Real estate professionals match clients with homes and vice-versa, which can be tricky. Selling homes is not easy because you are essentially selling the most expensive purchase that most people will ever make.
Real estate is also a demanding job that pays off once a deal is closed. Hence, if a deal falls through or a client decides to move on, all your hard work building up to the deal won’t pay off.
Hence, avoid as many mistakes along the way as possible. Today, we will discuss some of these mistakes that real estate professionals should avoid when selling homes. Here are some common mistakes to avoid when selling homes in the real estate market.
Hiding Problems with the Property
Some real estate professionals may think they can hide the flaws in their clients’ properties. If you think this, we urge you to think again. Most problems are always uncovered during buyer inspections and you will find it impossible to hide major flaws.
You should tell your clients to either, fix the issues before listing their homes, account for them in their asking price, or offer credit to the buyer to fix them. Waiting for an inspection and cutting deals later is not the best approach because it can lead to the deal falling through.
You and your clients need to be upfront about problems and get ahead of the buyers.
Your best bet is to get your clients to fix issues before listing because it opens their homes to buyers and millennials who are looking for turnkey homes. Bear in mind that millennial buyers are the largest growing segment of homebuyers and make up a third of all homebuyers in America.
Your clients may want to consider catering to this segment if they want what’s best for their property.
Moreover, there are also state disclosure rules to consider. Some states require sellers to voluntarily disclose specific existing problems, while others require to disclose known problems if buyers ask about them.
Committing to Unrealistic Asking Prices
This is a common mistake that real estate professionals make, especially new ones. If your client is selling their home and expecting to quote an unrealistic asking price, you are taking on a doomed project from the start.
Setting the right price is key in making sales and moving properties. You need to convince your sellers of this before you commit to selling their property.
You must perform a comparative market analysis and advise your sellers on how their property fits into the market. No buyer wants to pay more for less and if the seller sets an unrealistic asking price, their property will sit in the listings for longer.
They will eventually have to bring their price down anyway, which looks even worse. This is why it is important to start at the right price, based on comparable homes in the same or similar neighborhoods. The market dictates the price, not the perception or desires of your sellers.
You can assure your sellers that setting a price high is bad but, they do not need to worry about setting it too low. This is simply because low prices attract more buyers and kick off a bidding war. Usually, bidding wars bring the price of the property up to its actual market value or more.
This “underpriced” strategy is often used by sellers and their real estate professionals to build interest in the property. Even if it doesn’t work well for your client, they can always reject offers that they think are too low, but if their asking price is too high, they will likely not even get any offers to begin with.
Letting Clients Expect the Asking Price
Negotiations are a part of any real estate deal, and sellers have to play along if they want to sell their properties. However, you must tell your clients that asking prices are mostly never met. Bidding wars may increase it while negotiations may drop it.
Another good strategy is to set an asking price that attracts buyers while leaving some room for negotiations. This strategy makes the buyer happy because they feel like they are getting a good deal, and the seller is happy because they get the money they wanted.
If your sellers expect the asking price and it isn’t met, they will relate this to your work and might blame you for it. But, if you explain from the start, they are more likely to understand that the deal they get is perhaps the best possible one.
Naturally, getting more or less than the asking price will probably depend on your pricing strategy and whether the market is a seller’s market or a buyer’s market. It also depends on many other factors like the time of year, staging, etc.
Thinking You Can Do It Alone
Today’s real estate markets are highly competitive, and many real estate professionals think they can take on it entirely by themselves. Millennial buyers are changing the real estate markets, and you need to adapt to keep up with their increasing demands.
Technologies like OktoHub can be of great help in such market conditions. OktoHub is the first-ever on-demand real estate assistance program that allows you to create a network of trusted real estate professionals around you.
You can then hire these real estate professionals for task-based real estate jobs like showings, meetings, inspections, and much more. OktoHub helps you meet client demands without compromising on your personal time or having to make permanent hires.
You only pay for what you need, and OktoHub provides an excellent network to boost your career to new heights.
Not Investing in Professional Photography and Staging
You may have the best smartphone camera and the skills to use it; however, it will never compare to the results you get from a professional real estate photographer using a DSLR with a wide-angle lens. They know how to capture a home and its features in the best possible way.
Considering that most competitive listings have dozens of high-quality pictures to attract audiences, not investing in professional photos is a mistake you do not want to make. Of course, you will want to stage your home before you get a professional to take its photos.
Staging puts buyers into the right mindset and helps them visualize their lives in the living spaces of homes.
These things are crucial for setting your listing apart and creating interest among homebuyers, especially millennials, who are particularly partial to staging and attractive pictures. Moreover, you should add video tours of the home and a few 360-degree shots to improve your chances with interested buyers.
This will get more homebuyers interested, increasing the offers your clients get.
Selling at the Wrong Time of Year
Many real estate professionals do not realize that there is a wrong time of the year to sell homes, i.e., winters. Selling homes during winters is difficult because the market is not very active, especially around the holidays.
Much of the country is too cold for buyers to want to go out and look for homes, especially when they are busy with family obligations, social engagements, and holiday merriment. People tend to spend their extra money around this time on Christmas presents and supplies, making a big purchase like that of a home not likely.
With fewer buyers, your listings will take longer to sell and may not get the competitive price you and your clients want. On the other hand, in a seller’s market, this time may be ideal for some real estate professionals because the seller competition is low around winters as well.
With fewer sellers, the few buyers in the market will likely come to you looking for a home. However, this tactic is still not advised, and you will have a much better time selling homes outside winters. Unless your client is insistent for whatever reasons, ask them to avoid winters and wait it out.
Conclusion
Everyone makes mistakes, even professionals. Don’t dwell on your mistakes; instead, learn from them and move on. If you avoid the mentioned mistakes, you will be off to a good start. It always helps to expect the best and prepare for the worst.
Of course, creating a network of trusted real estate professionals on OktoHub and getting much-needed real estate assistance will also help you overcome problems and mistakes when selling homes.
If you want to learn more about mistakes to avoid when selling homes or the networking and real estate assistance benefits of OktoHub, please visit our website today.
