1. Fail­ure to effec­tively mar­ket the prop­erty. Good mar­ket­ing dis­tin­guishes your home from hun­dreds of oth­ers on the mar­ket, sell­ing its ben­e­fits not just its fea­tures. Open houses and print adver­tis­ing (the most obvi­ous) are only mod­er­ately effec­tive. Only 1% of homes are sold at open houses, and just 3% of peo­ple pur­chased their homes after see­ing a print ad! Your real estate agent should be using other meth­ods as well to attract prospects. Ask your real estate agent to pro­vide a list of things they will do to mar­ket your home.

2. Bas­ing your list price on needs or emo­tion – not mar­ket value. Many sell­ers base their pric­ing on what is termed as Sub­jec­tive Value. To an appraiser, sub­jec­tive value is based on emo­tions. For exam­ple, how much a seller paid for their home, how much they love their home, and over­all pride of own­er­ship is con­sid­ered sub­jec­tive value. Objec­tive Value, is what ALL apprais­ers base the true value of a property.

Set­ting the ask­ing price of a prop­erty should always be based on Mar­ket Value. Apprais­ers call this objec­tive value. Objec­tive value looks at the con­di­tion of the prop­erty, its loca­tion, what prop­er­ties with sim­i­lar fea­tures in the same area are sell­ing for, what other prop­er­ties in the same area are listed for, and the over­all con­di­tion of the econ­omy and real estate mar­ket.

If your home or condo is not priced com­pet­i­tively, buy­ers will pre­fer larger or bet­ter homes in the same price range, increas­ing your time-to-sell. When your price is finally low­ered, buy­ers may be wary because they sus­pect other rea­sons the house has remained unsold for so long.

3. Fail­ing to “present” the home. A prop­erty that is not clean or well main­tained often sug­gests hid­den defects that increase the total cost of own­er­ship. Sell­ers should make nec­es­sary repairs and spruce up the house inside and out, keep it clean and neat, or risk chas­ing away buy­ers brought in by other real estate agent. Buy­ers will leave them­selves a large mar­gin for error for the cost of repairs, reduc­ing their offer price.

4. Over-improving your home before you sell it. Most buy­ers will base their deci­sion on pur­chas­ing a home based on how they feel about the kitchen and bath­rooms. If these areas of the home meet both their emo­tional and phys­i­cal needs it makes it eas­ier to sell a home. It is a good idea to get a real estate agent to do a mar­ket assess­ment of what your home is worth BEFORE improve­ments. The next step would be to get a writ­ten esti­mate for improve­ment costs; then have your real estate agent give you an update on the mar­ket value to deter­mine how much more money your home will sell for AFTER improve­ments are made. This will let you know whether it makes sense to upgrade your home first, then put it on the mar­ket, or to just put it on the mar­ket for sale the way it is.

Sell­ers may spend thou­sands of dol­lars doing the wrong upgrades to their home prior sell­ing, expect­ing to recoup this cost. If you are think­ing of sell­ing, ask your real estate agent which upgrades are the most cost effec­tive. Typ­i­cally the most impor­tant and saleable areas of any home or condo are the kitchen and bathrooms.

5. Choos­ing the wrong real estate agent or choos­ing for the wrong rea­sons. Many home­own­ers list with the real estate agent who tells them the high­est price, or a pop­u­lar real estate com­pany in the area. Remem­ber it is NOT the sign that sells a home it is the real estate agent. Sell­ers should always choose the real estate agent who pro­vides the most expe­ri­ence and the one the seller thinks has the best nego­ti­at­ing skills. Choos­ing the best real estate agent usu­ally means a higher price at the nego­ti­at­ing table, sell­ing in less time – and with less has­sles along the way.

6. Fail­ing to take the first offer seri­ously. Many sell­ers believe that the first offer received will be one of many to come, hop­ing to hold out for a higher price (espe­cially if the offer comes in soon after the home is listed). Expe­ri­ence has shown that the first offer usally ends up being the best offer. Many sell­ers have had to accept far less money than the ini­tial offer if they wait until much later on in the sell­ing process. The first 2 weeks of the list­ing term is crit­i­cal. It is this time that the home will usu­ally get MOST of its action. Do NOT let how quickly the offer came in deter­mine your deci­sion to accept it or not.

7. Using the hard sell dur­ing show­ings. Buy­ing a home is an emo­tional deci­sion, and buy­ers are look­ing to see if a house is com­fort­able for them. Good real estate agents let the buy­ers dis­cover the home’s fea­tures on their own, point­ing out only fea­tures they are sure are impor­tant to them. Over­selling your home dur­ing show­ings make buy­ers think they are being pres­sured into pay­ing for fea­tures that are not impor­tant to them and can lose the sale.

8. Not know­ing your rights and oblig­a­tions. The con­tract you sign to sell your prop­erty is a com­plex and a legally bind­ing doc­u­ment. An improp­erly writ­ten con­tract can allow the buy­ers to void the sale, or cost you thou­sands of unnec­es­sary dol­lars. Have your real estate agent fully explain the con­tract or have your lawyer review it before acceptance.

Related posts:

1. Com­mon mis­takes peo­ple make when buy­ing or sell­ing Toronto real estate
2. Don’t Make Mis­takes When Choos­ing a Toronto Real Estate Agent
3. How to Avoid 10 Com­mon Buyer Mistakes
4. House sell­ers, buy­ers balk at bid­ding wars
5. Infor­ma­tion for Sellers