high. The majority of the time, purchasers will utilize filters on listing websites to weed out houses that are outside of their price range. If your home is priced too high, no buyer will take it into consideration.
Skipping home inspection before listing
A huge home selling mistake is skipping the pre-listing home inspection. This inspection of your house conducted by professionals is a great way to understand what fundamental problems your house might have. We may not see the moisture behind the dry walls, but the inspectors do. If you conduct the repairs mentioned in the report, you can even increase the cost of your house.
In addition, if your buyer employs an inspection, they can point out several flaws in the property and use these as a justification for the reduced asking price.
Since most buyers now look for properties, online the only thing they can absolutely trust is an inspection report from a certified home inspector. Many buyers won’t even consider the properties that have not conducted the pre-listing home inspection.
Not hiring a professional real estate photographer
There is a huge difference between clicking pictures of skies and mountains on your iPhone and clicking pictures of a property. The latter needs a lot of planning and ideation to make sure buyers are attracted to your property on the listing website. Professional photographers can get it done in no time.
Think of yourself as a buyer. You’ll visit a website and scroll through all the properties. You stop only at properties that look amazing at first glance. This is where high-quality and professionally clicked pictures play a very important role.
Not making your house visually appealing
A normal pancake can also manage a “ wow!! beautiful” reaction if it is plated beautifully. The most important part of ,selling your home faster is more people taking an interest in your property. You can hire staging experts to make your house look straight out of a magazine. This will make sure that people love the images of your house and also the house when they visit.
Not thinking rationally
We are all emotionally attached to our house. This somehow blinds our vision when it comes to making decisions regarding the sale of your house. When you decide to sell your house, you should also leave aside your emotions and think about what will give you the most profitable deal.
The biggest consequence of being too emotional is you end up fighting with the buyer if they pass bad comments after looking at your property.
Many sellers sign the contract, but then they don’t feel like selling the house so they back out before closing the deal.
Therefore, it is necessary to think rationally or at least have a third-party person (an agent) who can do that for you.
Refusing to make changes
The buyer might ask you to make some repairs after they conduct their inspection. Do not refuse this request. Instead of reducing the price of your house, make some changes to it and get yourself a good deal and also save yourself from losing a buyer. Making changes might be a bit of a hassle but finding a new good buyer is even more difficult. Don’t let the buyer go away so easily.
Not preparing the house for the house tour
The house tour is the first time a buyer will see your house in reality. Your house should look clean and well-lit. The buyer should start imagining their life in your house when they take a tour.
Picture entering a property, and the first thing you see is a lawn covered with dried leaves. Then you enter the house, and the house is a mess; it looks dull, and there is a weird smell to it. There is no way you are going to buy it, are you? So will the buyer.
Here are a few things you should do:
- Clean the house thoroughly from the inside and outside
- Apply a fresh coat of paint if required
- Remove any personal things like photo frames
- Clean your lawn
- Make sure there is a lot of light in the house
- Pay extra attention to the kitchen. Remember, “kitchen is the hero”.
- Remove all old furniture and create space in the house
- Make sure your house smells great when the buyer arrives
Entertaining unqualified buyers
When you list your house, many buyers might show interest in buying your house. You cannot waste your time talking to all buyers. It will not only waste your time but also lead to a delay in contacting qualified buyers. An experienced real estate agent can certainly help you filter out unqualified buyers.
Hiding the problems
If there are some issues in your property, which most properties have, do not hide them. Transparency is really important in a real estate transaction. Once all the things about your property are known to the buyer, both good and bad, the buyer can make his decision. Moreover, it will prevent further complications that might arise due to hiding the true condition of your house.
Refusing to negotiate the price
You should absolutely expect good rounds of negotiations when selling a property. Whether you sell it to a buyer, investor, bank, or a home buying company. Little negotiation will always be there. The seller wants to sell the house for as much price as possible, while the buyer wants to get it for as low a price as possible. Finding the middle ground is what we do when we negotiate for a price. We settle at a price that is profitable for both parties.
If you are so stubborn as to not even discuss the possibility of reducing the price, then there is no way someone would buy your house.
Now, if your buyer has an agent, they certainly have the upper hand in negotiations. This is where a seller’s agent can help you. They know exactly what to say and when to say to get you the best possible deal.
Ignoring the curb appeal
the house tour
There are many conflicting opinions about whether the seller should be present at the house tour or not, but most realtors suggest you leave this to your agent. Having a seller on a house tour can make the buyer uncomfortable. Moreover, if the buyer says he didn’t like something about your house, it might lead to an argument if you are not being patient.
Bottom line
Selling your house is just like selling a product. You need to put yourself in the buyer’s shoes and design yoDid you know that by just enhancing the curb appeal, you can increase the price of your house? Also, if your curb appeal is too bad, the buyer gets a good reason to negotiate the price. So you should work on enhancing the curb appeal. It also sets the first impression of your house when the buyer visits the property, and the first impression is the last impression, right?
You can get your lawn cleaned. Repair the fence and the main entrance. Add some lights along the driveway or install a small deck or patio. You can do small projects to make your house look beautiful from the outside.
Not having a proper insurance
When buyers visit your property during the house tour or if you host an open house, there are chances that the buyer might end up damaging your property, knowingly or unknowingly. If you don’t have insurance, you will have some extra expenses to deal with. Insurance can keep you rest assured that even if your property gets damaged, you won’t be at a loss.
Attending ur marketing strategies. Identify the plus points of your property and communicate them to the buyers. Hiring a real estate agent would make things a lot easier, so don’t think of it as an extra expense. Avoid these mistakes, and you should be able to sell your house without any hassle. And unfortunately, if your house isn’t attracting many buyers, you can always approach an investor or a home buying company to buy your house. Once you are done selling your house, there are still a few things to do. Read this post to learn more about the ,things to do after selling a house.
