16 Common Mistakes Sellers Make When Selling Their Home

How do we know if your home is overpriced? An overpriced home will sit and stagnate while other competing homes sell in the neighborhood. But, how do we know that the price is the issue and not something else? The home is not getting showings. The average listing hits the MLS (and in turn, Zillow, realtor.com and others) and receives the bulk of the showing requests right away. If your home hits the market, but buyers do not want to see it, there is definitely something wrong with either the price, the condition of the home, or the marketing we are doing on your behalf. We can rule out the marketing, if we are your agents—our marketing is tried and true. Perhaps your price is too high for the condition of your home. Buyers want to feel that they are getting the best home for their money. If your home is in the top tier of the pricing spread, but the condition doesn't match up, buyers will go for the more well-kept homes. The home is getting a lot of showings! This problem can often cause a lot of confusion for our sellers. It feels like a great thing when a number of showing requests come in. Well, a lot of showings without an offer is an unambiguous signal that the home is overpriced. Sellers will often say, "But, if people liked the house they could make low offers." I can tell you that through my lengthy experience working with buyers, the mindset of a buyer does not work the way. Instead of making a low offer, I will routinely hear, "They won’t come down that much" or "these sellers are greedy and won’t consider our offer." Any offer that comes in is very low A good, seasoned buyers agent will prepare an analysis of pricing for their buyer in order to make a sound offer. This analysis takes into account all similar homes in the area that have sold and uses those numbers to arrive at a good offer. However, if the offers are very low we know that the detailed analysis is coming back with that lower price. That is what triggers the low offers and lets the sellers know that the asking price is unrealistic. What factors commonly lead to a price being too high? There are a number of factors that make the asking price too high compared to the market value of the home. The condition of the home needs attention. Does your home need work that similar priced homes do not need? Take a true and honest look at your home compared to the others and see if this is the case. How old is your roof? Does the competition have new roofs, A/C’s, or remodels that your home does not have? Perhaps your remodeling isn't up to par with the other homes or isn't appealing to the general public. The location is unfavorable Naples is a Mecca for golf. As an example, are the competing homes on the market right on a hole while your home is across the street? Does your home back up to I-75 or another major road? School zones play a big part in Naples real estate! Perhaps the comps you're using are zoned for a more desirable school. Location is a major factor in price and needs to be examined when determining a price reduction. The market has shifted and you’re still at old pricing. We will commonly see a neighborhood lose value. In fact, my own neighborhood just took a huge hit in price because a brand new neighborhood is opening across the street in the same price range! Why would someone choose my neighborhood over brand new when everything else is relatively similar? The answer—they won’t! A blow like this can be corrected by either showing the unique features of the home (and hoping that’s enough of a motivator) or reducing the price. What is going on in the neighborhood? Has your neighborhood made changes that have affected your ability to sell? Sometimes the HOA fees will increase which can lead to buyers passing on your home. Perhaps your HOA is financially unstable and a savvy agent has let her clients know about it. Is the HOA keeping up with the maintenance of the neighborhood or is it beginning to show its age? These sorts of factors cannot be remedied other than lowering the asking price. When all else fails, look at the price. You’ve looked at the factors detailed above and ruled them all out. That only leaves the price. A price adjustment needs to be enough to counter each of the factors above to cause a buyer to see value in your home over the competition. Remember the analysis that I mentioned? Buyer’s agents will compare your home to others that have recently sold in order to come up with a fair offer for their clients. That same analysis can be done for the sellers to show a well thought-out justification of list price. Ask your agent to prepare a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) to show exactly where your home should be priced. Bonus Tip When lowering the price, always change the main MLS photo. Buyers are online looking at homes all day, every day. They look at the same searches over and over to the point where they will actually recognize homes. To get their attention once more, a good agent will change the main picture. That way the buyer sees the property pop up in his feed and he will think, "I haven’t seen this one!" and click again. Your home was ruled out before, but this may be the lure they need to get them hooked!

An often overlooked aspect of selling a home is generating a positive experience for potential buyers through curb appeal and great interior condition. These 11 tips will will have your home ready for buyers and help to net you top dollar! Outside Your Home Your curb appeal is too important to overlook. This is your first chance to pique the buyers' interest! Add mulch in flower beds and around trees.These daylight bulbs are slightly more expensive than others, but worth their weight in gold when it comes to making your home stand out. We always tell our clients to think “light and bright” when it comes to getting their homes ready and these bulbs do 90% of that work for them! Finishing Touches To Sell Your Home Grab WD40 and make sure every door is easy to open and nothing squeaks. Windex the inside and outside of every glass surface. Wipe down surfaces that have accumulated drips, finger prints, or stains. Clean your baseboards. Dust ceiling fans and décor.

We see sellers make the same mistakes over and over again and they are completely avoidable! Check out the list and make sure you're not making these mistakes as you try to sell your home. Hiring the agent that wants to list at the highest price You know what happens when you list too high—your home doesn’t sell. So why would you hire an agent that tells you your home is worth far more than what the other agents are telling you? We call this buying the listing and it is the most unethical practice I can think of. The agent tells you that your home is worth far more than what other agents say and as soon as you’ve signed the listing agreement, that agent is now telling you that you need to lower the price. Dirty, dirty, dirty. Don’t fall for this unethical practice. We hate this practice so much that we'll be happy to give you a second opinion even if you're 99% sure you'll hire the first. Let us know and we'll be happy to come by and give you our report. Staying home for showings I can tell you through many experiences of showing homes to buyers, the sellers being home can only hurt your chances of selling. When I take buyers into homes and we walk around, the buyers talk to each other and point out features and benefits of the home. When I take them to a home and the sellers are home, you could hear a pin drop! They hurry through the home and only discuss it when we’re back in the car. Even worse, one buyer will point out a feature and the other will say, “I didn’t see that.” They would have had the sellers been gone! We have plenty of people that are uncomfortable with strangers walking through and I fully understand. Our recommendation is to get some inexpensive security cameras to put in your home. It's perfectly fine and in fact, the MLS printouts that agents give customers when they tour properties states: Video and/or audio surveillance with recording capability may be in use on these premises. Conversations should not be considered private. Only showing the home when it is convenient for you Buyers need to see homes on their schedule. What happens behind the scenes is that a buyer will contact me to see homes. We make our showing appointments with rhyme and reason—we see homes in a particular order as they’re convenient to drive to. If you turn down a showing and offer a time that is better for you as the seller, the buyers will simply not see your home in most instances. You must accept showings as they come in if you want to sell your home. Not doing a deep cleaning of your home Buyers see homes that are dirty and instantly assume the house is in disrepair or not properly maintained. Before your home is photographed and put on the market, it is imperative that you deep clean the home. Even better, hire a professional to get the job done right. Using your friend as your REALTOR® Unless you’re friends with a true top producer, you’ve made a huge mistake hiring an agent that doesn’t have a proven track record of sales. REALTORS® get better with time and experience. Plus, seasoned REALTORS® have many, many connections that can only help to get deals done. Your friend likely doesn’t have the knowledge that can only come from being in this business for years. Don’t mix business and pleasure and hire someone simply because you feel it is the right thing to do. You’re making a very expensive business decision when you hire a REALTOR® so make sure you’re hiring the agent that is most likely to sell your home quickly and for top dollar. Not using professional photography This mistake will cost you big. I hire a professional photographer for every listing I take, regardless of the price of the home. Everyone deserves the best and a professional photographer’s pictures are what catches people’s attention as they shop online for their next home. Remember, I pay the cost of the photographer so if you have an agent that doesn’t want to spend the money, what else will they skimp on? The fact is, photography is the #1 marketing tool we have as agents so it is certainly not a place your agent should try and save money on. Letting your agent off of the hook and not forcing them to do what they said they would do This is a big one. When you interview agents, you’ll hear a whole dissertation on what will be done to market your home. Open houses, photography, virtual tours and more will be thrown out there. You sign and… crickets. Is your agent doing what she said she’d do? Your agent made a promise so hold her feet to the fire. Pricing your home high so you have “room for offers.” This is a common mistake new agents and sellers make when they don’t have expert guidance. The fact is that if your home is overpriced, many uyers won’t make offers because they think there’s no way you’ll come down to their (reasonable) offer or that you’re just “too far apart.” Price your home right from the very beginning and get it sold for a great price. Thinking your house is the best in the neighborhood Everyone owns the best house in the neighborhood. I think that about my own home! However, it is rarely true. It is so important to take a step back and take an honest look at the competition. Your home is probably great yet the others have features and benefits that may make them more appealing. Don’t let your bias color your asking price. Be reasonable and listen to your agent’s advice. Not following activity in the market Your REALTOR® needs to be following the market on a daily basis for you. If a competing home has a price decrease, you need to be made aware of that so you can reposition your home accordingly. If your agent puts your home on the MLS and simply waits for a buyer, there’s a high likelihood your home will simply expire off of the market without finding a buyer. Not insisting that your home is marketed properly online This is huge. You’ve hired a REALTOR® and you will pay your REALTOR® handsomely for selling your home. Insist your agent does his job! The second we have a listing go live, we advertise heavily online. After all, that’s where buyers are. You deserve to have your home show up on searches, with stunning photography and the right description. It costs a lot of money to properly market a home so be sure to hire an agent that commits to this cost. hint: we do. Not fixing things that will show up on the inspection anyway We all have small maintenance items in our homes that need to be repaired. Fix them ahead of time! When numerous items show up on the inspection report, it simply gives the buyers cold feet and makes them nervous that the home hasn’t been cared for. If you don’t know what to look for, contact us and we’ll be happy to send you a sample home inspection report. Ignoring the feedback we get along the way Here’s a little behind the scenes for you—when an agent shows your home to buyers, that agent will get an automatic email afterward asking for feedback. The email generally asks what the buyers thought of the price, how they rate the home versus others they see, etc.. This feedback is incredibly valuable! If you keep hearing that the home is priced too high and you ignore this feedback, you can’t expect your home to sell quickly. Having an agent that doesn’t give you the full picture on the cost of selling Commissions will be paid but what about the other costs of selling your home. There’s a title company or attorney to pay, title, doc stamps, intangible taxes and many other small fees that add up to much more than just commission. When you hire our team and we begin discussing an offer, we will often get the attorney or title company to give you a net sheet that shows you a very solid estimate of what you will walk away with from your sale. Your REALTOR® must do this or you’ll end up being surprised at the closing table. Failing to do the basics before each showing Before every showing, beds need to be made, trash taken out, counters cleaned off, blinds lifted and all lights in the house on. These simple steps make your home look so much better so do not hurry out of the home for a showing. Make sure you do the bare minimum (or ask us to do it for you) before each showing. Not hiring us as your REALTORS® Our team has a much higher than average success rate of selling homes. We also routinely get above market value for our sellers and almost always sell faster than the market average. How do we do this? Simple. We work. We do the work other agents don’t want to do and it shows in how our listings are presented online and how well we generate buyer interest. All agents are not the same so be sure to interview us for the job of selling your home!