3 biggest mistakes sellers make when selling their home
Posted on 6th February 2019
You are looking to sell your biggest asset and want to make sure you get it right! There are lots of things you can do to make your house sell more quickly and sell for more money.
Unfortunately, there are also a few things you can do which will delay the sale, cause you to lose money, and potentially give you a huge headache as well.
We highlight the 3 biggest mistakes that we see people make when selling a property.
1. Easily the biggest mistake people make is being lulled in by some agents who over-value property and then they end up hitting the market at too high a figure, losing the initial impact of the house coming to the market and not generating enough early interest.
Our advice is take stock of what is going in the market BEFORE you get any estate agents round to see you and be honest with yourself. What has sold in the area recently? What is currently on the market? How is your house better, or not as the case may be in some instances.
Then you should have a fair idea before an agent comes round, and when that one agent comes in £20,000 higher than you thought, make sure you ask them to back that information up with hard evidence so you can see for yourself, before risking losing lots of money!
2. The second mistake, and one we can easily help with, is not preparing the house for photographs and preparing it for sale. De-cluttering, especially for the initial photographs is absolutely key. You are selling a house, not everything that is in it, and you will be amazed at how differently a house can look when it is de-personalised, de-cluttered, and prepared for sale.
This means sorting out the conservatory that has become a play-room, removing as much as you can from kitchen work-surfaces, and making sure bedrooms look like a sanctuary of peace and quiet, not a laundry room! It allows buyers to see exactly what is on offer, how nice the house could be when they move, and allow them to get a real "feel" for the property, without tripping over the dog-bowl!
3. Finally, not getting the marketing exactly right form the start. This includes making sure the photos are absolutely first class, the floor plan is done and listed with the property from day one, and that the best viewing strategy has been discussed with the agent you are using. Social media has become ingrained in our daily routine now and it is something that some agents are using to get a bigger reach on the properties that they are bringing to market.
External photos can be improved to with some technology to give the bright blue sky and fluffy clouds, but help your agent out by removing cars from the front of the property and getting the bins out the way as well!
A good agent should be able to advise on the full marketing strategy they are going to undertake before actually listing your property, the first 2 weeks of marketing are absolutely key and you need to make the most of them. Rightmove tells us that after initially looking at photos and pricing, the next biggest asset to any listing is the floor plan.
If an agent is even considering listing your house without one, run a mile!
Hopefully that has given you some good information if you are preparing to sell your house at some point. As far as we can see, this advice will hold true for many years to come.
Tagged as: The Property Market, Thinking about selling?
Share this post:
