Don’t do these five things if you’re thinking about selling your home in 2024!

#5 is the most important, okay?

#1. Don’t list your home if you don’t understand the local market. You need to understand how fast homes are selling, what they’re selling for, what the average days on market are, and why they’re selling for the price that they’re selling for. Those are all crucial parts of this initial process, and if you don’t understand those things, then you’re not going to be positioning yourself really well!

#2. Don’t price your home based on emotion! This one’s actually really important! Yes, we see so many sellers do this, and we understand because it’s your home! You’ve invested your life into this project, and you raised your kids. I mean your whole life is wrapped up in this home, and pricing based on any of those things makes no sense because again, it is a commodity. You do have to make sure that you know the market and price based on what fact, on stats, on what’s going on around you, on what other homes are selling for, what amenities you have. There’s a variety of things that go into it, but it’s not an emotional thing.

#3. Don’t think like a seller. So, what does that mean? What it means is you need to start thinking like a buyer. What is a buyer going to think when they walk into your house? How are they going to feel? What are they going to like? What are they not going to like? What is a buyer gonna like? We actually know that when you’ve shown enough homes, enough listings, represent enough buyers, you really start to understand exactly what it is that buyers want to see and what they don’t want to see, and that’s what you have to give.

#4. Don’t assume that your house is ready to go and ready to show. We understand, again, you live in your home a certain way, and you’re used to it. Maybe you don’t notice the stains on the carpet, and maybe you don’t notice all the scratches in the wood floor from your black lab. You have to depersonalize your home, you have to paint your baseboards, you have to do a deep clean, you might have to add new flowers to your yard. It’s not always the obvious things either, sometimes it’s intangible things, like getting your windows clean. There are so many things that go into making your home show ready. You want to spend your money over here and not over there, and you need to know where that’s appropriate and where it’s not appropriate.

#5. Most important of all, don’t hire an agent just because you like them now. Don’t hire an agent just because you like them now. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t like them; in fact, you should. But in addition to liking a real estate agent, you should be hiring somebody who knows the local market, who knows how to market properly, who knows how to price a home, who has relationships in the community, somebody who’s well-connected, who has a track record in your neighborhood selling homes just like yours.

So, if you’re thinking about selling, these are the five things that you don’t want to do. And if you have any questions for us, you’d love to sit down and have a consultation, talk about the market.

Maybe you’re thinking about selling in three years. We consult with our sellers way in advance so that we can help them with all of these things, so that they don’t have any of these five don’ts!

Please call us at 818-619-3838 to find out how we can help you or CLICK HERE to schedule a call.