1) Refusing to negotiate – You should start by setting a fair price for your home. However you will also need to build in some wiggle room, especially if you want to sell quickly. Often buyers will start with an offer well below your asking price. Naturally, their goal is to pay as little as possible for the home they want. People want to feel like they’ve snagged a deal on what may be the biggest purchase of their lives.
You can make your buyers happy while also getting the price you need by being willing to accept slightly less than asking price for your home. Alternatively, you may agree to concessions like paying the closing costs, throwing in appliances, or making repairs to the property in order to sweeten the deal. Working with an experienced agent can help you negotiate the tricky dance of getting the price you want without scaring off a buyer.
2) Neglecting to do basic maintenance – Every house has some defects. So before listing your home for sale, go ahead and complete basic maintenance. You don’t need to go overboard, but should at least get anything the inspector could point out that might scare away potential home buyers
3) No photos or poorly shot photos –When you’re listing your property, remember that you want to make the potential tenant want to live there. As much as you describe the property, it’s important to remember that a picture is worth 1000 words and more often than not, thousands of dollars.
4) Listing it over market price- Overpriced homes only help sell homes that are priced right. As a REALTOR I enjoy seeing homes that are overpriced because I know they will only serve to help sell my correctly priced listings. Price is key to selling your house fast. You don’t want to be too high and repel potential buyers from even taking a look, and you don’t want to be so low that you lose your investment.
5)Forgetting to market it everywhere – Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com for example. Hiring a REALTOR ensures that all the home shows up on all of these sites. If you choose to FSBO, don’t neglect to put it on all those sites (and hundreds of other ones) along with more traditional marketing like direct mail, cold calling and door knocking.