This 2-part series looks at the 11 Worst Mistakes Sellers make when selling their home . . .

So you’ve decided to sell your home. Selling a home is stressful enough. There is a lot of “behind the scenes” action taking place that you may not know about. Contrary to public perception, your listing agent does not usually attempt to sell your home to individual home buyers. That wouldn’t be a very efficient process.

Your listing agent markets and promotes your home to the other local agents who work directly with home buyers. This dramatically increases your personal sales force. During the first couple of weeks your home should be a flurry of activity with buyer’s agents coming to preview your home so they can sell it to their clients…

Unless these mistakes are being made. . . .

7. Wait too long to get to the right price.

When you drop your price, your house is “old news.” You will never be able to recapture that flurry of initial activity you would have had with a realistic price. Your house could take longer to sell. Once your home sits on the market awhile, it is harder to get a good offers. Potential buyers will think you might be getting desperate, so they will make lower offers.

8. They don’t take the first offer as serious as they should thinking they will get something better.

It is human nature for you to want the highest price for your home. In a buyer’s market, you’ll need to determine what is most important to you–price, moving date, keeping the appliances–and get the best deal possible. That said, the first offer is frequently the best offer, so don’t be unreasonable.

9. They try to improve the property instead of lowering the price.

Smart sellers will weigh the cost of proposed improvements against the home’s market value after the repairs or upgrades are completed. If an upgrade won’t return the investment, such an improvement might not be warranted. And keep in mind, if your home is already overpriced, more improvements won’t necessarily bring the home value up in your market.

10. Focus on who is right or wrong vs. getting their home sold.

If your home isn’t selling, it’s easy to get into a battle of wills over who is right or who is wrong. It doesn’t matter what you want for your home, it only matters what someone is willing to pay for it. Every buyer wants a good deal, and every seller wants top dollar. Realtors have to walk a tight rope to balance things to try and achieve a win-win for both buyers and sellers. For example:

If you had just 6 weeks to sell your home, and you got a reasonable offer in week 3 or 4, wouldn’t you take it? Or would you risk having to pay double mortgage payments, or live apart from your family for months, etc. to POSSIBLY make 3% more? (knowing also there is a possibility you would get less). The goal is to get your home sold.

11. Try to find their next home before they sell their current home – cart before the horse.

Imagine you found the home of your dreams.  You’re all ready to move in.  The problem is you still have to sell your old place otherwise your stuck paying on two properties!  By selling first it helps ensure that you can afford the new house on time without worrying about extra mortgages to cover yourself.  Also, if you buy a home first you will most likely put a bit into the contract that says you have to complete the sale of your old place before you close on the new home.  This helps protect you from being stuck with two places.  But it doesn’t make you an attractive buyer either!

46. Be Honest in Your Disclosure
When selling a property, you are required to disclose any potential flaws associated with the property. If you are not honest in your disclosure or if you try to hide things from the buyer, you could end up losing the sale, or worse, losing money in court after a sale goes through. If you are unsure about what needs to be disclosed, speak with a real estate lawyer who is familiar with the disclosure laws in your state.

47. Stage Your Home for the Appraisal
Buyers will be required to get an appraisal before they can be issued a home loan. You should stage your home for this appraisal just like you would for a showing. The more money the house is appraised for, the more likely the borrower will be to get approved for the loan and go through with the purchase.

48. Get More Exposure
If you have done everything you could to sell your home and you still haven’t achieved a sale, you might not be getting the kind of exposure you need. If people don’t know that your house is for sale, you have little chance of selling it in a timely fashion. If you have a real estate agent, make sure they are actively trying to sell the home. If you are working without an agent, advertise everywhere you can and then have an open house to attract potential buyers.

49. Use Feedback to Make Improvements
If you are getting potential buyers but no offers, you will need to find out what the problem is. It might be the price, it might be the layout of the home, and it might be the size of the yard. Whatever the common complaint is, you can use it to your advantage and make the desired improvements. The feedback you receive may turn out to be just what you need to sell on your terms.

50. Add a Fresh Coat of Paint
A fresh coat of paint can work wonders on everything from walls and ceilings to fences and shutters. Because painting is so inexpensive, it is one of the best ways to improve offers without spending a lot of money upfront. Just remember to keep things light and neutral. Some buyers shy away from bright, bold, or dark colors.

41. Be Willing to Negotiate with Buyers
The offers you receive from buyers may be well below the asking price of the home. Instead of responding to an insulting offer with a flat out refusal, negotiate. You don’t have to drop the price significantly, but you can come down by $1,000 and give the buyer another opportunity to evaluate the offer.

42. Pay Discount Points for the Buyer
If you don’t want to come down on the price, there are other things you can do to sweeten the deal for the buyer. One thing in particular involves paying discount points on the buyer’s home loan. A few thousand dollars out of your pocket can lower the buyer’s interest rate and make them eligible for a nice tax deduction. In this scenario, everyone wins because you get your asking price and the buyer gets lower mortgage payments through the life of their loan.

43. Pay the Buyer’s Closing Costs
Homebuyers, especially those making a large down payment, often have a difficult time paying closing costs on their home loan. If you want to give the buyer an extra incentive to purchase your home, you could offer to pay the buyer’s closing costs. On average, it costs between $2,000 and $4,000 to close on a home loan. While this may mean an additional out of pocket expense from you, it could be all the incentive a buyer needs to choose your home over another.

44. Offer the Buyer Extra Incentives
Homebuilders who want to unload inventory quickly offer special incentives to attract and sway buyers. These incentives include everything from offers to pay condo fees to cash rebates paid out after purchase. You can use similar marketing gimmicks to get buyers excited about your home.

45. Compare Offers Carefully
If you get more than one offer on your home, you will want to compare these offers carefully before making a decision. Keep in mind that purchase price isn’t everything. Other items to consider include the buyers’ financial qualifications, contingencies within the purchase agreement, and clauses that favor the buyer.

36. Hire a Photographer
Many buyers begin their search online or by looking at pictures that real estate agents have sent to them via email. If you want your home to be one of the first that a buyer sees, you may want to consider hiring a professional photographer to take shots of the outside of the house and the best rooms inside the house.

37. Have Several Open Houses
Open houses are a traditional and effective way to sell a home. By staging an open house or two, you can get a whole group of buyers and buyer’s agents in on one day. Having several different people looking at the house at one time could bring in multiple offers and a higher selling price.

38. Leave the House During a Showing
Unless it is unavoidable, you should not be present during a showing. Potential buyers may feel like they are intruding if you are home, and as a result, may not get a proper look at the place. If you are present during a showing, do your best to stay quiet and out of the way.

39. Be Prepared for Unexpected Requests
More and more frequently, buyers are requesting that specific items or perks be included in a sale. Often times, willingness to satisfy these requests can make or break a sale. It may be a good idea to decide in advance what you will and won’t be willing to sell or offer with the house.

40. Sell the Home with a Warranty
Home warranties can be purchased by sellers for minimal fees. Selling your home with a one year warranty can make your home very attractive to buyers, especially if you have older appliances or an outdated heating system. And because this warranty can be purchased at closing, you aren’t out any money if the home doesn’t sell immediately.

Well, things continue to change in this wild and whacky real estate market. Just take a look at the numbers for this past week; sales down by 50% / listings down by 9% / days to sell all over the map / busiest price range is over $400,000.

Looking at the Weekly Total Market Overview, there are a couple of key points to note, which I will comment on below the chart:

The first thing to note in the above chart is the price range that has the most listings – $450,000 to $500,000. The thing that really makes that interesting is the average number of days it took to sell a home in that price range – 204. That number is somewhat misleading, as 1 of the homes sold was on the market for 375 days.

In fact, there were a number of homes sold that had been on the market for more than 100 days; taking those out of the mix, the average days to sell is reduced from the 58 shown in the chart to 21 days. I noted last week that the days to sell is derived from the date the listing contract was signed to the date an offer is firm. With the adjusted-average being 21 days, this means that houses are going under contract in somewhere between 5 and 14 days; not much time for buyers to get a look at things, really.

The Annual Summary will give you an update on how overall averages are fairing:

Where will the decrease in available properties fall to, before more people decide to take advantage of the excellent opportunities to move up?

Here’s the graph of listings and sales: