Five Pitfalls to avoid when selling your home!

1.  Don't be Greedy. Insisting on an inflated list price is still one of the most common mistakes made by home sellers today.  Many of us may consider our home to be our castle, but the reality is that an inaccurate asking price can be a deal-killing double whammy.  For starters, potential buyers may dismiss your home in favor of larger or more attractive homes in the same price range.  Worse, people who may be ideally suited to purchasing your home may not even look at it because they deem it to be outside of their price range!  Work closely with your Realtor® to determine the best price to ask.

2.  Dust?  What Dust? You may have grown accustomed to that peeling paint on the front door and may even have convinced yourself that those weeds in the lawn have a certain rustic charm.  Rest assured potential buyers will not share your nonchalance.  Your home need not be a candidate for the centre spread of Better Homes and Gardens, but ensuring that it is clean and in good repair will eliminate an obvious obstacle to the quick sale of your home. 

3.  All Exposure is Not Created Equally! Classified ads and open houses may be the most obvious marketing tools that come to mind when selling a home.  They also may be the most overrated.  Resent studies have revealed that less than 3% of home sales were purchased as a result of someone calling in regard to an ad; less than 1% of home sales, moreover, take place at an open house.  A seasoned Realtor®, however, can draw on a broad spectrum of marketing techniques and sales strategies to ensure your home will not get lost on the market.

4.  Clan Chaos. Hiring your cousin to sell your house may seem like a stroke of genius -- but it may also be a recipe for disaster.  Selling and/or purchasing a home will be the single most important financial transaction many of us will undertake in a lifetime.  It stands to reason, then, that one would want the most professional person available to guide you through that process.  Choose your Realtor® carefully.  Your selection expertise will doubtlessly have a major impact on the quality of your home selling experience.

5.  The Scarlet O"Hara Syndrome. Resist the temptation to dismiss an early offer on your home.  Tomorrow, as the aforementioned Gone With the Wind  heroine so famously opined, may indeed be another day -- but that does not necessarily mean that better offers will be forthcoming.  Keep in mind that early offers have been generated at least in part due to the buzz of your property being a "new listing"; that cachet will inevitably disappear with time.*

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