The process of selling a residential property can be time-consuming and emotionally demanding, especially if it is your first sale. While your home’s curb appeal influences a prospective buyer’s potential to propose an offer, it may sometimes feel like an invasion of your property.
Strangers will visit your home and snoop around in search of defects. Others will worsen the experience by offering less money than the property’s market value. However, you can mitigate some of that by avoiding some of the common mistakes other sellers make, such as:
1 Overpricing the Property
It is understandable to want the highest price for your home – besides, you are the one who can best attest to what an excellent home it is. Nonetheless, listing your home with an inflated ticket price may harm your prospects of quickly selling it. With no offers, the home may spend months on the market, which makes other property hunters think something might be wrong. That leaves you with no choice but to eventually lower the price to attract more buyers.
2 Getting Too Emotional
Imagine selling your first home? It evokes a pang of nostalgic memories you made in the house, the financial sacrifices you had to make to secure the down payments, etc. These are plenty of reasons to make one feel emotional about selling a home.
For the best outcome, it would be better if you viewed yourself as an investor instead of a homeowner. The secret is to handle the transaction from a financial perspective. A Real Estate Professional will be able to help you do proper planning and marketing to get top dollar for your home.
3 Skimping on Listing Images
Many property buyers these days prefer viewing photos and virtual tours of homes online and then discussing the home with their agent using video conferencing. Hence, you need to ensure the listing photos play an integral role in marketing your home. If possible, hire a professional real estate photographer. They understand what rooms and fixtures to capture in the photos that buyers look for. They also excel in delivering detailed and clear images of full-rooms or isolated close-ups to bring out the true feel and character of the property.
4 Selling the Home on Your Own
Real Estate Professionals often command about 5% commission of a property’s selling price. Although the amount may seem significant, it is worth the investment, especially if it is your first sale.
Agents have your interests at heart. They will help you set the right market value and level out the emotional aspects of the process by facing potential buyers on your behalf. These professionals will also know what to say during negotiations to ensure you get the most out of the deal. In case anything should go awry during the transaction, agents are experienced in handling seller-buyer misunderstandings.
5 Hiding Property Defects
In the real estate industry, integrity and honesty are critical when selling your property. If you have made up your mind about selling your home, you need to be honest and transparent to the prospective buyers about the home’s fixtures and elements that require upgrades. Keeping such concerns under wraps eventually costs you time and money if the home fails at the inspection stage. You need to disclose any relevant information about the property to the buyer, even if it means the value will be affected. This will help you to build trust, and it is the right way of doing business.
By Jason Woods
