4 Deadly Mistakes Sellers Make When Choosing To Sell Their Home

1) Pricing their Home

Pricing your home correctly will have a direct impact on  how quickly and how much you get for your home.  In our local market in Solano County California, there are so many buyers for your home that there is much more danger of overpricing your home than underpricing.  Here is what I mean: if you underprice your home, there will be so many buyers overbidding each other that they will force the price back up to market value.  On the other hand, if you overprice your home, no one will look at it.  Buyers assume in this market that you expect to get the price you list it for and consequently, if it is overpriced, they  typically will not view the home or write an offer that may be more appropriate.

Even worse, if your house lingers on the market too long buyers will assume something must be wrong with it and will not make a reasonable offer on your home even after you lower the price to what it should have been in the first place.

2)  Getting caught in a long term contract with no out

Realtors may be very good the first time you meet them, but what guarantee do you have they will perform as promised?  The way to know you are getting what was promised to you is to insist upon a written guarantee of performance.   Make the Realtor provide you with a written guarantee to complete what they promised or let you out of the contract.  Any Realtor who is worth what they claim they are will not be afraid to give you a written guarantee because they really will do what they said they will do.

3)  Staging the Home for Success

Buyers need to be able to visualize themselves in the home and they need your clutter removed so they can see how beautiful your home can really be.  Look at the new model homes in your area and make your home look as much like that as possible.  The builders have spent quite a budget on knowing exactly what motivates buyers to buy, and you can benefit from their research by copying what they do.

Cosmetic repairs are also a plus.  Paint is the single greatest investment you can make in getting top dollar for your home.  Flooring comes next and then kitchens and baths are critical in the amount of money you get for your home.

Be careful not to overinvest.  Swimming pools are the best example of an investment you make in your home that will not be worth the money you spend on it from an investment standpoint.  Pools are great, but just know you are doing it for your own enjoyment because when you sell the home you will typically only get back $10,000 to $20,000 of your investment.

4) Get pre-approved for your loan to purchase the new home.

The first step in deciding whether to sell your home is to talk numbers with a lender.  You will need to know what your payment and closing costs will be so that you know exactly what price range makes sense for you.  Once you know the numbers, then you can research how much home your money will buy.  Then you will know for a fact whether selling makes sense for you.

Then, when you consider buyers for your home, you must insist that the buyer provide you with a pre-qualification letter from their lender to prove to you they are serious about purchasing your home, and that they are capable of doing so.