If your home isn’t selling as quickly as you’d like, it could be for any number of reasons. It could be because of a sluggish market or a downturn in the economy or other factors beyond your control.
But it could also be something you are or are not doing. It just may be one (or more) of these 4 newbie mistakes that are hurting your chances of selling your home in DMV.
4 Newbie Mistakes that Are Hurting Your Chances of Selling Your Home in DMV
1. Overpricing and Not Budging
Money is always front and center for buyers. So the quickest way to drive them away is by overpricing your home in DMV.
Sure, you want to get top dollar for your home, but you have to make sure you don’t overestimate its value. Just because a neighbor sells her home for a certain amount, that doesn’t automatically mean yours is worth the same amount. It’s wise, then, to listen to your agent’s sale-price recommendation because he has run the comps and knows what the fair market value is.
In a similar vein, refusing to budge on price and being unwilling to negotiate may also be hurting your chances of selling your home in DMV – even if your home is not overpriced. You will likely need to be a little flexible, especially if it’s currently a buyer’s market. Besides, you can always make a counteroffer.
2. Not Using Innovative Marketing
Although still essential, traditional real estate marketing methods alone just aren’t enough these days in many cases. You will also need to engage in some digital marketing.
In the initial stages of shopping for a new home, many people now look online first – driving around neighborhoods comes later. So many real estate experts advise using social media marketing, as well as submitting your home to as many relevant websites as possible. They also suggest creating a digital tour of your home to snag interstate buyers and to engage passive buyers.
3. Making Showing Your Home Difficult
Selling your home means showing your home, which in turn means a period of very little privacy. It also means you’ll need to be available for showings when it is convenient for potential buyers and often on very short notice.
Even better is not to be there at all – not hovering or lurking in the background – during showings. Having the seller hanging around often makes potential buyers anxious and uncomfortable. So they may hesitate to ask honest questions and just rush through the showing. Buyers often feel they are intruding if you’re present.
So to put buyers at ease and to make it easy for their agents to show your home, you should probably agree to show the property while you are away. It’s a simple matter for your agent to install a lockbox containing keys to the house, which will facilitate showings at any time.
4. Not Cleaning and De-personalizing Thoroughly
The cleaning part is obvious enough, even though often done poorly, but most people never think about de-personalizing. You should put away all the objects – art, knick-knacks, throws, or whatever – that mark the house as your home. You want buyers to see it as a blank slate they can envision making into their home.
And do be sure and remove all politically and religious-themed objects.These can have a negative emotional impact on buyers if they are at the opposite end of the political or religious spectrum, which will make them less inclined to consider buying your home. It’s not really rational, but people are like that.
Selling your home can be a stressful and sometimes fairly lengthy process. But avoiding the newbie mistakes that may be hurting your chances of selling your home in DMV will help to relieve some of the stress and expedite the process.