8 Costly Home Seller Mistakes
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Homeowners who want to
sell their home know they need to get the place spruced up for marketing, but a
tougher challenge for some sellers is to get mentally prepared for putting
their residence on the market. After all, if you’ve been happily living in your
home for years, it can be emotionally hard to detach yourself from your
memories and look at the place as a commodity you’re selling.
For a smoother sales
transaction that garners the most possible profit from your sale, avoid these
common, yet costly, seller mistakes:
1. Skipping a home inspection. Depending on the age of your home, scheduling
a pre-listing home inspection could save you a lot of time and aggravation. You
can address issues on your own time and budget before negotiating with a buyer
to fix problems.
2. Skimping on your sales prep. While you may be tempted to “test the waters”
and put your home on the market without painting it or making minor repairs,
your home is likely to languish on the market and get a reputation for having a
major problem. A thorough, professional-level cleaning should be your bare
minimum seller prep. Your eventual sales price is likely to be
lower if you don’t sell within the first few weeks after you list your home.
3. Choosing the wrong REALTOR®. Instead of picking a REALTOR® who’s a friend
of a friend, a relative or perhaps someone who’s great at working with buyers,
take the time to pick a REALTOR® with an excellent reputation for listing
homes. Your payoff will be much larger if you list your home with a
REALTOR® with local market knowledge and sales expertise.
4. Neglecting to ramp up your curb
appeal. If you polish and primp
inside your home but neglect to pull weeds or paint your front door, you run
the risk of potential buyers leaving without ever entering your home.
5. Withholding information from
buyers. If you hope that the
buyers or their inspector won’t find out about the leak under your bathroom
sink or the fact that your basement gets flooded every winter, you run the risk
of a nasty negotiating period, or worse, a lawsuit after the settlement.
6. Overpricing your home. If you’ve hired the right REALTOR®, someone
who can give you a strong market analysis and help you determine a reasonable price for your home, then you can avoid overpricing
your home. If you don’t listen to your REALTOR® and base your listing
price on an inflated view of your home’s value, you’re likely to end up selling
after multiple price drops for less than you would have if you priced it right
the first time.
7. Being unprepared for your next
step. Whether you should buy
your next home or sell your current home first is only one part of the
preparation you need to make to move. You need a back-up plan in case your
transaction on either end takes longer or shorter than you think, and you need
to understand your mortgage payoff and the closing costs you must pay.
8. Letting your pets and kids spoil
a sale. Part of your emotional
detachment from your home is recognizing that while you love Fluffy and your
darling twins, buyers want to visualize themselves and their own family in your
home. Bribe your kids if you have to, but make sure the house is neat and as
neutral-looking and smelling as possible. Take the kids and your pets out (or
lock up your pets) when prospective buyers are visiting – you never know if
someone who is terrified of dogs or cats will be turned off from making an
offer because of your adorable pet.
Selling
a home can be challenging, but with the help of a reliable REALTOR® you
can avoid making mistakes and reap the rewards of your sale.
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