Being armed with the right knowledge can make all the difference in how your home sale turns out.
Selling your home can be a nerve racking, exhausting experience.
The stress of being on the market can certainly take its toll.
Luckily, there are some steps you can take in order to make this process as smooth and painless as it can be.
The difference between a profitable, smooth transaction and a miserable experience can straddle a fine line – many home selling horror stories are caused by a lack of knowledge.
Here are 7 mistakes that many sellers make, which can easily be avoided.
Make the right decisions. A little time spent now can save many hours of frustration down the road.
1. Incorrect Pricing
Setting the correct price for a new listing is critical -set the price too high early in the campaign and it will remain unsold and develop the identity of a “problem property.
Likewise, if you set the price too low you risk attracting the “wrong” buyers and selling below market value. Setting the appropriate price involves evaluating numerous different factors, and is critical. Your agent should be able to suggest an appropriate advertised price and provide examples of how comparable properties were advertised.
2. Not providing easy access
In today’s market, many buyers are time poor and unable to attend scheduled open for inspections. If they can’t organise a viewing of a home, they will look at other properties and purchase elsewhere.
In today’s market, many buyers are time poor and unable to attend scheduled open for inspections. If they can’t organise a viewing of a home, they will look at other properties and purchase elsewhere.
Making your home as accessible as possible (within reason) for midweek and weekend inspections is a major key for a profitable sale. The more accessible your home, the better the odds are of finding the person willing to pay top dollar.
3. Bad Housekeeping
First impressions are often the most important – many home sales have been lost due to “fixable” things such as unmown lawns, cluttered rooms, bad stains, dirty kitchens and bathrooms, pet odours etc.
Imagine you are the buyer and look at your home with a critical eye – clean your home from top to bottom, military style.
4. Repairs
Buyers buy what they see – if they see a house in poor repair, this will have a significant impact on what they perceive the value of the home to be.
Even minor improvements to a home can yield as much as three to five times the repair cost at the time of sale.
5. Making selling decisions based on Emotion
Selling a home is a very emotional experience, however underneath it all, selling your home is a dollars and cents business transaction.
Don’t let your emotional ties to the home cloud your judgement, and always remember that purchasers are not buying your home, they’re buying a house to make into their home.
6. Not understanding market conditions
Just like the stock market, the strength of the housing market is determined by supply and demand.
Many buyers look at dozens of homes, comparing their values, before they make a final decision, so it is difficult to find a buyer willing to pay more than the current market value. No single person, agency or agent has any control over the market.
7. Picking the right real estate agent
Not all agents are the same. The agent’s experience, knowledge, marketing and skills can have a huge impact on the success of your sale.
Signing up with the right agent can make all of the difference.