Is there one big mistake home sellers can make?
Tags: home sellers
Not too long ago, someone asked me a great question…
“Is there one consistent mistake you’ve seen home sellers make?”
It's a great question and after spending decades in the real estate market and selling countless homes there actually is one mistake that some home sellers have an inclination to make.
Overpricing their home.
While most home sellers are very realistic on their homes listing price, anyone who spends enough time in the real estate game will undoubtedly come across a client or two who wants to list their home for more than they (arguably) should.
Whenever this happens, it doesn’t end well for the homeowner (or realtor!) and here is why…
When homeowners price their homes high, their thought process is “I’ll list a bit high and one of two things will happen…”
- I might get my price (which is great), and even if I don’t,
- buyers will be able to make me an offer (because you can always go down in price, but you can’t go up in price).
What I’ve seen (time and again) when sellers overprice is
- Their home either sells for less (yes, less), or
- the home sits, stagnates and simply doesn’t sell at all.
When home buyers see that a home is priced high, rather than make an offer, they typically disregard it. Then after a few weeks (or months) on the market, the seller starts to get frustrated and ends up lowering the price with the hope that this will spur some interest and or activity in the home.
Problem solved right? Nope.
Now the house has been on the market for an extended period of time and not sold so buyers are over scrutinizing the home and looking for each and every minor detail to criticize.
Having said all of that, if you are still worried that if you underprice your home you’ll be leaving money on the table consider this.
From my experience if you have actually underpriced your home, you will more than likely get multiple offers and maybe even find your home the focus of a bidding war, which will only serve to drive your selling price higher.
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