If you’re planning to sell your house in Orlando, Florida, you might be wondering how to get the best deal and avoid common pitfalls. Selling a house can be a stressful and complicated process, but it doesn’t have to be. In this article, I’ll share with you 8 mistakes home sellers make and how to avoid them.
#1 Mistake Home Sellers Make: Overpricing
The most common mistake home sellers make is pricing their house too high. Overpricing your house can scare away potential buyers and make your house sit on the market for too long. This will be a real problem for home owners who want to sell their house fast.
The best way to price your house is to do a comparative market analysis, which compares your house to similar houses that have sold recently in your area. You can also get a fair value estimate of your home based on comparable properties here.
Mistake #2: Not preparing your house for sale
If you plan on listing your home on the market for sale, you need to make sure it’s in the best possible condition. This means cleaning, decluttering, repairing, painting, and staging your house to make it look attractive and inviting. You want to create a good first impression and highlight the best features of your house. You also want to fix any issues that might come up during the inspection, such as a leaky roof, cracked tiles, or faulty wiring. A well-prepared house can sell faster and for more money than a poorly maintained one.
The amount of work and money involved in these efforts is usually not worth it for many people. Instead, you have the option of selling your home in it’s AS-IS condition to a cash buyer like House Solutions USA.
Mistake #3: Not taking professional photos
In today’s digital age, most buyers start their home search online. That means your photos are the first thing they see and judge your house by. If your photos are dark, blurry, or unflattering, you might lose buyers before they even set foot in your house. That’s why you need to hire a professional photographer who can take high-quality photos that showcase your house in the best light. You also need to upload enough photos to give buyers a complete picture of your house, including the exterior, interior, and key features.
Mistake #4: Not being flexible with showings
If you decide on selling your house yourself, you need to be ready to show it to potential buyers at any time. This means keeping your house clean and tidy, leaving when buyers arrive, and accommodating their schedules as much as possible. The more showings you have, the more chances you have to sell your house. If you’re too restrictive or unavailable with showings, you might miss out on qualified buyers and opportunities.
This may be one of the most stressful parts of selling a home the traditional way (with a realtor). It can be very disturbing to have strangers walking through your home at all hours of the day, and then having them criticize it.
Mistake #5: Not disclosing material facts
When selling a house, you have a legal obligation to disclose any material facts that might affect the value or desirability of your house (Florida Case Law Johnson V Davis 1985). These include any defects, damages, repairs, liens, lawsuits, or environmental issues that you’re aware of. If you fail to disclose these facts, you might face legal consequences or lawsuits from buyers who feel misled or deceived.
Of all the mistakes home sellers make, this is by far the one with the most serious consequences. It’s better to be honest and upfront than to risk losing the deal or facing litigation.
Mistake #6: Not having a contingency plan
Sometimes things don’t go as planned when selling a house. You might encounter delays, complications, or unexpected events that can affect the sale. For example, the buyer might back out of the deal, fail to secure financing, or request repairs after the inspection. You need to have a contingency plan in case something goes wrong and be ready to deal with any challenges that might arise. A contingency plan can include having a backup buyer, extending the closing date, or lowering the price.
Mistake #7: Not understanding the closing costs
Selling a house involves more than just receiving a check from the buyer. You also need to pay for various fees and expenses that are associated with the closing process. These include the commission for the real estate agents, the title insurance, the transfer taxes, the escrow fees, the appraisal fees, title fees, lien search fees and attorney fees. You need to understand how much these costs are and who pays for them. You also need to budget for them and factor them into your net proceeds. This is the most costly of mistakes home sellers make.
That being said, with the way we buy houses, you don’t have to worry about figuring out closing costs as we typically pay all expenses except taxes and any liens that may be against the property.
Mistake #8: Blindly hiring a realtor (or the wrong one)
Some sellers think that by hiring a real estate sales agent (the old-fashioned way of selling a house), that the agent is a professional who will do all of the work for them. This is incorrect. Firstly, you can sell a house without a realtor once you get a fair understanding of how much your home is worth. The modern way of selling a house involves inviting qualified cash buyers to buy it. While some may give you low-ball offers, the professional home buyers like House Solutions USA will give you a fair offer to purchase your home at its current value and you won’t have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in real estate commissions.
Secondly, all agents are not created equal. There are those will do the absolute minimum, some who pay for online reviews to make themselves look like a star, and then there are those who are true professionals dedicated to getting the best price for your home. If paying real estate commissions is not a concern for you, you should get referrals from friends or co-workers who have had good experiences with their own home sales.