Common Home Selling Mistakes

These seller mistakes could cost hundereds or even thousands of dollars in your real estate transaction. Work with your real estate agent to avoid these problems in your home sale.

The Risks with Pricing Your Home Too High

In an effort to maximize the real estate return, many sellers price their home too high for their local market. This can be counterproductive in the selling process and result in a much lower sale price. By overpricing a home, the seller’s home will be mostly overlooked.

Buyers today are keenly aware of home values. Often they have spent more time researching the market than the sellers. For those who do look, your home may be used as nothing more than a benchmark by which to compare all of the better real estate values. The property can gain a reputation of being a problem property.

Ironically, if the buyers think they have found a good value, they will often bid equal to or more than the asking price. A well priced home can therefore net the seller more money in the end.

An Appraisal May Not Indicate Your Home Value

Real estate appraisals are written for specific purposes. The appraiser is trained in various methods of valuing your home. Because of this, real estate appraisals can show a wide variety of prices depending on the purpose of the appraisal and the ambition of the appraiser.

It is generally not wise to use a refinance appraisal to determine a selling price. These are usually only designed to give a yes or no answer as to whether your real estate is worth the financing requested. If you have not requested the full value of your home, chances are that your appraisal is low. On the other hand, sometimes lenders will inflate your home value over its true market value to encourage you to take their mortgage loan.

The best way to find out the value of your home is from a highly qualified Realtor®. Realtors® use the same data and similar procedures as appraisers, but they are more familiar with the buyers and sellers in the current market.

Spruce Up the Home Both Inside and Out

Failure to spruce up the home causes many sellers to settle for less than they could have received. Many buyers are selective as they look for homes. At least they are persistent until they find what they are looking for.

If your home is in disrepair or dirty, the buyer may lose interest very quickly. Some buyers may even offer low ball bids since they assume the value is less.

Be sure to make the front of the home as presentable as possible. This is the first impression. Also, clean all areas even when hidden in closets, above and behind appliances, and so forth. People are usually curious and those places won’t really be hidden.

Don’t Pressure the Buyer

Whether you mean to pressure a buyer or not, your presence may cause them to feel pressured. When a buyer is under pressure while looking at your home, they may leave your home with an unpleasant feeling.

If you are present during the showing, just be friendly. Don't ever haggle over the price. Don’t hover over the buyers, but be available and point out a few of the subtler amenities.

Ideally, the buyer will view your home with either your Realtor® or their own real estate agent. Your Realtor® generally has had more experience selling real estate and can often understand the potential buyer in order to meet their needs. The Realtor® can also skillfully follow up with the buyers or the buyer’s agent and refuel their passion for your property.

Qualified Real Estate Buyers are Better Than Lookers

Most times, a few lookers come through a home for sale. This is unavoidable since you don’t want to offend your actual buyer. However, if a buyer is not yet ready to buy, there is no need to sell them. Although it is important for buyers to learn what is available in the real estate market, you may not want to be the guinea pig.

Buyers may not have the financing to afford your home or they may still need to sell their home. Your Realtor® can pre-qualify potential buyers and bring you the serious ones. Your Realtor® shouldn’t waste your time, but should give you the facts about potential buyers so you can make the decisions.

Know Your Real Estate Seller Rights and Responsibilities

This may be one of the most critical elements of a real estate transaction. It can make the difference between a costly legal mess or a smooth transaction. There is usually no way for a seller to fix a bad real estate contract once it is signed.

Real estate contracts by their nature are long and complex. They offer certain warranties and require a certain party to pay for specific fees. Further, there are certain implications that may require a great deal of research to really understand.

Many aspects of the real estate contract are negotiable so you should decide what you need to achieve before beginning. Your Realtor® can take care of every detail of the real estate contract and explain its terms to you.

Your Realtor® is responsible to take care of the details and serve your needs.

Don’t Rely on a Small Advertising Budget

The nature of the listing agreement is to buy advertising. The more advertising your realtor Realtor® does, the more you will receive for your home. An effective real estate agent will use many techniques in the home selling campaign.

Each marketing technique has a small chance of selling your home. When you add up all of the smaller pieces of the puzzle, the overall effectiveness is amplified. With this said, many campaigns are insufficient because of budget limitations.

The cost of advertising real estate can be much higher than most people realize. If you do not have thousands of dollars for television, internet, radio, postal mail, and many other marketing mediums, your Realtor® can be gold. Your home deserves wide array of traditional, technological, and creative strategies.

Find out why Josh Powell, the number one marketer in Utah, can fetch you more money for your home sale. See Josh's Sample Advertising.