How to NOT sell your house!

There are lots of things that we, the members of my team, do to sell a house.  I could list them all, but my blog post would quickly turn into a book! So, instead, I thought I would give you a few pointers on how NOT to sell your house.

A sure fire way to NOT sell your house is to not be ready for your buyer.  We live in a house very differently than how we sell a house.  Your house doesn’t need to be magazine worthy but it should be clean and well organized.  Minimize the “stuff”!

Another thing that is sure to turn off buyers is the photos.  The photos that are used to market your house should be considered, in most cases, the first showing.  Using dark shots of rooms or small corners or pieces of furniture (not actually the house) will certainly prevent you from getting top dollar for your house and most of the time will prevent a sale altogether.  You should be sure that the photos are taken with an extra wide angle lense and don’t be afraid to ask your agent to take better pictures if you don’t like the first round. We aren’t even afraid to use a touch of photoshop to make sure that the house is presented in the best light possible.

One more thing you can do to NOT sell your home is to overprice it without planning for adjustments.  As an overpriced house sits on the market, it starts to develop a stigma and it becomes stale.  From a buyer’s perspective, the value of the house actually drops over time as it sits on the market.  There are lots of indicators that tell us a house is overpriced.  Even us professionals sometimes miss the mark on pricing!  The trick is to react quickly!  If you don’t respond quickly with a price reduction, the buyers might see the homes value now to be lower than they would have if the price was dropped a month sooner.  You have to beat the buyer to the home’s actual value in order to save your sale!