Selling your house can be a difficult feat, taking a toll on both your emotions and mental faculties. Aside from letting go of a place that may hold memories for you and your family, you also have to make a series of important decisions that could make or break your sale.
If you’re new to home selling and lack the experience and first-hand knowledge to make smart choices, the risk of your choices doing more harm than good is high. Fortunately, we’ve compiled a list of three common mistakes that new home sellers usually make and you can learn from.
1. Selling at the Wrong Price
Pricing your home is where many sellers tend to make mistakes.
Setting the price too low may lead to a faster sale, but it would also mean that you won’t be maximizing your home’s fair market value. Conversely, setting the price too high may turn off buyers, causing your home to stay on the market for much longer than planned. And so, many sellers end up reducing their asking price, which then causes buyers to believe something is wrong with the property, dissuading them from buying.
You want to price your home based on research, local market conditions, and prices of comparable homes in your neighborhood. It’s why skilled real estate agents, who do all of this, can be worth their weight in gold.
2. Trying to Make the Sale on Your Own
While it is certainly possible to sell your home on your own, there’s no denying that real estate agents have the methods and skills to ensure your home sells at the best possible price. On top of pricing, agents will handle dealing with potential buyers when you don’t have the time to do so on your own, sift out nuisance or “curious” individuals who have no intention of buying your home, and deal with all aspects of the sale while you carry on with the rest of your life. A commission of 5 to 6 percent of the sale price is a good price to pay for competence and peace of mind.
3. Failing to Detach
Being unable to keep your emotions in check can sabotage your efforts to sell your home. If you can’t emotionally detach yourself from your home, it’ll be difficult to take an objective approach to things like pricing and negotiating with buyers. Emotion can cloud your assessment of how your home looks, leading you to neglect unsightly features that you’re better off without or denying when certain areas need to be cleaned or otherwise spruced up.
The road to selling a house for the first time can be rough. It’s for this reason that attempting to do a sale without professional help is strongly discouraged. But if you don’t have the time or budget to hire an agent, you can always sell your home as-is to an investor like Blue Hen Homebuyers! We buy all kinds of houses, regardless of their age or condition. Call our offices today at 910-802-2222 to learn more about how our services can help you.