Five Major Mistakes made by Sellers

Consider these five major (and common) mistakes which can slow down your home selling process and may cause you to get less than top dollar for your home.

1. NOT MAKING NECESSARY IMPROVEMENTS TO YOUR HOME

You may have been living in your home for many years and the sight of worn floors or chipped paint on the walls may seem quite normal.

However, to a Buyer, it shows that the house may be tired and may have been neglected. After all, if a home owner can’t take the time and effort to paint some walls, what other major issues has he neglected as well.

You must present your home in the best possible light to potential buyers. In a lot of cases, the improvements need not be expensive (paint and refinishing floors) but this investment will come back to you many times over in terms of the time it takes to sell your home and the price you receive for it.

2. NOT DETERMINING THE PRICE THAT YOU CAN AFFORD TO PAY

If you are moving to a larger home, it’s always a good idea to get pre-qualified through your bank or Lending Institution. This way you will be able to focus on homes that are within your budget and not dreaming of homes that are beyond your reach. This is the same advice if you are a Buyer.

3. NOT SELLING FIRST

This could be the most stressful mistake. In most cases, you should plan on selling before you buy. This gives you several advantages:

• You will be under less pressure to accept an offer that may be lower than your expectations.
• Less stress to complete the sale of your home before you take possession of the new one. You don’t want to be in the position of owning two homes unless you want a small overlap period to paint or remodel. Tensions can run quite high in a household if the closing date for your new home is fast approaching and you haven’t sold your current home. You may end up accepting a lower offer than necessary.

While your house is on the market, you should be searching for your next home. When you do sell your home, you will have built up enough information about price and availability of homes that you will be able to make an informed and confident decision.

The only time this guideline does not apply is if you have found a truly unique property and there is nothing else like it on the market and there is nothing around that comes close to it. If this is the case, you may want to consider buying first and then selling.

4. NOT CO-ORDINATING CLOSING DATES

Although this seems like a problem that is easily dealt with, I do come across quite a few closings where the closing dates do not match for one reason or another.

Examine the closing dates of the homes that you have sold and the one that you have purchased. Make sure that you are not leaving your current home before you have possession of your new home.

It’s quite common to have a week or two overlap between the closing dates on the two homes (with the closing date on your existing home to be the longer of the two). This will give you time to move; paint and touch-up your new home.

Your Realtor will help you co-ordinate the closing dates during the negotiation process.

5. NOT REMOVING CLUTTER

Before you list your home, de-clutter as much as possible even if it means renting an outside storage place until your home sells.

You are comfortable with all the items that you have collected over the years and do not perceive them as clutter. However, a new Buyer will try to visualize if his furniture will fit in your home and mentally positions it in your rooms. If the room is cluttered, he will have a difficult time visualizing this and will quite often come to the conclusion that the room is too small and the home is not for him.

This is a very common mistake and slows down the selling process considerably.

Take the time to remove all clutter in your home. It will sell quicker and be a lot less stressful.