11 Common Seller Mistakes and How To Avoid Them

11 Seller Mistakes that Could Cost You Thousands –

and How to Avoid Them

In the Phoenix, Arizona area in 2007, there were an average of 55,000 homes on the market on any given day. Yet there were buyers for only 5,000 homes. That means it’s more difficult for you to sell your home for the most money in the shortest amount of time. To do that, your home needs to stand out from the crowd.

But many homes don’t stand out from the crowd. In fact, many home sellers are actively doing things that make it harder to sell their homes. Are you?

The real estate insiders at MyPhoenixMLS.com have prepared a list of the eleven most common mistakes that home sellers make – mistakes that can mean the difference between selling your home and not. We want you to avoid these mistakes, so that your home sells for the most money in the shortest amount of time.

Mistake #1: Hiring the wrong real estate agent

Nearly 75% of homeowners say that they wouldn’t re-hire the real estate agent who sold their last home. Some say their house didn’t sell for the price they thought it should have. Others say it took too long to sell. Others couldn’t get their agent on the phone.

The 25% of satisfied homeowners had one thing in common: they knew how to find the right real estate agent. First and foremost, they interviewed several agents and asked lots of questions. When you’re interviewing real estate agents, think about:

• Does the agent have a written marketing plan tailored to your home?
• Does the agent have the connections necessary to get your house in front of many other real estate agents and prospective buyers? According to the National Association of Realtors, 82% of home sales are the result of agent connections.
• Has your agent offered references for you to talk with?
• What’s the agent’s track record? The number of years that an agent has been in the business is less important than the agent’s track record. Are his clients happy with him?
• Is the agent’s price quote in line with the selling price of other homes in my area? Your agent’s willingness to share with you his market analysis is key – if he’s unwilling, wonder what he may be hiding.
• Does it seem like the agent is saying whatever it takes to get your listing? Or do his facts and figures seem reasonable? Look out for real estate agents that will tell you they can sell your house for an outrageously high price – they’ll tell you anything to get your listing, then you’re bound for disappointment.

For a full list of the most important questions to ask when interviewing real estate agents, download the FREE report, 10 Questions You Can’t Afford NOT To Ask MyPhoenixMLS.com

As Certified Negotiation Experts and National Association of Realtors members, the real estate experts at MyPhoenixMLS.com have the answers to your questions. Call us today at 602-318-1114 or 1-866-249-1678 or e-mail info@myphoenixmls.com.

Mistake #2: Signing a listing contract with a real estate agent without a verifiable marketing plan

Most agents require their clients to sign a listing contract that binds you to stay with the agent for a specified period of time – and imposes penalties for cutting out before the contract has expired. Yet many listing contracts don’t require the same of the agents (they can simply stop actively marketing your home).

Talk with prospective agents about options for early contact termination, without penalty, if you’re not happy with the service they’re providing. Write your service expectations into the contract so your agent understands what you expect him to do – and get the agent to agree in writing to the service he will deliver (while an agent can’t guarantee he will sell your house in a specified time frame for a specific price, he can guarantee, for example, that he’ll call 25 prospective buyers each day, or send you weekly market reports, or give you a staging consultation).

The real estate experts at MyPhoenixMLS.com offer a verifiable marketing plan. We’ll lay out our plans for marketing your home when we begin our work together. Then we’ll give you access to the Personal Update Center where you can check on what we’ve been doing to market your home. There you can read prospective buyer’s comments, see who we’ve contacted, check out who’s come to see your home, verify all the places that your home is currently listed, read notes from our weekly touch-base phone calls, and more.

For more information about what the real estate experts at MyPhoenixMLS.com can do for you, call us today at 602-318-1114 or 1-866-249-1678 or e-mail info@myphoenixmls.com.

Mistake #3: Not asking yourself: “Why am I selling”?

Why are you selling your home? Perhaps your job has taken you to a different state. Or you’re ready to move up into a larger home for your growing family. Or you just want something different.

Whatever it is, being able to articulate why you’re selling your home is important, because it will determine the best selling strategy to use. If you’ve already moved to another state for a job, perhaps the best strategy is to sell your home in the shortest amount of time, even if you have to price it slightly below market value. Or if you’re building a new home for your growing family and have time before you’ll be ready to move in there, perhaps your first goal is to sell your current home for the most money, even if it takes a bit longer.

Once you’ve articulated your motivation to sell, talk about it with your real estate agent, so that he can decide the best way to market your home. Keep that information between you and your real estate agent. If your prospective buyers know that you’ve already taken a job in another state, they could use that information to their advantage – and your disadvantage – during negotiation. If the buyer asks, simply say that you’re moving because your housing needs have changed.

Mistake #4: Incorrectly pricing your home

In today’s buyer’s market, buyers look at your asking price not as the minimum amount they’ll have to pay for your home, but as a ceiling under which they can negotiate with you (this is less true in a seller’s market when buyers will compete against each other, upping the sales price each time).

So if you set your asking price at the lowest amount you’re willing to accept for your home, you’re bound for disappointment.

Of course, the opposite is true as well – if you set your asking price so far above market value, prospective buyers and their agents won’t take you seriously – and they may not even look at your home.

You should set your asking price at the market value for your home. Determining your home’s market value is a complex task – it takes more than looking at a home evaluation website. In fact, the best person to accurately determine your home’s value is a real estate agent. It’s the real estate agent that will incorporate expert knowledge of buyer behavior and the current market to develop the best price for your home.

Generally, a good way to figure out your home’s market value is to look at the prices of similar homes that have sold in your neighborhood in the last six months. That doesn’t mean that you price your home at exactly the same price your neighbor’s home just sold for, but that you use neighbor’s’ sales prices as a baseline against which you price your own home (taking into account your home’s unique features).

For a FREE market study of the recent home sales in your neighborhood, visit www.myphoenixmls.com/homeeval.asp or call the MyPhoenixMLS.com real estate experts at 602-318-1114 or 1-866-249-1678 or e-mail info@myphoenixmls.com.

Mistake #5: Confusing “fake” buyers with real ones

Having a bit of information about your prospective buyers can give you the upper hand in contract negotiations and help you avoid wasting your time with unqualified buyers.

Buyers working with real estate agents are most likely to be real buyers – and ones interested in homes like yours. If prospective buyers aren’t working with real estate agents, wonder why. (After all, working with a real estate agent is free is you’re a buyer.)

Watch out for investors, who often don’t work with real estate agents. While they may be “real” buyers, interested in your home, they’ll often try to negotiate a below-market price for your home.

Mistake #6: Making a less-than-great first impression

It’s an old adage that “You only have one chance to make a first impression.” Make sure your home makes a great first impression by:

• Picking up
• Minding the yard
• Getting rid of all odors
• Giving your home a good scrub-down
• Making repairs

If you’re too busy, or simply not detail-minded, hire a yard maintenance and home cleaning service to get your home in showing condition. The few hundred dollars you’ll spend getting the details in order can mean thousands more in a buyer’s offer.

You’ll also want to think about your home from your buyers’ perspective. If your prospective buyers can visualize themselves living in your home, you’re well on your way to a sale.

Over-personalized decorations can hinder a buyer’s ability to imagine your home as their own. So put away your knick-knacks and replace them with well-placed, neutral decorations. Buy some home decorating magazines for ideas. Or, if you’re not the decorating type, ask your real estate agent or consider hiring a home staging consultant who can help you get your home ready for showing.

Once you’ve cleaned, repaired, and decorated your home to make a good first impression and to help prospective buyers visualize themselves in your home, invite a few friends over to give you their honest opinions. Your real estate agent will be able to give you a good objective opinion, too.

Mistake #7: Making it difficult for buyers to get information on their home

Did you know that only 1% of homes are sold at an open house? Open houses are important, yes, but they’re by far the least effective marketing tool. If you’re relying solely on a sign in the front yard and open houses, your chances of selling your home are quite low. (Another popular rookie advertising technique is a newspaper ad. But it’s relatively expensive and quite ineffective because there are so many ads that it’s hard to make yours stand out.)

Likewise, if the only way a prospective buyer can get information about your home is by calling and speaking with your real estate agent, buyers will be less likely to actually call. In contrast, using a toll-free 24-hour pre-recorded hotline – like we do at MyPhoenixMLS.com – will have three times more buyers calling for information about your home.

At MyPhoenixMLS.com, we use a number of tools that have proven successful in getting your home in front of as many prospective buyers and buyer’s agents as possible. For example, we:

• Write an engaging description of your home and place it on Arizona Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
• Showcase your home as a “Featured Listing” on Realtor.com, Googlebase, and 6 or 7 other websites for prospective buyers
• Feature your property on MyPhoenixMLS.com
• Offer prospective buyers a toll-free number to call for recorded information about your home, available 24-7
• Paint a picture for the buyer using keywords and descriptions that have proven effective
• . . .And more.

The real estate experts at MyPhoenixMLS.com can make it easy for prospective buyers and real estate agents to find your home. Call us today at 602-318-1114 or 1-866-249-1678 or e-mail info@myphoenixmls.com.

Mistake #8: Selling too hard during showings

In today’s buyers market, when it can be hard to sell a home if you don’t have a top-producing real estate agent on your side, many homebuyers feel like they have to give narrated tours of their home to every prospective homebuyer who visits. That’s a huge mistake – one that could cost you the sale.

Remember when you looked at homes? Wasn’t it awkward when the seller was there?

Don’t make your prospective buyers feel awkward – take a hike when they’re visiting. After all,

buyers want to imagine your house as their home. They want to see your house through their own eyes, without your narration. It’s true that they will want information about your house, but an experienced real estate agent will make sure that prospective buyers and their agents have all of the necessary information about your house and its features, without you being present at the showing. So do the hard work necessary to get your home in showcase condition, hiring an experienced real estate agent to market your house, and leave the rest to the buyers and their agents.

Mistake #9: Not doing due diligence on your contract

Selling or buying a home is probably the most serious contractual obligation you’ll ever be personally involved with. Since so much is at stake, it’s critical that you ensure that the contract is properly written. Ensure that all terms, costs, and responsibilities are spelled out explicitly in the contract of sale.

Your real estate agent will help you understand the fine print of the contract, and make sure that all of the important provisions are included. The most important sections of the contract include:

• Addenda incorporated, including HOA rules and regulations
• Fixtures and personal property, which describes which fixtures and personal property will be sold with the house (usually all fixtures and appliances such as dishwashers and ovens are included while refrigerators, washers, and dryers are not)
• Loan contingency, which means that the buyer must make a good faith attempt to secure a loan before the close of escrow date, but if the buyer is unable to qualify for a loan, he can have his earnest deposit money back
• Loan requirements, including a completed Loan Status Report with information about the buyer’s proposed loan, a completed loan application within 5 days after Contract acceptance, and signed loan documents 3 days prior to the close of escrow date
• Title commitment and title insurance, including copies of any recorded documents as well as any restrictions on title insurance
• Seller property disclosure statement (SPDS)/Inspections/Walkthroughs, which specifies that the seller must submit a SPDS within 5 days of Contract acceptance and that the buyer has a right to inspect the property and conduct a walkthrough to ensure that any agreed-upon repairs were satisfactorily made
• Buyer disapproval, which allows the buyer to get his earnest deposit refunded if he disapproves of the title insurance, the SPDS, or the inspection and the seller refuses to remedy the problem
• Cure period, which provides the seller or the buyer a three-day window to cure any non-compliance issues
• Alternative dispute resolution and exclusions provides for arbitration and mediation of disputes
• Agency confirmation lists the buyer’s real estate agent.

Once you’ve written and signed the contract of sale, don’t make or accept any verbal promises. If you decide to change any terms of the sale agreement, amend the sales contract accordingly.

Mistake #10: Failing to get pre-approved for your next home mortgage

While failing to get pre-approved for your next home mortgage won’t directly affect the sale of your current home, it’s an important step in making sure that you can afford to buy a new home and – if you can – that you get a better mortgage – and a better deal on your new house. (It’s also a required part of the home purchase contract in Arizona.)

A pre-approval is a statement from a lender of the amount of money you qualify to borrow. Pre-approvals are typically good for 90 days and are contingent upon your financial situation staying the same.

One benefit of getting pre-approved is that it will allow you to confidently negotiate better loan terms with different lenders, because you can say “I’ve been pre-approved with Bank Y, and they’re offering X, but I’d like to do business with you if you can give me a better deal.”

Another benefit is that you’ll be taken more seriously by sellers. When sellers have a choice between offers, they’ll more likely accept an offer from a buyer with a pre-approval because it gives them confidence that you can get a mortgage loan to purchase the house.

Yet another benefit is that you’ll know how much house you can afford. With a pre-approval, you can figure out how much you’d pay in monthly mortgage payments on any given house price. Doesn’t it make sense to know how much house you can afford before you go house hunting? That way, you save time by looking only at homes that are within your budget.

So, before you start hunting for your new home, get a written pre-approval. You’ll get a better loan and a better deal on a house, and you’ll avoid wasting time hunting in the wrong price bracket.

Mistake #11: Moving out before you sell

Selling a home that is vacant is immensely more difficult than selling a home that feels still lived in. That’s why builders furnish their models rather than showing them empty – it allows prospective buyers to imagine themselves living there.

When you move out of your home before it’s sold, you’re also sending prospective buyers the message that you’re a highly motivated seller and may be willing to sell for much less than the market value of your home. Giving prospective buyers this kind of information gives them the advantage at the negotiation table – an advantage you want to keep for yourself.

If you absolutely have to move out of your home before it’s sold, talk with your real estate agent about what furniture to leave behind so that the home maintains its warm, inviting feeling. And don’t forget to keep up the yard maintenance – nothing is worse for a home’s sale prospects than an unkempt yard.

The experts at MyPhoenixMLS.com can help you avoid these eleven and other mistakes that could cost you thousands when you sell your home. Call us today at 602-318-1114 or 1-866-249-1678 or e-mail info@myphoenixmls.com.