Mistake #1: Leaving your home like you live in it
When marketing your home, you must approach it as a showpiece, not a home. It is no longer your home. It is now a commodity. If you leave the beds unmade, dishes in the sink, dirty clothes on the floor of the kid’s rooms, clutter on the counters, or any of the other many ways you might live normally, you are seriously damaging the potential sale of your home.
Buyers see many homes in a row. When they walk into yours, they’re instantly comparing it to all the others they just saw. If yours is messy, it will affect how they feel about your home. The VAST majority of home buyers do not look past the clutter to see the good “bones” of your house. A messy house immediately lowers its value, and sends many buyers to your competition.
Cooking and other odors are another problem. Frying oil, smelly teenager rooms, and animal odors are big turn-offs. Attempts should be made to air the house and make it “fresh-smelling.”
Does that mean you need to stage your home? Staging definitely helps sell homes for the same reason that clutter deters home sales. People often buy based on emotion. However, you don’t need a professional stager if your own home furnishings are nice. They don’t have to be new, just tidy. In fact, the only staging you might need to do is removing things. Most families should pack 1/3 to ½ of their goods before selling. That leaves the attention on a few show pieces, allowing the house to shine through.
Mistake #2: Avoiding the elephant in the room
If your home has a white elephant issue, it’s usually better to address it, rather than pretending it doesn’t exist.
If there are large cracks in your pool decking, for instance, I will point these out to the buyer and tell them how we think they can be repaired in a reasonable way. You don’t have to offer to fix them or provide an allowance for fixing them, just let the buyer know you’re considering them in your list price.
If the next door neighbor’s dogs bark incessantly at strangers, I will warn the buyers that when they go into the back yard, this will happen for a while until the dogs get to know them. If the dishwasher is old and beat up, if the countertops are chipped, if the bathtub needs resurfacing, etc, I can address these with the buyers to keep them on track and excited about owning your home.
Mistake #3: Being home during showings
Sellers being at home during a showing are a big reason buyers don’t buy a house that might have made their short list. “What?” you say. “Are you saying that just because the seller is in the home, the buyer doesn’t buy it?” Yes, that’s what I’m saying, believe it or not. The best way to show your house is to go away and let the agent show it.
Even trying to be unobtrusive doesn’t work. I’ve seen buyers walk away from perfectly good homes because the seller was hovering in the kitchen, sitting in the backyard, or working in the laundry room. They were trying to stay out of the way, but the seller’s presence distracted the buyers, making them feel like intrusive guests who were not free to consider how they’d live in the home themselves.
As a seller, you may want to point out all the wonderful features of your home, but the fact is the buyers just don’t care. Buyers want to experience the home for themselves. If there’s something unusual that they wouldn’t ordinarily notice, I will be sure the buyer is informed.
Note: If you have teenagers or night workers/day sleepers at home, this is a challenge that must be overcome. Typically, the solution is to work with the showing agents and schedule showings at specific times—though that has its own set of problems (see #4 below).
Mistake #4: Making showings difficult to schedule
Putting your home on the market when you still live in it means inconvenience. But homes only sell when they can be seen by buyers. And buyers, unfortunately, have wildly varied schedules. Someone might suddenly have an afternoon free from work and call their agent to go look at a few new listings. That agent might want to show your house with as little as an hour notice.
When home sellers create wild conditions for seeing their home, agents throw their hands up in frustration and simply drop that house from the list of potential showings, or they’re forced to tell their buyers that your house is not available during the times the buyer can see it. Most buyers will simply move to the next home on their list if they can’t get in on their own schedule.
When it comes to scheduling showings, ideally you will do one of two things. The best is that you will have found a new home to move into and will have vacated your home for sale. This allows agents to come and go at will, and buyers to drop in on the spur of the moment. In a fast market, most sellers stay in their homes while selling. If you’ll be in your home when you sell, we’ll talk about the best ways to balance accessibility against inconvenience. Typically, we’ll provide “showing hours” when agents can make appointments and use a secure lock box for access.
Mistake #5: Not managing pets
While your pet might be the most wonderful, friendly pet on the planet, some buyers are going to be afraid, turned off, or distracted by it.
I’ve seen buyers leave houses quickly because the son’s tarantula (in a glass aquarium) scared the heck out of them. I’ve seen buyers leave quickly because they were afraid of the owner’s 12 year old toy poodle. I’ve seen buyers run from squawking birds, turn their nose up at kitty litter, and run away in revulsion from poop piles all over the back yard.
The inconvenience of showing your home extends to your pets, too. Consider crating the dogs, cleaning the kitty litter and the yard daily, covering the pet spiders and snakes, and finding a babysitter for the birds.
Mistake #6: Not turning on all the lights
I understand that you can see inside all your rooms with the lights off and that you want to economize your electric bill, but while your home is being shown, please turn on every light. I promise that buyers like bright homes. If yours feels dark – even though it may otherwise be a perfect fit for the buyer – they will often rule it out. The home buying process often begins as a practical, financial decision for buyers but quickly turns to one of emotion. Buyers want to “feel” good in your home as much as they want your remodeled kitchen or your pool. If your home “feels” dark, you will not get your best price.
Final Word
When we talk about marketing your home, one of our conversations will be about how to show your home to advantage. I’ll give you a list of do’s and don’ts that will make it easy for you to self-stage and prepare your home for sale, and we’ll work together to solve potential showing problems like those described here. Our goal is to sell your home for top dollar as fast as possible and avoiding these mistakes will help tremendously!
Do you have questions or concerns about showing your house? Give us a call. We look forward to talking with you!