There are several reasons why you’d want to sell your home. You could be moving to a location and want to make sure that you’re selling in the shortest time possible. Since it is one of the most expensive purchases you made in your life, you’ll want to make sure you’re getting a good deal out of the sale. There are some common mistakes that people make when selling their homes and we’re going to highlight some of them.
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Not Expecting Costs
Just because you’re selling doesn’t mean you should expect some costs. You don’t want to be caught off guard when you’ve found a buyer. If you’re working with a real estate agent, they’ll expect to be paid a commission for the success of the sale of the home. The cost of staging will vary depending on the effort you’ve had to put in for it to be a success. It is wise to pay for a home inspection so that you’re aware of the main areas that need fixing. Depending on what needs to be fixed, you could be looking at thousands of dollars in repairs that you’ll have to do in order to sell the house.
Selling When Upside-down with the Mortgage
You might be thinking about using a portion of the sale to pay off the mortgage. It is not always as straightforward as it seems. What if the value of the property went down? This situation can be referred to as having negative equity in your home. If you find yourself in such a predicament, you should not be selling unless you’re facing bankruptcy or foreclosure.
Not Using an Agent
Even if you’re trying to avoid paying commissions, it is not always recommended to try and sell the house on your own. Going the FSBO route is one of the biggest mistakes that a lot of people make. You can expect to get 30% less. It would have been better to use an agent and pay the commission which is usually less than 6%. Both Buyers Agents and Selling Agents will have different commission rates. You can try and negotiate as the rates are not set on stone. According to statistics, less than 10% sold their houses solo because the majority of them are aware of the downside.
Hiding Major Repairs
It will be wishful thinking assuming that the major repairs will not be discovered. You can either decide to be upfront about it or do the repairs on your own. It will be dishonest to assume just because it is summer that the buyer won’t notice that there is a roof leak. If the issues come up during the inspection, you could potentially lose the sale or delay the whole process altogether. The major repairs should be fixed before you decide to put your home on the market.
Not Paying to Stage
Any real estate agent worth their salt will tell you that staging can help in selling a house faster. You don’t want to skimp with the staging as that will be worse than not staging at all. Most agents are in agreement that staging can help increase the dollar amount because potential buyers can visualize themselves in the living spaces. Never show an empty room to potential buyers. Rent the furniture if you have to in order to make a sale.
Not Taking Care of Clutter
It will be difficult to show the strengths of your home if there is clutter everywhere. If you’re still living in the house, you should at least make an effort to ensure everything is neatly arranged. First impressions matter and you don’t want the potential buyers to be turned off because of the clutter in your home.
Taking Charge of the Showing
It is the agent that needs to take care of the showing because they’ll be in a better position to answer the difficult questions. If you’re only handling the showing, you might not be objective and that is the last thing you’ll need when you’re trying to sell the home.
Working with an Incompetent Real Estate Agent
Your real estate agent should be the one doing all the leg work. If you find yourself having to follow up to get updates, the real estate agent might not be right for the job. You’ll be paying the person and the least they can do is to do their job. Make sure you’re getting a real estate agent that is experienced so that there are potential issues down the road.
