5 Mistakes People Make While Selling Their Property
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Property with a board written for sale

5 Mistakes People Make While Selling Their Property

Dec 19, 2017 Selling your property, especially for the first time can be an emotionally challenging, time-consuming and daunting task. This is a period where strangers will walk into your home, poke around your cabinets, pantry, and closets. These people, who are also potential home buyers will scrutinise your house and probably bid less amount than what you think it is worth. With no prior experience and a delicate, emotional transaction at hand, most home sellers often end up making a lot of mistakes. However, with a little knowledge, most, if not all of these drawbacks can be evaded. Here are five mistakes people make while selling their property:

1. Lack of proper preparation

When selling your property, it should show at its best both in person as well as the photos and collateral materials. Adequate preparation equals a well-executed marketing strategy. If you do not showcase your property in the best way possible, you will be doing yourself a real disservice. Start by fixing minor and significant repairs like electrical issues, chipped or rotten floorboards and damaged roofs, which can be a major turn off for your potential home buyers. Even small cosmetic problems can be a red flag for prospective home buyers. This includes water stains, chipped paint, stained carpets and cracked walls. If you need to move some of your items to a different location before staging your home, consider hiring reputable and trustworthy Interstate removalists in Melbourne to ensure that no damages occur when moving things and furniture. Take the time to make repairs, paint, tidy landscaping de-clutter and stage your home. Consider hiring a professional photographer to take the best photos that will set your listing apart and help generate extra interest. For the best images, consider taking the pictures during the day when there is plenty of natural light available. To make sure everything is in order, have a pre-inspection to indicate what necessary repairs and replacements you need to do. Failing to make these repairs will cost you a lot of money in the long run.

2. Being unrealistic about the value of your property

Overpricing your property will have it sitting on the market a very long time, leading to a significant monetary loss. Whether you are selling your property on your own or are using an agent, setting a realistic asking price is vital. Just like you did a comparable property market analysis when you bought the home to deduce a fair asking price, so will potential home buyers do. Therefore, you should use this information to your advantage and set a reasonable price for your property. When selling a home, it is crucial for you to know that an overpriced house will not sell. On the other hand, you do not have to worry about setting your bar a little lower, as in theory; it will generate multiple offers as well as bid the property up to its actual market value. Under-pricing your home can be a grand strategy to create extra interest in your listing.

3. Failing to hire the best agent

For you to increase your chances of selling, you will need to choose your real estate agent wisely. Working with an experienced real estate agent in Melbourne can make all the difference in your home selling experience. One of the biggest mistakes people make when selling their property is choosing to work with the cheapest real estate agent or no agent at all. Although the best agents may ask for a hefty commission, they will help improve your chances of selling your home in the shortest time at the best price possible. When choosing the best agent, it is crucial that you take into account how successful they have been at selling properties. A good real estate agent in Melbourne will aid you in setting up a fair, yet competitive asking price for the house that will help increase your chances of a quick sale. The agent will also take out some of the emotion out of the entire process since they will be interacting directly with the potential buyers. An expert real estate agent also has more experience on how to negotiate better deals than you do, and will potentially help you sell your home at the best price. Also, in case any problem crops up throughout the process, the professional will use their experience and know-how to solve them.

4. Getting emotionally attached

Once you decide to put your Melbourne home up for sale, it is crucial that you start thinking of yourself as a home seller or a business person, rather than as the owner. When you distance yourself emotionally from the property that you have undoubtedly created many memories in, you will be able to transact from a financial perspective. Being aware that you are not just selling a property, but a lifestyle dream and an image will enable you to put in a little more effort in staging and maybe even to undertake some minor re-modelling to sell your home at the best price. The changes you make will not only help the sale price but will also create that emotional distance because the home will look less familiar.

5. Hiding the truth about your home

Another big mistake home sellers do is trying to conceal the problems with the house from prospective buyers to get rid of their property fast. However, trying to cover up significant flaws like leaky roofs, foundation problems, or mold can come back to haunt you in the future. If you are not upfront with these issues, the buyer may still realise them during the home inspection. At that point, the buyer may either back out of the deal or ask you to cover the costs of fixing these issues. And if the problems are severe and reveal themselves after the sale goes through, you might find yourself in the middle of a messy, protracted legal battle. Therefore, it is imperative that you are upfront with both the listing agent and potential home buyers about any issues, minor or major, with the house. Also, remember to price your property well, given its condition and make sure to document all the problems you are aware of and have the buyer sign off on them. Full disclosure is a great way to avoid a lawsuit.