Special Report

The Seven Most Deadly Mistakes You
 Can Make When Selling Your Home

     Each year, in our area, many Home Sellers make the same mistakes over and over again. When you add up these mistakes, they can total more than a million dollars each year! It pains me to watch these same common mistakes made over and over again, so I finally decided to do something about it — and thus this Special Report outlining the seven most common (and most expensive) mistakes made by Home Sellers each year.

Deadly Mistake #l: "Hard Selling" During Showings

     People buy homes on emotion, not logic. Buying a home is always an emotional decision. People like to get a feel for a house to see if it is comfortable for them. It's difficult for them to get comfortable in a home if you follow them around, telling them all of the things that you've done to the house and pointing out every improvement that you've made. It may even have the opposite effect that you want to accomplish by making the prospective buyer feel that they are intruding into your private space. Resist the temptation to talk to the buyer the entire time that they are in your home. Let them discover the home on their own.

Deadly Mistake #2: Mistaking "Lookers" For Buyers

     If you're selling your home yourself, you'll always get more activity than if your home is listed with a Real Estate Company. If you open your front door to everyone who walks down the street and sees your sign, you may be spinning your wheels. I recommend that you ask potential buyers a few questions first to make sure they are qualified before wasting a lot of time with them.

     A qualified buyer is one who is ready, willing and able to purchase your home if it fits his needs. Over the years, I've found that many people who look at For Sale By Owners are curiosity seekers, nosy neighbors, and people with poor credit hoping to get you to help them with the financing.

     Other buyers may be qualified, but they're six months to two years away from being ready. They don't want to bother a Realtor yet, so they call and look at For Sale By Owner homes to get a feel for what's available. Many of these folks have a home to sell first, or they need to save money for the down payment, or they may need to work on their credit rating. When everything else is finally in place, that's when they seriously begin their search for homes working with a real estate agent.

     Still other buyers are actually investors, trying to take advantage of a less experienced Home Seller. One thing for certain, they are all willing to purchase a For Sale By Owner home for one reason, they all want to save the same commission you are trying to save by selling your home yourself. Most qualified Home Buyers are aware that the services of a Realtor are usually free to them.

     I always "screen" buyers to make sure they are qualified before showing them homes. I won't show a buyer a home unless I know he can afford the house, how much he has to put down, how good his credit is, how much he can pay each month, and how much money he will realistically walk away with when he sells his present home. Those are just a few of the questions that I recommend that you ask prospects before you show them your home. I've learned the hard way to ask questions before you waste a lot of time working with a buyer who may be unqualified or just looking for decorating ideas.

Deadly Mistake #3: Pricing Your Home Incorrectly

     As a seller, you want to sell your home for the most money possible. Putting too high of a price on your home will often get you less money than you could have realized by putting a fair market value price on your home.

     Keep this statistic in mind: On the average, buyers are comparing your home to five to ten other homes. If your house is not priced competitively, people looking at your home may reject your home in favor of superior homes priced very comparably.

     Overpricing your home usually increases the time on the market, and many buyers are aware of how long homes have been for sale. The longer your home is for sale, the more buyers are inclined to feel that there's something "wrong" with it, and the lower the offers will be.

Deadly Mistake #4: Failing To Prepare Your Home For The Buyer's Eye

     Buyers look for homes, not houses. Buying a home is an emotional decision and they end up buying the home that makes them most comfortable. It's what I call the "Ah-ha" effect. I've watched dozens of times as buyers have walked in through the front door and gasped "Ah-ha," and immediately fall in love with the house.

     Owners who fail to make necessary repairs, who don't spruce up the house inside and out, who don't do all the little things that make a house show like a million bucks will suffer from lower offers and longer market time.

     Think about it this way: if you were selling a car, wouldn't you wash it and maybe even give it an extra good cleaning inside and out to get the highest possible price? That's because a buyer looking at your used car is purchasing on emotion, just like someone looking at your home.

Deadly Mistake #5: Signing A Long-Term Listing Without A Written, Specific Marketing Guarantee

     If you do use a Real Estate Company to sell your home, many times, a Realtor has good intentions about marketing your house, but circumstances can change. Traditional Real Estate Agents are taught by their brokers to take any listing for any price, in an effort to begin to "control the inventory."

     Some of these companies will not allow their agents to offer short term listing agreements, or written service guarantees. Most are non-negotiable on their fees.

     Always protect yourself by making sure that you receive a written promise stating that you can cancel the listing, without charge, if specific written services are not adhered to.

     Sellers who don't heed this advice sometimes wind up tying their home up for months on end, with little activity. Always protect yourself by getting a guaranty of specific services with the right to cancel. I offer what I call an "Easy Exit" listing agreement, which gives you the right to cancel any time, for any reason whatsoever.

     All of the our plans are 30-day renewable listing agreements that can be terminated under the terms of the agreement, at any time. That's how sure I am that you'll always be ecstatically happy with my services.
 

Deadly Mistake #6: Making It Hard For Qualified Buyers To Obtain Information

     The two marketing tools that consumers think Realtors use to sell homes (open houses and classified ads) are actually not very effective at all. Surprisingly, less than one percent of all homes are sold at an open house. As a matter of fact, most real estate agents use open houses to attract potential prospects, and very seldom actually sell the home itself.

     Furthermore, dozens of advertising studies show that less than three percent of people purchase their home as a result of calling on a classified ad. The few people who do call on classified ads and don't obtain the information on the first call (perhaps they get an answering machine or a child) never bother to return the call.

     I recommend that you use a 24-hour real estate hotline with dedicated extensions specifically for your house, so that buyers can obtain information on your house 24-hours a day.

Deadly Mistake's #7 Not Using A Written Purchase Agreement

     Many sellers think their home is sold, only to find out weeks or even months later that the buyer was not able to obtain a home loan. Other sellers find out too late that dozens of items such as surveys, title insurance contingencies, assessments, tax pro-rations, pest inspections, structural inspections, and a host of other details can come back to haunt them if not properly addressed right at the very beginning. It's not uncommon to see a buyer willing to terminate a transaction only to have a seller cave in and absorb the expense of an item that realistically should have been a buyer's expense to begin with, had it been written into the purchase agreement.

     Bay Area Houston Realty Associates offer 3 simple marketing plans that will help avoid these seven mistakes when selling your home. These plans meet specific needs of different Home Sellers including your budget, your homes marketability, and your future home purchasing assistance requirements. For more details on these plans, double-click on the link below.