{"id":7098,"date":"2018-03-05T16:02:03","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T23:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virtuance.com\/?p=7098"},"modified":"2018-03-12T10:40:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T16:40:00","slug":"6-epic-ways-bungle-selling-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/blog\/6-epic-ways-bungle-selling-home\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Epic Ways to Bungle Selling a Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
By\u00a0Daniel Bortz<\/a><\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0Source: Realtor.com<\/h5>\n
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Selling a home might not seem like rocket science, but rest assured, there’s a lot to consider\u2014and a\u00a0lot<\/em>\u00a0of money on the line. As such, home sellers can really sabotage their own efforts in\u00a0so many ways.<\/p>\n

Curious about what could go wrong? Check out these\u00a0six classic ways\u00a0home sellers bungle\u00a0their prospects so you don’t become the next victim.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. You priced your house\u00a0too high<\/h2>\n

Even when you\u2019re in a seller\u2019s market (where inventory is in short\u00a0supply and buyers are bidding up a storm for homes),\u00a0you should\u00a0set a reasonable listing price<\/a>\u00a0for your house. Unfortunately, \u201csome people have unrealistic expectations of the market,\u201d says\u00a0Seth Lejeune<\/strong>, a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway in Collegeville, PA.<\/p>\n

Many sellers overestimate the\u00a0value of their house<\/a>\u00a0because they\u2019re emotionally attached to the place. Others overprice as a sales tactic.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people price high because they want room to negotiate, but that strategy can backfire, since you might not get any offers,\u201d Lejeune says.<\/p>\n

So, to set the right asking price for your house, you’ll want to trust your real estate agent to do a comparative market analysis, a process that assesses the value of a home by comparing it to similar properties that recently sold\u00a0nearby.<\/p>\n

2. You skimped on professional photos<\/h2>\n

You can have the most sought-after home on the block, but if you don\u2019t take\u00a0good listing photos<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>you may have trouble even getting buyers in the door. Hence, it\u2019s worth hiring a professional real estate photographer to snap pictures instead of taking them yourself on your smartphone.<\/p>\n

Most real estate photographers are reasonably priced\u2014a basic shoot generally costs between $95 and $300, says FitSmallBusiness.com\u2014and the payoff can be huge. Studies have shown that professionally photographed homes sell faster and for more money than homes listed with point-and-shoot cameras.<\/p>\n

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3. You tried to make home repairs yourself<\/h2>\n

Before putting your house on the market, you may have to do some repairs. Doing\u00a0repairs yourself can save you money, but it can also create expensive problems if you make mistakes.<\/p>\n

Indeed, \u201cyou can wind up damaging your house if you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing,\u201d Lejeune says.<\/p>\n

Consequently, it\u2019s worth hiring a handyman or\u00a0certified contractor<\/a>, depending on the nature of the work, to make important home repairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cProblems with hot water heaters, plumbing, duct work, and electrical issues should always be handled by a licensed professional,\u201d Lejeune adds.<\/p>\n

4. You stuck around during showings<\/h2>\n

Having the seller present during a showing or open house can be a huge turnoff to a home buyer, says\u00a0Jennifer Baxter<\/strong>, associate broker at Re\/Max Regency in Suwanee, GA.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if you don\u2019t say anything to the buyer, it\u2019s just awkward,\u201d Baxter says. \u201cWhen the seller is there, buyers don\u2019t feel comfortable to speak freely or open closet doors and look closely at the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

The solution is simple: Just vacate the premises\u00a0when buyers view the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet your agent represent you and handle all interactions with potential home buyers,\u201d Lejeune advises.<\/p>\n

5. You withheld information from buyers<\/h2>\n

Sure, you want to show your home in the best light, but\u00a0not disclosing\u00a0any flaws you’re aware of\u2014like, say, a previous flood or termite damage\u2014could come back and haunt you. For one, a\u00a0home inspection<\/a>\u00a0might reveal this info anyway and your home buyer will be none too pleased that you kept your lips zipped. Not disclosing certain flaws is also illegal in some areas so it might even open you to a lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Therefore, make sure you fess up to home buyers on any issues you’re aware of\u2014which should all be\u00a0provided to the home buyers in a document known as the\u00a0property disclosure statement<\/a>. Sure, it\u00a0might scare off home buyers, but probably not\u2014and it’s way better than getting caught hiding\u00a0info afterward.<\/p>\n

6. You let your ego get in the way<\/h2>\n

Some home sellers get so fixated on\u00a0getting their full list price, they simply turn down offers that are below the bar.\u00a0But that closed-minded approach can have big\u00a0repercussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not willing to make counteroffers, you\u2019re probably not serious about selling your house,\u201d Baxter says. Granted, \u201cif you\u2019re comfortable with your house sitting on the market for a while, you could try to hold out for a full-price offer. But if you want to sell your house in a reasonable period of time, you need to entertain offers that are below list price.”<\/p>\n

Bear in mind\u00a0if your\u00a0house sits on the market<\/a>\u00a0for a while, it can make it more difficult to sell.<\/p>\n

“If a home is on the market for more than four weeks, prospective buyers are going to assume that there is something wrong with it,\u201d says Irvine, CA, real estate agent\u00a0Benny Kang<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In other words, time is a-ticking!\u00a0Any offer is worth considering,\u00a0so try not to take it personally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Daniel Bortz\u00a0|\u00a0Source: Realtor.com Selling a home might not seem like rocket science, but rest assured, there’s a lot to consider\u2014and a\u00a0lot\u00a0of money on the line. As such, home sellers can really sabotage their own efforts in\u00a0so many ways. Curious about what could go wrong? Check out these\u00a0six classic ways\u00a0home sellers bungle\u00a0their prospects so you don’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14503,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14503"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7098"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7322,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7098\/revisions\/7322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.virtuance.com\/member\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}