Every seller wants to get the maximum return on the sale of their home, one of their largest investment. This is true for luxury home sellers. Below is a list of seven mistakes luxury home sellers should avoid to increase the return on the sale of their home.
Over Pricing Your Home
Over pricing your home is one of the deadly sins when selling your luxury home. Buyers typically won’t make a low-ball offer on an over-priced home. They will avoid making an offer and perhaps move onto another home that is more realistically priced.
Pricing a home is both an art and a science. Home buyers and their agents have done a comparative market analysis and know where your home should be priced. Just because you as the seller want or need to receive a certain number for your home doesn’t mean the buyer will pay that amount.
When your home is first listed for sale is when the greatest amount of interest is generated. An over-priced home will sit on the market and will eventually sell as you lower its price. Starting at a price a little under market value is more likely to generate multiple offers and perhaps garner a higher price than the amount at which you originally wanted to list it.
Not Preparing Your Home for Sale
Not preparing your home for sale is a big no-no. Even luxury homes need to be prepared properly for sale. The first step is to declutter all the rooms. Since you will be moving once the house sells, now is a great time to remove all your extra possessions and to depersonalize your home. You want potential buyers to look at the house, not the photos of you and the trophy fish from your latest deep-sea excursion.
It goes without saying that your home must be deep cleaned with every inch sparkling, inside and outside.
Being Rigid on Negotiations
Being rigid on negotiations can be a deal killer. You have found a buyer who loves your home. Don’t be rigid with the negotiations. Typically, if one buyer found a reason to negotiate on price subsequent buyers will do the same perhaps with a lower offer price. If selling quickly is important to you don’t haggle too much on negotiations.
Not Willing to Remediate Critical Inspection Items
Not being willing to remediate critical inspection items can kill a potential sale. The inspector’s job is to find faults with your house. And, he/she will find inspection issues, even if it is only that the bathtub faucet moves a little. Some inspection reports are thirty pages long, but if you look at them carefully, they are full of inconsequential issues. Normally inspections are performed to discover health, safety and mechanical problems. If any of these are found during the inspection of your home, it is highly likely that another buyer will find the same issues. And you, as the seller, are obligated by law to disclose inspection items to subsequent buyers. Therefore, these are items you will need to consider either remediating or negotiating on to determine who will address them.
Painting Your House the Wrong Color
Painting your house the wrong color can be off putting to potential buyers. Houses have not sold solely based on a hideous color chosen by the sellers. Have a professional stager assist you with choosing a paint color that will be inviting to home buyers.
Not Staging Your Home
Not staging your home can lose you a large amount of money on this, one of your largest investments. Studies have shown that a staged home sells for more than an un-staged home and in less time, more than offsetting the cost of staging.
Poor Quality Listing Photographs
Listing photographs are another key element in selling your home for more money. Do not let your real estate agent get away with using photos they have taken with their cellphone. Professional photography is a must to maximize the return on your home.
It may seem to be a lot of work to properly prepare your home for sale. However, like anything else you do, if you put in the hard work at the beginning it will pay off in the end.
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