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Selling your home is a significant undertaking. Not only is it time-consuming, but it can also be emotionally challenging, especially if you’ve never done it before. You will not only need to get your home ready for listing, but you will also need to deal with the sale itself—from deciding on the asking price to completing the contract. These details require a tremendous amount of knowledge and should not be taken lightly.
This is where the help of an experienced local REALTOR® can help! They will provide you with profit-producing tips and tricks to ensure you get the most value for your home. They will guide you every step of the way, from recommending the right asking price to ensuring all the contract paperwork is in order. It is their job to know the local real estate market, and they can tell you where to invest your reno budget, ensuring you receive a high return on your investment. A 2017 study actually indicated that agent-listed homes received about 30% more than “For Sale by Owner” properties!
When listing with a real estate agent, they should tell you which mistakes to avoid. But to best prepare yourself for the selling process, here are some common mistakes to be aware of before even getting started:
Mistake #1: Getting Overemotional
Your home is where you and your family have lived, loved, and grown over several years, so emotions are to be expected when it comes time to sell. Not only are strangers invading your space regularly—peeking through your closets and cupboards—but they are actively critiquing it and looking for possible flaws to offer you as little as they believe they can. This is when it’s important to remember: to you, it is a home. To them, it is simply a building.
Overpricing, refusing lower offers, and accepting too quickly on a deadline are all risks of having too much emotional involvement when selling your home. To avoid these, try to take an emotional step back and approach the sale with as little attachment as possible.
Mistake #2: Overpricing
Setting the right asking price is critical whether you’re working with an agent or going it alone. Overpriced homes generally don’t sell. In one survey, 70% of real estate agents said that overpricing is the number one mistake sellers make!
Setting a realistic price can be difficult without access to pertinent information for your neighbourhood. A REALTOR® will complete a comparative market analysis, which will help you determine your home’s value. They will have access to a complete history of homes sold in your area, as well as an ability to compare past solds that are similar to your home to complete this analysis and give you a fair market price.
Mistake #3: Expecting the Listing Price
Any REALTOR® worth their salt will encourage their buyer to negotiate a better deal for themselves. And if you want to sell your home, you will have to join them at the table.
When setting a listing price, most sellers will want to find a realistically attainable goal with room to negotiate. While this does have a fair amount of influence over whether you will get more or less than asking in the end, other factors—including current market conditions and home staging—will also come into play.
Mistake #4: Cheaping Out on Listing Photos
Today, more than 90% of buyers start their home search online, meaning their first impression of your listing is going to be the photos. And with yours stacked against so many others, you will want to stand out with good visuals that catch buyers’ eyes.
The best real estate photos should be sharp, focused, and taken during the day when plenty of natural light is available to accentuate your home’s best features. Hiring a professional real estate photographer is best to ensure the highest quality images. They may also be able to offer 3D and video tours to help enhance your listing even further!
Mistake #5: Hiding Major Flaws
Hoping to get away with hiding that water damage with a fresh coat of paint or some wall art? Think again. A buyer’s home inspection will uncover any issues and may end up costing you the sale!
When selling your home, you have three choices when it comes to issues. You always have the choice to fix it before listing, so you can set the price you want without worries. You can also choose to price lower than market value to account for the repairs or list at market value while offering buyers a credit to fix it themselves. Note: many buyers will be turned off by the idea of a home that needs repairs, regardless of a lower price or buyer credit, which should be factored in before you make any final decisions.
To avoid any surprises, you can always have your home inspected before listing to get a good idea of what will come up when you find the right buyer.
Mistake #6: Listing Before You’re Ready
You are selling both yourself and your home short by not taking the time to clean and stage your home before listing. I’m not saying you have to hire a professional cleaning company and home stager—not everyone can afford it. However, you can do many home cleaning and staging DIYs yourself! And by failing to do even these simple things, you may risk a far lower sales price or even a sale entirely.
For example, suppose you haven’t attended to minor issues, such as a broken doorknob or dripping faucet. In that case, a potential buyer may wonder whether the house has larger, costlier issues that haven’t been addressed either. And without decluttering, cleaning thoroughly, and putting fresh paint on the walls, you could be making your home look more dated and weathered than it is. An excellent real estate agent will point out areas of your home that need work.
Mistake #7: Being Picky About Showings
Accommodate each and every showing, even if it may be inconvenient for you, making sure the house is clean and tidy before each visit. Buyers have no way of knowing that your home was cleaned the other day. If you still have dishes in the sink and a mussed-up bedspread, they are still getting a lived-in appearance that may prevent them from envisioning the space as their own.
Though it may be a lot of work, remember that the inconvenience of showings is temporary, and once you settle into your new home, it won’t be something you have to think about for many years to come.
Even if you avoid every home-selling mistake, always stay mentally and financially prepared. Sometimes houses will sit on the market for longer than expected for countless factors in the real estate market—selling during the holidays, for example, is likely to be slower than in the height of the spring market. But, by doing everything you can in advance to prepare your house for sale and following your REALTOR®’s advice, you’ll be setting yourself up for a more successful and lucrative sale!
