7 Common Mistakes You Need To Avoid When Selling Your Home

Are you a home seller contemplating the 'Real Estate Private Sale' option of sellling your home?

Before you take the plunge, make sure you read this. These mistakes are a result of observations and feedback from customers and clients using the online private sale method.

Common Mistake #1:Lack of a genuine Reason, a Plan, Strategy & lack of Research

It is important before selling your home that you know exactly why you want to sell your home. Your why will help determine your level of motivation and the consequent outcome of your actions.

Once you know your reason, you believe it’s genuine, and you’re committed to selling your home, then it’s time to determine an overall plan, with a strategy and varying tactics you’ll employ to carry out that plan. Firstly, you need to work out what method you’ll use to sell your home, i.e. real estate agent or private sale. Your choice should primarily be based around your overall lifestyle demands and reasons for selling. Once you’ve decided that private sale is for you, your plan should include such details as: a realistic deadline to achieve a sale based on the current market; a schedule based on your overall timeframe, ‘chunked down’ with achievable goals and deadlines at which to review your current plan/strategy; optional plans/scenarios in the event things don’t go exactly to plan and how you need to handle the situation accordingly; research on current and historical sales which may be gained through agent appraisals and/or valuations; and a marketing plan and budget to fulfil your plan.

Common Mistake #2:Setting your Sale Price too High

This can partly be due to a ‘lack of research’. Because a home owner has an emotional attachment to their home, they will sometimes justify their reasons for setting the price before doing their market research. You may have heard these justifications before or even contemplated using them yourself. You know, things like “well the neighbour up the road sold their house for this price and my house is much better so I know I can get a better price”, or “the paper says there’s been a 25% growth in this area and the median price is this, so my house must be worth this” or “I’ve spent a lot of money on all these renovations, so I should get this much for it”, etc, etc. Don’t fall into this trap!

Start your research first and gather information from as many sources as possible (that doesn’t include your family or friends’ opinions), such as appraisals, valuations, information you’ve collected from papers and the internet, open for inspections you’ve attended of similar style properties. You then need to sit down and make a comparison of the information you’ve gathered. Look at the statistics and base your price on factual information, rather than emotional justifications. This will save you much time, money and stress if you do this from the outset.

The other danger of setting your price too high is that you’ll turn off potential buyers before they even set foot in your door. Remember, buyers are not stupid. They will have done their homework too and will have compared other properties in the same price range with yours to determine whether you’re asking price is realistic. The objective of your marketing is to generate buyer enquiry – that’s it! Once you have people calling you and viewing your home, it’s no longer about marketing, it then becomes about communicating and negotiating, to achieve a WIN/WIN outcome for both you and the buyer.

Common Mistake #3: Lack of Commitment and Confidence in your Abilities

Selling your home is not rocket science. I can attest to that because I don’t consider myself a brilliant salesperson, had never sold my home privately, yet I was able to sell my own home without complications or stress. Sometimes it’s not about how smart you are. What it does take is a positive attitude to tackle the challenges (because you will get them), the confidence and firm belief in your abilities to deal with people in a friendly, courteous manner, and 100% commitment to
carry out your plan. It’s also about separating yourself from the process so that when things don’t happen exactly as you’d like or you get a response you don’t like, you don’t take these events personally. Remember it’s not about you (unless you’re downright rude and obnoxious, then I wouldn’t recommend trying private sales).

Lack of commitment to the process can also mean sitting on the fence. It’s quite natural to want to hedge your bets, and use an agent to sell your property while trying private sale, however be aware you may just be setting yourself up for failure. Think about it for a moment…by using an agent while trying private sale, what are you really saying about yourself? Don’t you think you have the ability to pull it off? Maybe, if things don’t go according to plan, at least you can blame the agent, right, and no one will ever know you didn’t really give it a your best shot? There’s always two sides of the coin. An agent is human and can make mistakes too, and sometimes there can be a point at which even an agent can’t sell your home regardless of how good a salesperson or negotiator they are. Do you then blame the agent? Or even if you used the services of an agent, are you committing to that agent 100% for whatever time you’ve agreed to? If you’re not,
then you’re still sitting on the fence and you’re not going to get as good an outcome as if you just committed totally for a period of time. Of course, if things don’t work at the end of that timeframe, you still need to objectively look at the reasons why. So I would recommend to you commit 100% to the process for a realistic period of time before using an agent, if at all.

Common Mistake #4:Putting yourself under unnecessary pressure to sell your home

This would have to be one of the worst things to do when selling your home. Private home sellers may unduly place themselves under pressure by signing a contract to buy a home before they’ve sold, or making plans which leave them with only one way out – selling by a specific date! That’s okay while it’s early days, but as the deadline date looms, doubts, uncertainties and worry start to build until the tension reaches boiling point. What then happens if a home seller doesn’t sell by that deadline date is they become desperate and make silly, rash decisions to relieve that tension. The decision can often be a source of regret. The trick is not to apply a deadline leaving you more vulnerable to circumstances which are beyond your control.

Common Mistake #5:>Placing your home on the market before it’s ready

Before it’s ready can mean before you’ve completed renovations, maintenance and repairs, or given your home an overall clean to ensure your home is one that people will feel enticed to inspect. The first 30 days your home is marketed, statistically is when you’ll receive the most volume of enquiry - while it’s fresh and new. If you’ve failed to complete tasks which will adversely affect a buyers’ impression of your home, you may lose that buyer forever. Remember, your home isn’t the only one around and the buyer may find something else. Unless you’re marketing your home as a renovator, it pays to ensure your home is looking spic and span. A good idea is to approach your home from the street, steadily progressing through it, and look at it with a fresh pair eyes. Look for what pleases you and what, if anything, raises doubts in your mind or makes you feel uncomfortable. If you get distinct feelings as you progress through your home, observe those feelings, work out what’s causing them, and whether they’re positive or negative. Once this is done, rectify any niggling feelings you have which you think may hinder the sale of your home.

Something which can also happen which you should try to avoid, is setting a price based on a finished renovation, then placing it on the market before you’ve completed the renovation, at the
price as if it had been completed. What this basically means, is your asking for an unrealistic price on the basis of what you’re going to do down the track. Buyers only see what is currently in front of them, and will assess your price accordingly. They won’t make an assessment based on your future plans or intentions. So if you can’t avoid placing your home on the market before the completion of particular tasks or renovations, just make sure you make the necessary price
adjustments.

Common Mistake #6:Not studying your competition and being unaware of your basic rights and obligations

In private sale, your main competition is your local real estate agent. You need to know how they work, their basic processes and procedures and look at why they complete tasks in a particular way. The first thing you need to understand is their major motivating factor – to get a listing! Without listings, there can be no sales – no sales means no commission – which means no pay. When you understand their motivation, you can then begin to understand why they might go to some interesting extremes to get your listing. It doesn’t mean justifying any unethical methods.
What it does mean is that by understanding their common tricks of the trade, you can avoid being a victim of their psychological tactics. When you know these basic tricks to secure your listing, you can then work out possible answers or responses in order to avoid being a victim. You can also maintain control of the situation and avoid being intimidated into making decisions which aren’t part of your overall plan or you feel uncomfortable with.

It’s not only knowing what standard tricks or ploys agents use, it’s also knowing your basic rights as a seller and familiarising yourself with things such as: Appointment to Act form and that’s in the form; the difference between Exclusive Agent and Open agreements and how they affect you as a private seller; the contract and cooling off periods, termination penalties, etc, etc.
The more basic stuff you know about how these things work, the less likely you’ll get caught out by an agent, or even an experienced buyer for that matter. This information can be easily obtained through organisations such as Office of Fair Trading, REIQ (or your state/territory real estate body)and also your solicitor or lawyer through a simple phone call. Remember you don’t need to know everything, otherwise you’ll never get started, as long as you’re aware of the basics and where to go to if you need any more information.

Common Mistake #7: Not Knowing your Bottom Line

Once you’ve done your due diligence and completed all the necessary research, made your plans and feel confident that you’re ready to go, one last thing I recommend you do is work out your point of no return. It’s the point where you draw the line in the sand and say ‘I won’t budge any further’. It’s the point at which you either walk away or you proceed with negotiations (as long as you’ve been objective and looked at all the angles of course). By the way, being firm doesn’t mean saying ‘no’ vehemently (unless the offer is absolutely ridiculous). You can still be flexible and compromising yet still achieve your outcome. I suppose what I am trying to say is: don’t be wishy-washy, divided or inconsistent when it comes to decisions on price. Make a decision, remain flexible and open to suggestions to reach a compromise, remain strong and firm when negotiations reach a certain point and then have the courage to carry out that decision whatever that may be.