Selling your home can take up a lot of your time and can also be costly. So naturally, vendors are going to want the best outcome, whether that is a quick sale or a generous offer. However, the results don’t always speak for the effort the vendor has put in to selling their home. Houses can sit on the market for months or sometimes years before they’re snapped up. Although this may be out of the seller’s control, other times its small mistakes that the vendors make that can cost them later down the road. So we’ve highlighted some of the mistakes vendors often make throughout their property selling process. Some of these mistakes may cost time and money, whilst others will create more work for the vendor.
Go it alone
Whilst the money you can save by not employing an estate agent can be appealing, it can actually end up costing more time and money. For those who lack the experience of selling a home, the process can be very confusing and stressful when you go it alone. Research has shown that home sellers who try sell it themselves often end up taking longer to sell for less than equivalent homeowners who worked with an agent.
Working with the wrong estate agent
Another mistake vendors often make is working with the wrong agent. It may be that the agent doesn’t have your best interests in mind, or that they are simply inexperienced or unprofessional. Either way, deciding on an agent without thoroughly weighing up different options could lead to you not receiving the optimum result. To combat this it’s important to research what options are available. Firstly, you need to understand what kind of agent works best for both you and your property. Then find out which agents in your area meet these criteria. Checking online for reviews and asking friends and family for recommendations are effective ways of finding the right agent for you.
Mispricing your home
Correctly pricing your house can be a tricky business. Set the price too high and you may lose interested buyers and your property will struggle to sell. Whilst setting the price too low may help sell your home faster but for a lot less money than it’s worth. Therefore, finding the right balance will allow you to get a good result at the end. Many estate agents will offer free valuations for your property, which will help you get a good idea of what your property is worth.
Lack of preparation
Both buying and selling your home can be a very stressful process. It’s important to prepare your home prior to it being on the market. This will help ease some of the pressure and stress later down the line. It will also allow potential buyers to feel more welcome and at ease when they come to view your home and will leave you one step ahead in the event of a quick sale. Although it’s a task no one wants to do, decluttering your home and making some minor repairs can drastically help with the saleability of your home.
Not utilising the best marketing
Times are rapidly changing and the marketing of your home will look very different to that of a home 20 years ago. It was once the case that the first place home buyers would look for a property would be in the window of their local estate agent. Now the first place to look is online. As the popularity of property portal sites grows, many buyers will exclusively look online for their next home. Therefore, it’s essential that your property is listed online. There are also many other innovative ways to market your home. Social media and virtual tours should both be exploited to get as much interest in your property as possible.
Overlooking additional fees
There are many stages to selling your home, from signing the agreement with an agent, to exchanging contracts and keys. You may have accepted an offer on your home, but all is not done yet. Even more, these final stages can often be the hardest and most stressful. So to ease some of the pressure, prepare for the later stages. This will involve putting some money aside for additional costs like hiring a removal company, hiring solicitors, stamp duty, survey and mortgage fees and finding storage space for your belongings.
If you would like to know the value of your home, discuss and receive a full breakdown of moving costs or if you would like to hear what great marketing tools we use here at Norfolk Property Online to get you the best possible price in the shortest possible time we would love to hear from you. Equally if you have any horror stories or great success stories you would like to share with us, we’d love to hear them!
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