Home Seller Mistakes You Definitely Want to Avoid
Do not let emotions get in the way of your sound judgement.
Mistakes in selling your biggest asset could cost you thousands of rands, as well as time.
Luckily, plenty of people have walked this road before you and the worst house selling mistakes are ones that you can avoid.
Pricing The Home Incorrectly
The number one home seller mistake is overpricing. There is nothing that will stop a home from selling more than the wrong price. Unfortunately the love and memories you have for your home have no relevance to the price.
A competitive price will attract buyers. An amount that is too high will drive them away. Any real estate professional you talk to will tell you that pricing a home too high is the kiss of death.
You have to price the house according to the market—failing to do so could leave you with a listing that sits for months or longer.
The best thing you can do is price at fair market value or just below fair market value, but when you overprice a property you miss out on all of the buyers who are only looking in the correct fair market value price range.
If your house is marketed slightly low, you may be lucky enough to have several buyers presenting offers, in which case your experienced estate agent would be able to negotiate your price up.
Failing to Prepare The Home For Sale
Believing that to just list your home and hope for the best is a serious mistake.
First impressions matter, and buyers want to see a clean, well maintained home. If there are obvious issues that need to be fixed… then fix them! Stage your home as beautifully as you can.
A truly big mistake a seller makes is not decluttering their home prior to listing. Clutter on table tops gives the impression of lack of space. Too much furniture makes a room feel small.
How to make your buyers come running: http://www.bowringproperty.co.za/advice-to-sellers
Not Paying Attention to the Market
Good Estate agents have weekly meetings about the changes in the market and how that affects every end of the housing spectrum.
Home prices are shaped by supply and demand, like any other economic asset, and may fluctuate based on subtle changes in your area’s economy.
For example, if there’s a shortage of available houses and plenty of people looking to move to your area, home prices will rise. If the overall national economy is doing well, home prices will also increase.
However, if there are many available houses, buyers will have more negotiating power, and prices may be negotiated downwards.
If the overall national economy is battling, home prices will drop.
Not Hiring a Skilled Real Estate Agent
The attraction of FSBO (For Sale By Owner) is obvious—you don’t have to pay an estate agent a commission, which means you keep more money from the sale.
The drawbacks to this approach are often not that blatantly obvious. It takes a ton of hard work and time to sell a home for an excellent price.
A FSBO also does not have a robust network or marketing channels at their disposal.
Reported statistics show that FSBO’s end up not completing a transaction over ninety percent of the time.
A qualified Estate agent has spent between 2 to 4 years studying the Estate Agency Board qualification/s (together with compulsory, continuous annual workshops), so has the experience and knowledge to negotiate and close the deal.
Hiring The Wrong Real Estate Agent
An incorrect price for a home often goes hand in hand with picking a lousy real estate agent.
Pricing a home is a skill and an art. Something that many real estate agents don’t do well. You either have this skill, or you don’t.
An Estate agent should offer marketing tools, marketing skills and be able to produce a proper marketing plan. Property @ Bowring has 28 years experience, and have a concise plan which works hand in hand with their experience.
A common comment is “ We are going with XYZ agency because they are a bigger firm with more offices” There seems to still be this misplaced perception that big is best. The truth is that a good small agency, embracing the latest technology, employing the best staff, working with fewer clients and therefore able to devote more man hours to each individual client’s property surely has as good if not greater chance of finding a buyer?
Big offices often mean individual sales are allocated to a particular person or department, so no one else in the office knows what is going on or can answer questions if that staff member is unavailable.
In smaller offices everybody mucks in and knows what is going on. Buyers are not interested in who is the biggest brand. Big brands have big marketing budgets and are excellent at promoting? – Yes! you guessed it – their brand! Not necessarily client’s homes.
Not Telling The Truth About Your Home
Homes are made up of a lot of different components. Some of these components are going to fail over time. It can be really tempting to try to divert attention from problem areas of your home to make your sale go easier.
In the pressure of the actual sales process, it can even be tempting to lie to make the sale and get it over with. But failing to be honest with buyers has a considerable chance of backfiring on you. It could kill your sale. It could lead to a lawsuit.
Proper disclosures are super important when selling a house.
For a full understanding of latent and patent defects: http://www.bowringproperty.co.za/latent-and-patent-defects
Not Being Flexible With Showings
A missed showing is a missed opportunity. One of the more common home selling mistakes is not letting buyers in when they request a showing.
Sure, there are going to be times when showings are going to be difficult. You have a family and a life. Sometimes they get in the way.
If you want to sell your home, however, in the shortest amount of time for the most money, let the buyers come on their schedule! The more restrictions you put on your showing schedule, the more challenging it will be to sell.
Not Being Flexible In Negotiations
It is common for buyers to try and negotiate better terms before they agree to purchase. The conditions may or may not involve taking less money for the house than you wanted to. Try to listen to your agent during negotiations.
He or she can tell you the difference between a good deal and a bad one. If the agent thinks the deal is right, seriously consider it.