Avoiding common mistakes when selling your home?

Selling your home is a pretty straight-forward business but like with everything, there are good and bad methods of achieving the outcome you’re after.

Here’s some of the common mistakes people make when selling their home.

Selling your home yourself

Some people try to save on fees by opting to sell their home without an agent. A good agent offers much more than may be obvious at first glance. Industry knowledge and local market history are just two things that could save you money if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Choosing the wrong real estate agent

Experience is the key to most pursuits so choosing an agent with a good reputation and good name should be a priority. For example, a good agent will know how to price your home right, marketing it appropriately and know which buyers are genuine.

Over-valuing your home

Putting your home on the market at the right price will give you the best chance of an early sale. A good agent will help you determine the right price for the current market. Over-pricing your home will often prevent potential buyers from even looking in the first place.

Not presenting your home in a good light

Presentation matters. Buyers who don’t ensure their home is neat and tidy, free from clutter etc. will put some buyers off. Make sure your home looks the good, especially when it’s open for inspection.

Not dealing with repairs or maintenance

Selling a house with basic or obvious repairs or maintenance issues unattended to will also turn some buyers off. Talk to your agent about any such issues to determine what needs to be dealt with to help your home sell quickly.

Over doing repairs and maintenance

Whereas repairs and maintenance issues may need to be dealt with, another mistake can be to overdo it. It makes good sense to spend money on repairs if the gain in the sale price justifies it, but not if the cost of repairs won’t result in more money in your pocket when the property sells.

Failing to adequately advertise the property

There is a marketing saying, the more you tell the more you’ll sell, how well you advertise your home for sale will have a bearing on how quickly it sells. Use a variety of advertising methods to help entice buyers, including ads in newspapers, signage outside your home, word of mouth advertising, and internet listings. Advertising methods are wide and varied today, you would do well to familiarise yourself with the various modern techniques. A good agent can advise you here.

Not being flexible

Selling your home may not work out the way you first expect so be prepared to be flexible on several fronts. Potential buyers may want to see your home at odd times, you may get a variety of offers well below what you’re asking and so on, so be prepared to give thought to each curly one as it comes up. Again, if you have an agent, they’ll be able to help you with this.