5 Most Common Home Selling Mistakes

When it comes time to sell your home, you’ll want to get the biggest return on your investment and do so in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of conventional wisdom out there that’s either misleading or outright false. Selling a home is more than taking the right photos and creating an enticing listing description. Here in Orlando, you’ll find that although the market currently favors sellers, homes can linger on the market for many months.

5 Most Common Home Selling Mistakes

Few people can afford to pay two mortgages or make a mortgage payment and rent each and every month. In addition, there’s still all those living expenses and with the real estate market doing well here in central Florida, property taxes will continue to rise. This puts the pressure on to sell and that can lead to making bad decisions that might even seem smart at the time but become a big regret in the future.

“‘Your house is only worth what the market is willing to pay you,’ says certified financial planner Ellen Derrick of LearnVest Planning Services, who has bought and sold at least eight homes, including investment properties. ‘It doesn’t matter what’s in it. And it doesn’t matter what your mortgage is.’” Your realtor has an eye on the market and knows what kind of prices homes—just like yours—are garnering now. —Forbes

Every home seller wants to get top dollar for their property and sell it quickly so they can move-on to the next chapter in their lives. Even in an active market, it can be a challenge to sell a home because of what you’re up against. New construction is one of the largest competitors your resale will face, as well as recently built homes. When you decide to put your home on the market, you should make the right choices and avoid the following home selling mistakes:

  1. Pricing your home below market value. This strategy is supposed to lure buyers in droves and is intended to sell a home quickly. However, the problem with this particular approach is that a home priced below market value sends mixed signals. It makes buyers wonder why it’s priced below market value, and, that won’t work to your advantage. It will be perceived there’s something wrong with the home or that you’re desperate to sell and will entertain low-ball offers.
  2. Turning down the first reasonable offer. It’s not unusual for sellers to receive offers that are lower than the asking price. Some are too low, but others can be reasonable and more in-line with the actual market value. The thinking is the interested party will submit another, higher offer. Instead, it’s best to counteroffer and then gauge the response.
  3. Increasing the marketing to try and get more from the sale. While you do need to make a positive impression about your home, complete with a great listing description and eye-catching photos, upping your marketing won’t make your home sell for any more.
  4. Pricing your home too high above market value because of improvements. While you might have put a lot of time, effort, and even money into some home improvements for better style and function, these don’t necessarily increase the value of your home. These can help to sell your home faster, but, probably don’t justify a higher listing price. In fact, some home improvements sabotage sales.
  5. Trying to sell your home on your own. Selling a home takes a lot of time and energy. It’s got to reach the most qualified buyers and you need to know which moves to make in order to sell it for a good price.

As a bonus, here’s another mistake that some home sellers make: not investing in their home to get it ready to show. Having a home professionally staged or staging your home yourself is a very important component to selling quickly and for top dollar.