It’s true. Even in our current Denver & Boulder County real estate market which still favors sellers, selling a home or property can be difficult. Whether you’re selling because you have to relocate, want to downsize, upgrade, or you want to make a tidy profit on your investment property, when you do go forward with it, you’re always at the mercy of the market. By comparison, buying can be much easier, especially as our market changes and more homes are being put up for sale. You can budget for what you want to spend and then shop accordingly. There may be some surprises along the way, but you generally have much more control over the situation when compared to selling. When you’re selling, you can put a price out there, but there is no guarantee that someone is going to pay it and there is a non-zero chance that you will actually LOSE money when the dust settles. So, how can you avoid these seller’s pitfalls? Let’s go over three key ways in which sellers can make costly mistakes and how you can avoid making them.
Mistake #1: Setting Your Price Too High
Many will agree that setting your price too high is the most common mistake that can harm sellers. To most of us, a home can really have no price too high. With all of the good memories associated with the property, it is easy to let sentimentality drive your price into the sky. Or, maybe you have sunk a lot of money into various improvements and upgrades to the home like refinishing the bathroom or kitchen or installing a nice deck. These can definitely help to increase your home’s resale value, however, it’s not always going to be a dollar for dollar return on your investment.
Buyers are going to be putting offers on your home not just based on what you added to it, but what other homes in your area have been selling for. Asking 1.2 million on a house in a neighborhood filled with $600,000 homes just isn’t gonna inspire buyers to shell out the extra cash when they could just snap up a home a block away for half the price. It is extremely important to price your home appropriately and not chase the market. You want to pay attention to the market and not be blinded by the possibility of a big payday.
Mistake #2: Rejecting Crucial Offers
It can be tempting to reject an offer if you feel that the buyer is “low-balling” or undercutting your price by a large margin. Remember, it’s in their best interest to do so. They win either way. They either pay the reduced price or they get rejected and move on to the next house and the next offer, leaving you with nothing. Try to keep emotion out of it and instead of rejecting with extreme prejudice, you should let cooler heads prevail and send them a counter offer that is more in line with your needs. If they accept it, then you both win and if they reject it and send another lower offer, then you can go from there. The worst thing is to have your home sit on the open market for weeks and months looking for the perfect “Goldilocks” offer to drop right in your lap. Sometimes any offer is better than no offer. Work with it instead of rejecting it outright!
Mistake #3: Not Paying Attention To The Little Things
As they say, the devil is in the details, and in real estate it is no different! For example in a hot seller’s market, doing the little things to make your home more appealing to potential buyers will net you more profit. As the market shifts from a hot sellers market more in favor of buyers, it’s even more important to maximize your home’s appeal. You should always be “getting your home dressed up for the dance” because even in the hottest seller’s market, you will still have plenty of competition for buyers and if they don’t feel that you have put effort into making your property appealing, then they are going to buy from the seller down the street who did.
In Conclusion
All in all, it’s not terribly difficult to avoid these mistakes when selling your home, but you have to be very conscious of the marketplace and the competition around you. Wondering what your home is worth and if it is the right time to sell? Give us a call! We will get you a FREE custom report in 3 minutes!
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