Selling your home can be a difficult task. If you’re a novice seller then the allure of selling your home with wildly unrealistic expectations will surely cause you to make mistakes that will do more damage to you than good. Here is a list of the top 5 mistakes that most home sellers make when entering the real estate market and hopefully after reading this article you’ll be able to avoid them.

1. Setting An Unrealistic Selling Price

The most important aspect in making or breaking a prospective deal that a lot of novice sellers make errors in is setting a realistic asking price. Chances of you making such an error might be heightened if you choose to opt for selling without an agent in a bid to save up on expensive commission costs. Believe us when we say that simply guesstimating and overvaluing your property will dissuade even the most interested of buyers. Taking only into account the historic price or the book value of your home is too simplistic and unrealistic of an approach. Instead always start off calculating the price of your property by looking at the value and selling price of comparable homes, preferably in and around your area. If not anything, such a comparison will help you with an initial starting point on which to base your offer.  

Furthermore, expert real-estate agents actually suggest underpricing your home regardless of market dynamics in a bid to attract more queries and offers. Having more queries and offers will allow you to increase the asking price and you might even end up making a greater profit than you initially anticipated.

2. Amateurish Property Pictures

Consider investing in getting professional photos taken for your property for a richer and more authentic presentation. Real-estate experts state that on average a buyer spends around 10-15 seconds initially looking at a property listing. If the pictures accompanying listing details are missing or not deemed impressive enough then prospective buyers are immediately dissuaded from reading on. In-fact, well-established real-estate agents and agencies create virtual tours and capture 360-degree property pictures so that viewers can immerse themselves in the viewing details.

3. Concealing Problems

No buyer/ agent is going to buy a home without paying a professional to undertake a comprehensive inspection of your property. If any additional problems are identified during buyer inspection(s) that you either tried to hide or failed to timely mention then you guarantee losing out on a promising deal. Furthermore, any problems discovered via inspections are sure to be well circulated in the market, resulting in not only you losing face but also your property price being devalued during subsequent negotiations. As a rule of thumb, either disclose all issues with your property upfront and take them into consideration while setting an asking price or get the issues fixed before any inspection is anticipated.

4. Un-Prepped Property

You might’ve seen interior decorators style multimillion-dollar homes with display furniture before an open house in order to show buyers what the property will look like when fully furnished. Well take a cue from such selling tactics and ensure that your home is also in a pitch-perfect presentation state in case a buyer decides to drop by. While we understand that it may not be realistic or feasible to deck out your home, however, making sure that your lawn is properly trimmed, your windows and mirrors are spotless, your pool is sparkling clean, pre-installed fixtures are well dusted and any tiled floors are wax cleaned will ensure that your property is presented in a more wholesome manner.

5. Unwillingness To Negotiate

It is understandable that for most people selling a home is a once or twice in a lifetime event and beckons special emotions and feelings that can result in immense rigidity. However, at the end of the day, selling your home is still a transaction that requires you to be open to negotiations. The chances of you meeting a buyer with the exact same expectations as yours are very rare. Therefore, do evaluate every offer that you get and under no circumstance adopt an inflexible attitude towards buyer requests.

Conclusively, be flexible, accommodating, transparent, and agile when interacting with buyers, and rest assured you will close a deal that is mutually beneficial to you and your prospective business partner.