Common mistakes made when selling your home

1. Being too busy to de-clutter the home before inspections.

Allowing potential buyers to inspect your home when it doesn’t look its best is a bad mistake. Decluttering is essential to help buyers imagine how their own furniture would look in your space. General cleaning is important too;  make sure your home is sparkling clean inside and out including outdoor areas, gardens & lawns. You could consider hiring a professional cleaning service or a property stylist to assist with getting your home camera ready.

Decluttering is a great way to get started with packing up your things ready for your move, so put away things you dont’ need to use and store away in your garage, at a family members place or hire a storage space.

2. Selling with no motivation.
Unless you have already bought elsewhere or are keen to move from your current home so you can buy your next home, don’t put your house on the market. If you are just putting your home on the market to gauge what type of offer you may get is not a good idea. If you are not motivated or priced accordingly to meet the market to sell, then you will probably not sell or get any serious offers.  Your house will then become stale and when you do seriously decide to sell, buyers will be able to see that it was previously on the market with no result.

3. Overvaluing your home.
You love your home as it’s attached to meaningful memories, but potential buyers only see a property. Overvalued homes turn away potential buyers immediately and they’ll scroll straight past your listing. Enlist the help of a agent who knows the local housing market in your area to avoid this common mistake, otherwise your house may sit there for months on end with no offers.

4. Posting low-quality photos.

Poor quality photos are an immediate turn off for potential buyers, even if your home is beautiful in ‘real life.’ Your real estate agent should have a good photographer that they use. Look at the Agents website and see the type of pictures that they have taken in the past and make sure they look professional. This is the first point of contact with your buyers and if they like what they see on-line they will come to the open home.

5. Not being flexible.

Motivated sellers know you need to be flexible when it comes to open home schedules and some aspects of settlement and pricing. Don’t be a pushover, but do be flexible to accommodate potential buyers. Ask a conveyancer or real estate agent about which aspects of your contract can allow for flexibility while maintaining the outcomes you and your family want. Be flexible with settlement dates, deposits from buyers and allowing extra inspections is important to get the deal done.

6. Dismissing the first offer.

It’s always tempting to wait for the best offer, but if the first offer you receive fulfils all your requirements, take it. Too many sellers wait too long for the perfect offer which never comes. As the old saying goes… sometimes your first offer is your best offer.

7. Patience.
When will your house sell once it’s listed? Well nobody knows this answer and it’s all about just putting it on the market, marketing it the best way possible, showing buyers, making sure it’s priced right and then letting your real estate agent do the work to get offers from the buyers and eventually sell your home.  Once again how long? It could be 2 weeks, it could be 12 weeks.  Waiting for the right buyer who is willing to pay the right price can take some time…. so be patient…. let your agent do their job.

– Dasha McGee

  • Contact Dasha McGee Property regarding your enquiry.