If you’ve ever sold a home, be it townhome, condominium or single-family home, you know it’s all about setting yourself up for seller’s success.
Regardless of the circumstances surrounding your decision — perhaps a job transfer necessitates a quick sell — you want to give your real estate professional the best chance to move your current home quickly, and for maximum profit.
When you don’t, the moving process can screech to a halt. Here are some listing mistakes to avoid.
Your house is empty, or looks lived-in
Before you go to market, your home should prepped for its closeups with prospective buyers.
If you must move before you sell and leave it empty, that’s not a deal breaker, although sellers generally like to see enough furnishings to get a true sense of living space.
What does break deals is a still-occupied home that’s messy and dated. Do the necessary repairs, upgrades and decluttering. Seek a professional home stager if interior design isn’t your gift. Do what you have to, to make your home appealing.
Your niece took the listing photos
That’s okay if she’s a professional photographer, but let’s avoid badly lit photos taken with a cell phone.
Allot a portion of your moving budget to hiring a pro photographer for your listing shots. Bonus points if that photographer’s specialty is real estate photography. Your agent probably knows people who do this for a living, and can refer them to you.
A third-grader wrote your listing description
How do you know?
It sounds like a log cabin, or is so over the top that you don’t know the meaning of all the adjectives.
Writing listings is harder than you’d think, even for real estate pros who do it regularly. If you’re good with language, volunteer to write your listing description. Provide proof that you can, such as the fact you pen your company’s monthly newsletters, and your agent might be more inclined for you to give it a go.
Whatever you do, don’t tell him or her, “I read the listings for your most recent 20 sales and they must’ve sold despite your descriptions.” That won’t help your business relationship.
Simply volunteer to write your own listing, or at the least, ask for approval over the final copy.
Your house has been on the market for months
It’s trying to tell you something.
It’s not selling, and you should take it off the proverbial public clothesline and figure out why.
One or all the reasons we’ve discussed could be factors, or you may need to change agents. Or, it may have nothing to do with the quality of your representation, listing and showing. It may depend on the location and health of the surrounding real estate market.
Your agent should brief you on all these factors early on, but usually, more than one month on the market without serious offers can cause prospective buyers to wonder why it hasn’t sold.
home quickly, and for maximum profit.
