Selling your house can be bittersweet. While you may know it’s time to move on, letting go of a home where you created so many memories can be challenging. You mustn’t let these heightened emotions and your desire to get the best price for your property cloud your ability to make sound financial decisions.
Before listing your home for sale, it’s essential that you do some research first. Make yourself familiar with the home-selling process and identify the current market conditions in your area. Then, learn from the errors other sellers have made before you.
As you begin, consider the following examples. Learn from these common mistakes sellers make so that you can avoid making them yourself.
Failing to Time Your Home Sale
While timing your home’s sale isn’t always feasible, certain times of the year do perform better. The most popular time to buy and sell a home is early Spring – usually in April. This is because those with families looking to buy a new home typically try to time their move between the end of the school year and the beginning of the next school year. If you can hold off until that time, you should have an easier time selling your house.
Not Hiring an Excellent Real Estate Agent
It seems like everyone knows someone in real estate today. However, this is one area where it’s in your best interest to be picky. The real estate agent that you choose to list your property with will play a substantial role in how quickly your home sells and for what price.
Narrow your search down to a handful of real estate agents and interview each. Ask about recent home sales and inquire about their experience. It’s a definite plus if you choose an agent familiar with your home’s area of town, as they can answer potential buyers’ questions about schools and entertainment.
Overpricing Your Home
One of the most common mistakes home sellers make is pricing their property too high. While every seller wants to make the most money possible on their house, overpricing can actually have the opposite effect. Here are two common scenarios that result from overpricing your home:
- The home doesn’t sell quickly and remains on the market for an extended period of time. This situation can lead potential buyers to assume something is wrong with the property and avoid it.
- You eventually have to drop the price due to limited interest. When potential buyers see a price drop, they will believe they can get an even better price – usually resulting in even lower bids.
The cause of overpricing your home is usually tied to emotions. People, in general, tend to overvalue what they own and items with sentimental value.
To avoid overpricing, hire an excellent real estate agent and get an appraisal of your property. You can still price your house towards the higher end if you’re in a seller’s market but keep it competitive. It’s usually a better strategy to price a bit lower and incite a bidding war among potential buyers.
Overlooking the Seller’s Responsibilities
Remember when you purchased your house and had to pay those expensive closing costs? Well, sellers have them too.
Closing costs are expenses and fees involved in the sale, purchase, or transfer of a property. Buyers’ closing costs primarily consist of financing expenses, prepaying taxes and insurance, inspections, appraisals, etc. A seller’s most significant cost is real estate agent fees.
Sellers are typically responsible for both the listing agent’s and the buyer’s agent’s fees – usually about 6% of the home sale price (3% for each agent). These costs will come out of your proceeds from selling the home. It’s important you understand these costs – especially if you’re using the profits toward purchasing a new home.
Refusing to Make Necessary Repairs
Houses need constant upkeep – especially if they are older properties. If your current home has known issues, it’s wise to be honest and upfront with potential buyers. If the need to sell your home is urgent, one way to appease buyers is to offer a credit or price reduction. Another option is to make all the necessary repairs yourself before listing the property.
Most of these issues will be identified by the home inspector prior to the sale being finalized – so there is no point trying to hide them. Doing so may lead to the deal falling through and having to restart the listing process.
Not Preparing or Staging the Home for Showings
When potential buyers tour your home, they want to imagine themselves living in the house – not being distracted by your decorations and unique designs. Start by decluttering your home before showings begin. Remove family pictures and knickknacks and keep the decorations minimal. If you have lavish colors on the walls, consider painting them a neutral color, like white.
If you’re looking to sell your home quicker, you may want to hire a staging company. These professionals will redecorate your home to make it more appealing to buyers – making spaces look bigger and more inviting. They will even stage extra rooms, with a desk or gym equipment, for example, to showcase a home office or exercise room.
Forgetting About Outside Curb Appeal
While it’s important to address the house’s interior, you shouldn’t overlook the outside of your home. After all, your home’s exterior is often the first thing buyers will see when pursuing homes for sale, and you don’t want to make a bad first impression.
The exterior of houses in many climates can take a beating, whether from the sun, rain, snow, ice, humidity, and more. Tasks like pressure washing driveways, sidewalks, and patios, adding fresh mulch and flowers, trimming overgrown shrubs, tending to the lawn, and adding new paint can do wonders to show potential buyers that the home is well maintained.
We’re Here to Help!
Selling your home and buying a new property will involve many financial decisions. It’s not every day that you make such significant choices. Hiring an excellent real estate agent is one of the best ways to ensure your emotions don’t take over during the process.
If you’re looking to purchase a new home, we’re here to help. Our home loan team is available to answer all your questions and walk you through the entire home-buying process. Please stop by any of our convenient branch locations or call 800-782-4899 to schedule an appointment with a team member today.
Each individual’s financial situation is unique and readers are encouraged to contact the Credit Union when seeking financial advice on the products and services discussed. This article is for educational purposes only; the authors assume no legal responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of the contents.