1.    Pricing your house incorrectly.   If you ask too little you will probably sell quickly but at a cost to you.  If you list too high you will eliminate present buyers in the market.   Common thought is list high and come down later, which may work, but you are taking the chance of eliminating many potential buyers.   They look at your house realize it is overpriced and eliminate it from their potential houses.   Once eliminated they may not want to bother with coming back once you have reduced your price.   Yes, you should market your house on the high end of a realistic range, but blatant overpricing costs you time and potential buyers.

2.    Getting emotionally involved with the sale of a house (or purchasing).   Yes, you have lived there many years and it probably is the best house in the history of mankind; but the buyer is looking for a good place to live at a good price and doesn't share your prospective.  He/she doesn't know that your children grew up here and it is not a factor in his/her buying the house.   Listen to experts when they tell you that the purple dragonfly wallpaper in your living room may not be the best sales idea.

Buyer Information

Why You Need a Buyers Agent

How Long Will Home Items Last

Buying A House

Buy First or Sell First

Finance Information

Amortization

Credit Ratings

Down Payment

Where to Go For A Loan

Additional Costs to Consider

Questions to Ask Lender

What Can You Afford

Financing a Home

Selling A Home

Selling a House

Seller Mistakes to Avoid

Preparing Your House to Sell

What Is Your House Worth

Buy First or Sell First

3.    Putting your house on the market before you have it ready to sell.   If potential buyers come through before you get rid of the purple dragonfly wallpaper, they won't be back after you have replaced it.   If items aren't fixed you eliminate customers.    Buyers come into the market slowly, but often can't find something they love right away and that leads to having a large number of buyers in the market at one time.  So when you put your house up for sale your will have a lot of people looking who have been anxious to buy.   If your house isn't ready many of them will eliminate it and you will have to depend only upon those just entering the market.  There will be fewer of them and they will be more discriminating in what they want.

4.    Trying to cover up problems -  does the word "lawsuit" mean anything to you, it does to me.   Realtors have a legal obligation to tell potential buyers any problems with your home.   You are required by law to fill out a disclosure statement in an honest manner (disclosure form on pull down menu above).  Not only is it dishonest to lie on these forms, it will certainly lead to legal problems.   Besides, any good buyers agent will have his clients have your house inspected by a home inspector and the problems will come out at that time anyway.

5.     Over-improving your property -   Houses are priced according to the market of each subdivision or area.   If you spend $50,000 on a new addition on a house worth $150,000, in an area where the houses average $160,000, you are going to be losing some money.   It is usually a good idea to not make your home the most expensive one in the neighborhood.   Look at the section on "recovery costs of remodeling", from the pull down menu above.

6.    Not hiring Tom Willis as you agent.