Selling a home can be an emotional roller coaster. When you’re ready to sell your Fort Lauderdale home, avoid these home selling mistakes.
1. Choosing the cheapest real estate agent
Finding the right real estate agent is one of the most important steps in avoiding home selling mistakes. Look for an agent with experience and recent sales in your neighborhood. At the very least, you should interview three agents. Make sure you ask each agent the same questions, so you can compare the agents equally.
Some agents might offer you a discount on their commission. This could be a warning sign that they are desperate for work. Don’t just go to the cheapest agent. You need someone who understands how to market your home, keeps up with the latest technology for selling homes and who can help you avoid home selling mistakes. Also, pick someone who understands your needs. You should feel comfortable with your agent and know that they will represent your home properly.
2. Setting the price too high
Simply put, if you set the price for your home too high, you will attract fewer buyers. The first search criteria for home buyers is price. If your home is out of their price range, it won’t appear in their home search results.
What you paid for your home should not be considered when deciding its value. A home’s market value is based on similar homes in your neighborhood that have recently sold or have been listed for sale. A good real estate agent should prepare a Comparable Market Analysis for you. This document will provide the information you need to help price your home appropriately. In the end, you’ll make more money and sell your home quicker if you set the price correctly in the beginning.
3. Skimping on needed home improvements
In order to sell your home, you have to attract buyers. This might be hard to do if there are obvious repairs that need to be made. Your real estate agent should be able to advise you about which repairs are important. Remember, too, that small cosmetic changes can make a big difference. Unpleasant odors, messy rooms, unappealing stains and overgrown landscaping will turn buyers off. All of these are easy to fix – you just need to look at the house through a buyer’s eyes.
4. Not removing personal items and clutter
When a prospective buyer is viewing your home, they want to pretend that this could be their home, with their belongings. It can be easy for them to get distracted by your personal items. It’s best to pack up most of your knickknacks and leave just enough decoration to give buyers the feeling of a furnished home that’s a blank canvas. Your goal should be to make your house look like a model home.
5. Nagging the prospective buyer
No one knows your home as well as you do. Most likely you’ve invested time and money to transform the house you bought into a home. When it comes to showing your home to potential buyers, try to curb your enthusiasm. Allow your real estate agent to show the home. Just like when you try on an outfit at a department store, buyers are essentially trying on your home to see if it fits. Allow them to walk freely through your home and notice things for themselves. If you’re following them around from room to room, chatting with them, they can’t do that.
6. Limited times your home can be shown
It’s no secret, making your home available for prospective buyers to walk through can be a huge inconvenience. Not only do you have to keep your home in tip top condition, but you have to find something to do while your home is being shown. The more flexible you can be with the times your home can be shown, the more potential buyers you’ll get. More buyers means more chances of an offer. More offers means the quicker you home can be sold. Work with your real estate agent to create a showing schedule that works for both of you.
7. Unwilling to negotiate
Part of selling a home includes the art of negotiation. Removing your emotions can be helpful in this process. Keep focused on the goal of getting to an offer that is acceptable to you.
8. Accepting a buyer who isn’t pre-approved
Accepting an offer from a buyer who hasn’t been pre-approved for a loan could end up wasting months of your time. If you have a standard sales contract, they will be entitled to receive their deposit back if they don’t get approved for a mortgage.
Make sure your potential buyer is pre-approved for a mortgage. This means they can get a loan, given their current situation and that a lender has reviewed all their documents and everything is in order.
Avoiding these home selling mistakes can make a huge difference in the success of selling your home. If you have questions about home selling mistakes or the Fort Lauderdale luxury real estate market, contact us!
