Five Common Mistakes That Will Cost You Time and Money When Selling Your House

With the San Diego real estate market red-hot thanks to the increased demand and low supply of available properties, many astute homeowners are seeing an opportunity to take advantage of the present seller's market. If you are thinking about selling your home, pay attention to these five tips which will not only help your home sell for a higher price, but also assist in making it move even faster.

1. Make Sure Your Home is in Tip-Top Shape

You should never list a home for sale without first making it appealing to your potential buyers. Consider it “marketing for your home”. One of the first things that you need to do is make sure that your home is prepared to stand out on the market. Even though many properties are seeing multiple, higher-than-listing-price offers on newly listed homes, ensuring that yours is in the best shape possible will bring more bidders and competition to your property. Take a look at my previous article on ways to maximize the appearance of your home for specific tips to making things more aesthetic to potential buyers.

2. Avoid Overpricing

The market is rising and we're seeing solid growth in housing prices in San Diego. In order to get the most out of this strong seller's market, many sellers are pricing their properties well above the fair market value, expecting an eager buyer to come along and pay an enormous premium. The problem with this logic is that with our easy access to technology, nearly all buyers are educated in the market value of properties that they are looking for and are not gullible or ignorant. Be realistic with your pricing and you will have more offers coming in and perhaps competition driving the offers above your asking price.

3. Don't Be There for Showings

In order to help bring in the maximum number of offers, try to avoid being present in the home during showings. For buyers looking at homes, the ability to picture themselves living in your house is one of the biggest factors of interest. A large number of sellers try to act as tour guides or continue on with normal life when potential buyers come through. Not only can it oftentimes feel awkward to buyers, but it also makes it much more difficult to customize the home in their mind the way that they would like it.

4. Be Picky

When you've taken precautions to avoid the common mistakes listed above, the final thing to do is be picky when it comes to accepting offers. With San Diego property values currently on the rise due to the historically low number of homes for sale, many properties are receiving numerous high-number offers quickly after listing. Lately, big increases have been seen in a number of cities, including in Escondido and Carlsbad real estate. Rancho Bernardo homes for sale have also been some of the forerunners in the market in recent months.

The common fear by sellers is that if they pass up on an offer, they may not receive anything better. Thanks to the demand for quality homes present in the market, desirable properties are not facing a shortage of good offers. Don't feel obligated to take a sub-standard offer, because it is very likely an even better one will come in in the near future.

5. Enlist Qualified Professional Assistance

The key to having a smooth, fast home-selling process is to make sure that the real estate professionals you deal with are qualified and experienced in your type of real estate situation. This not only applies to your choice of a real estate agent, but also to other professionals such as lawyers and title companies. Too often, sellers simply hiring the first business they come across which can often lead to less-than-perfect service and a slower transaction. Always look for trusted reviews of a company before hiring them for the sale. Your real estate agent will also be able to provide feedback on a number of different companies in all real estate fields thanks to their frequent dealings with a wide range of businesses.

By paying close attention to these five mistakes that many sellers often make, you will be able to sell your home faster and for a higher price. If you are just now considering entering the seller's market and putting your property for sale, find out what your San Diego house is worth through our property value calculator estimator.