1. Yes, you are Being Judged on your Cleanliness.
Do not expect a buyer to see the ‘big picture’, they will notice every flaw. That beautiful new stainless steel oven should be spotless. Buyers will open that door and if you have burned cheese from last night’s pizza, you will turn them off and their showing will be through a much different lens. While the beautifully refinished wood floors are gleaming, the dead flies in your light fixture will pull focus from the original oak.
Clean your refrigerator.
2. Your Clutter is Not Helping
We all are guilty in the case against clutter. The accumulation of “stuff” is inevitable. But when you are looking to sell your home, it is time to start purging. If you just cannot let go, get a POD or a storage unit until the sale is complete. This actually benefits you in the end when packing up.
As you already know, buying a home is an emotional experience. A buyer moving from their small and cluttered house cannot see the, “fresh start” in another home that seems to be overflowing with your, everything.
3. You are Underestimating the Importance of your Real Estate Agent
Many homeowners are using a friend or family member as their agent. This is perfectly fine unless that referral is subpar. Not all agents are created equal. You must eliminate personal feelings and treat choosing an agent as a business decision. Working with the wrong agent can cost you tens of thousand of dollars. Interview Realtors and choose based on their apparent skill level.
4. You are not a Real Estate Agent
Nobody will know your house as well as you. That is true, but it does not translate to having the knowledge or experience on how to effectively market your home for sale. Speaking with some fellow agents and this was the theme of their responses, “a homeowner can be a great resource but if they are too involved in the marketing, they may want to add details that they think are selling points, but it is arbitrary information that does not accelerate the sale. Usually it will just cloud the message and hinder it. Let your agent do their job.”
5. Staging Works
We all think our home looks good enough and staging will not be necessary. This is a common misconception with many sellers and a costly one at that. If you spend a little additional time and money on hiring a stager, your house will probably sell more quickly and for more money. Empty rooms are perceived as smaller because there is no sense of scale for a buyer to rely upon. “I do not know how many times I was conducting an open house and nearly everyone commented on how “perfect” the staging was; some as far as to ask if the staging company did interior design. I know that we would have had half the offers without staging,” says Anthony Aiello of The Rec Group at Realty Connect USA.
Staging highlights your home’s assets and pulls attention from those little imperfections. In today’s market a home office has become as important as that second bathroom. Staging a work area transforms the space into highly desirable square footage.
6. Website Home Estimates are Not Reliable
Obviously we rely on technology for almost everything these days. What you need is always just a few clicks away. The caveat is that not all of this information is accurate. This can cause a seller to have an unrealistic idea about their home’s value due to personal bias and flawed data.
Zillow, Redfin and other national sites are notorious for publishing comically inaccurate valuations because they are based on a blanket calculation which does not work for every local market. The agent working in your neighborhood and area will know all of the hard data which is based on actual sales and trends in the area.
7. Selling Your Home is About the Buyer
As a seller you must remove your emotional attachment to the home from your decision-making. The goal is to sell your home for as much money and as quickly as you can. Period. This again is having trust in your Realtor. They are not hired to be your friend, so when they make suggestions it is based on experience with one thing in mind. Sell for top dollar.
