3 Big Mistakes to Avoid When Selling A Home
Staging! Staging! Staging!
1) Big mistake #1 is to not stage your home. You love your "stuff", think your home feels comfortable, and you don't want to change it ...but guess what? The potential buyers who visit your home will most likely think it is cluttered, messy, and uninviting. Buyers want to see a home in "model perfect" condition and they should be able to picture themselves living in your home.
“Staging” is merely a term for preparing your home to look it’s best, inside and out. First impressions are important. Create a clean, cheerful and inviting environment a prospective buyer can picture living in. For example, remove all clutter inside and out, including the garage, and thoroughly clean and polish appliances, countertops, showers, sinks, cabinets, windows, sliding glass doors, etc. A fresh coat of paint in a light, neutral color will brighten up the overall appearance of the home. Make any necessary repairs to dripping faucets, crumbling or stained caulking, have carpeting professionally cleaned and so on. Outside, landscaping should have a well cared for appearance, meaning trimmed shrubs, a neatly mowed lawn, etc.
As the old saying goes “you can’t make a second first impression.” Give them a reason to see your home as their home.
Do Not Buy Before You Sell!
2) Big mistake #2 is to buy a new home before selling your home. Unless the market is red hot and your home will sell in just a few days, you don't want to buy a new home before you sell yours. You may end up with 2 mortgages, 2 houses, 2 property tax payments. In a market where homes take more than 30-days to sell, you should put your home on the market first and get it in escrow before buying a new one. Everybody thinks their home is special and that somehow it will sell faster than everyone else's home ...but that is hardly ever true. Almost every home is basically similar to others and that means it's not going to sell any faster than the market dictates.
Do The Math!
3) Big mistake #3 is not doing the math to understand your bottom line. How much will you have left after your home sells? Usually about 93% of the sales price after the closing costs. That means that if you want to sell your home and buy another house right away, you need to figure out the amount you will have left after your sale, plus the closing costs on the new purchase. Buyer side closing costs on a new home are usually 1-2% of the purchase price. You cannot sell a house for $200,000 and buy another one for $200,000 and break even, and it is important to plan accordingly.
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