Mistakes in Real Estate, Top 10 Seller Mistakes – Part 3

This is the third installment in my new series, “Mistakes in Real Estate – Top 10 Seller Mistakes”. If you’ve followed along this far, I trust you’re finding this seller’s guide to be informative and helpful. Please reach out via my contact form if you have any questions. I’d love to hear any and all seller success stories from using the seller’s guide. If you’re on the fence about anything — let’s schedule a conversation about how I can help you with your real estate needs in buying or selling a home in the Northern Virginia real estate market.

Table of Contents

Setting An Unrealistic Listing Price

One of the most frustrating things that I deal with as a listing agent is when a seller and I do not agree on what the list price of their home should be.  I know that it’s so hard for many sellers to realistically know that their house is actually worth.  So many factors, emotional attachment, cost and scope of work done on the home, what you paid for the home, even online automated estimate of home value (Zillow) factor in when a seller comes up with a number in their head for what they think that their home is worth.  Unfortunately, none of these really matter.

There are only a few things that do matter when coming up with what a home should list for.  The first one is what have recent similar homes sold for in the last three to six months.  As a listing agent, one of my most important skills is being able to look at the real estate market and see what similar homes (size, age, lot size, updates, location) have sold for recently and use those to make adjustments to those values to come up with a reasonable list price for my sellers.  Something that also needs to be considered when looking at past sales is how the market has changed between when those homes listed, went under contract, and sold and now.  We are currently in a correcting market and not taking all of these things into account can cause a seller to list their home too high for current market conditions.  It’s not an easy task to sometimes even find comparable homes to look at for an upcoming listing, let alone make those adjustments so you really want to find a Realtor with a lot of experience, training, and skills with home valuation.  

Once your Realtor looks at recent comparable homes, he or she is also going to take a look at homes that are currently on the market or are under contract and waiting to close.  The homes that are currently on the market are going to be your competition and the ones currently under contract are going to be comparable homes that an appraiser may use (once they have closed) to help value your home.  I often reach out to listing agents who have comparable homes under contract and see if I can find out what those homes are going to close for.  Looking at both active and under contract homes allows your agent to get a good idea of current market conditions and adjust the recommended list price as needed.  

In addition to looking at the current and recent past market conditions, there are two other related things that need to be considered when coming up with a list price for your home.  One, what price will a buyer be willing to pay for a home.  And, two, what price will an appraiser value a home.  You have to work with your Realtor to come up with a list price using all of these factors.  

While many sellers will tell me that they are willing to wait out the market to get the inflated price that they want, that is a terrible strategy to use.  Please read my blog post, A Tale of Two Homes, for a better understanding of how this practice can backfire, especially in this ever changing market.

The bottom line is that you are hiring a realtor for their expertise in their field.  Make sure that you find one who has a proven track record with selling homes and then listen to their advice when it comes to pricing your home.  There are so many things that you cannot control in the sales process of your home, but pricing appropriately is definitely something that you can.

Not Having Professional Photos For Your Listing

Nothing will turn off a potential buyer faster, than poor photos.  The photos are the first experience a buyer has with your home and you want them to be professional and excellent so that you can get the buyers in your front door.

While many of us take decent photos with our phones, they cannot compare with what a professional photographer can do.  Between the lighting, setting up the shot, and then the final editing, using a professional photographer is the way to get the most out of the first impression of your listing.  And if your Realtor is not planning to use a professional photographer, you may want to look for a different Realtor.

There are some things that you can do ahead of time to be sure that your home is ready for professional photos.  

• Work with your Realtor or professional stager to visually declutter your home so it’s ready for photos and showings.
• Have your home as clean as possible before having photos taken.  If you don’t have the time to clean it yourself, it’s worth hiring a professional cleaning company to come through and have everything in tip top shape for photos and showings.   
• Remove everything from kitchen and bathroom countertops for your photos.  Consult with your Realtor, stager, or photographer about leaving a few items out for staging purposes, but it’s better to be cleared than cluttered.
• Hide trash cans, pet bowls, toys, dog beds, step stools, and any other things that will stand out in the photos.
• Remove all personal items from bathrooms and tubs/showers.
• Have all blinds and curtains open to let in as much light as possible.  The photographer will adjust any of these as needed if there is glare coming in.
• Turn on all lights and turn off all ceiling fans.  

Don’t be surprised if even after you’ve done all of this prep work, the photographer comes through and asks you to move or adjust some things.  He or she knows best what an image is going to look like through the camera’s eye.  Most professional photographers will want to do a quick walk through of your home before starting their shoot so that they can plan out their shots for each room.  Don’t be offended if they ask you to move or hide something.  They just want to get the best photos possible for you!

Limiting Showings Once Your House Is On The Market

I know how frustrating it can be for a seller to have to keep their home in “showing” condition and be ready at a moment’s notice to leave so that potential buyers can tour your home.  In the long run, the inconvenience will be worth it when you get a contract to sell your home.  

When working with buyers, there is nothing more frustrating than trying to schedule a number of homes to show and then having one or more of those deny my showing request.  It can throw off our whole schedule and actually make a buyer not want to try to schedule again because they think that a seller may be “difficult” to work with.  

My best advice to my sellers is to allow as many showings as possible, but if you know up front that there are some times that you just can’t make the house available, then set those parameters ahead of time.  When preparing to list your home, you should discuss with your Realtor what days and times you can have your home available to show.  I recommend having it available all days if possible and at least from 10am in the morning until early evening or whenever it gets dark.  Remember that some buyers will need to schedule to see your home after they get off of work or on the weekends.  You can also have your Realtor set up that you need one or two hours notice ahead of time for showings.  This is very helpful if you work from home or have pets in the home that you will need time to remove or secure in a crate.  It can also give you a few minutes to straighten up your house before a showing.  

Ideally, you would keep your home in perfect showing condition as much as possible, but that’s not necessarily realistic.  A few tips that I suggest (and have used myself!) for quickly getting ready for a showing include the following:

• Toss any dirty dishes that are in the sink right into the dishwasher even if you’d normally hand wash them just to hide them out of sight for the showing.
• Toss any laundry laying around into either the washer or dryer even if you are not ready to turn it on.
• Keep an empty clothes basket ready to throw any kid or dog toys, piles of mail, or anything else lying around into and just throw that in the garage or even in the trunk of your car to get it out of the way for showings.
• Start each morning by making all of the beds in the house and do a quick walk-through of each room to make sure that things are picked up and put away.
• If you have time, quickly run a Clorox wipe over bathroom and kitchen counters.  Make sure that all toilets are flushed and lids are closed.  
• It’s also good to quickly run a vacuum over anywhere that needs it.  
• Make sure that there are no lingering odors in your house and open up windows to air it out if necessary.  No one wants to smell the fish that you cooked last night for dinner.  Honestly, I recommend not even cooking foods that may leave a lingering odor while your house is on the market. 
• Also plan ahead of what to do with your pets during showings.  I always recommend taking dogs with you or at a minimum leaving them in a crate.  Let your agent know if your dog will be in the home in a crate during showings so that he or she can let the buyer’s agent know.  Even if you have what you think is a very friendly dog, it’s really not safe to let a dog loose in the house while strangers are coming through to tour the home.  You just don’t know how your dog will react if you are not home when someone enters.  Cats are usually much easier, but make sure that their litter boxes are cleaned and please let your agent know and even leave a note on your doors if the cat is not allowed to go outside.  
• And last, make sure that you and your family head out about 15 minutes before a scheduled showing and don’t plan to come back until about 15 minutes after it’s supposed to end.  

Hopefully, if you work closely with your Realtor and plan ahead, you will be ready for and can allow as many showings as possible.  The more potential buyers that can get in to tour your house, the more likely you are to get an offer!

Make sure you join me next week for Part 4 of series 2, Mistakes in Real Estate, Top 12 Seller Mistakes! Also, if you found this content helpful, I’d love it if you could help me get the word our by sharing with your family and friends on your favorite social network(s.)

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