4 things NOT to do when selling

Selling your home or condo can be a pretty daunting and time consuming task.  Especially in the Myrtle Beach and Grand Strand Market.  With over 5,000 homes and over 3,000 condos on the market at any given time, it can leave many home sellers very frustrated and resigned. Buyers have a lot of options and access to all the information and research necessary in order to be extremely selective and not over pay for a property.  If not done correctly, your property can very well likely get lost in the ocean of properties being offered for sale in our market and just sit there with little or not interest from buyers.

Luckily, we have been doing this for some time and know what pitfalls or mistakes to avoid.  Here are the 4 major things that you should NOT do when selling your home or condo.

1. Don’t … overprice your home or condo.

You know, I know and most importantly the consumer knows what you paid for your property and honestly 2 out of the 3 don’t care.  Whether you bought high or low, it does not matter when it comes to selling.  All that matters is what the value of the property is today.  And what determines what a property is today is what a buyer is willing to pay for your property today.  In some cases your property may have appreciated.  However, based on when you purchased and on what the market conditions are, your property could also have depreciated. Pricing your home too high will keep people away from viewing it and more importantly deter them from making an offer, leaving your property sitting there on the market.

Do:  Use our property valuation tool or give us a call and we will do all the research and give you an estimate of what the property is worth.  Free of charge. This way there is no guessing game and you are positioned to get your property sold.

2. Don’t … show signs of neglect.

First impressions are everything when it comes to selling a home.  Most buyers buy based on emotion and when they see your home, you want to bring up good emotions and feelings.  Go around and make minor repairs.  Clean out the gutters, patch up the holes, fix leaky faucets and any other minor thing that could leave a bad impression on a buyer.

Do: Take a walk around your own home, as if you are the buyer and see what you would notice if you were buying the property.  Make a list of these items and get them fixed.

3. Don’t … show it all.

Buyers do not want to take a tour in time and see how you and your family lived in the house over the years and how your kids grew up.  They want to visualize themselves living there and raise their kids in that home.  They want to be able to move in and make it their home.  Don’t have a house that is cluttered with furniture, family pictures and your years and years of things you collected.  You want buyers to feel like they could move in today and make it their home with their things.

Do: Minimize the amount of furniture you have.  Make the home more spacious looking.  Take the things that you do no use on a daily basis and put into storage.  Take down all the magnets off the refrigerator and all the family pictures.

4. Don’t … try it on your own.

Many people think that it is easy to sell a home.  Just a put a for sale sign in the yard and boom, you have a sale.  The reality is that it is not easy.  If it were that easy then every property ever listed for sale would sell.  As a matter of fact it is difficult and very time consuming.  After you avoiding the 3 Don’t above now it comes down to marketing and selling the property.  There are some markets in the country where they have a scarcity of homes for sale.  Buyers are waiting for a home to go on the market.

Not in Myrtle Beach. With over 5,000 homes and over 3,000 condos on the market it is difficult to make your property stand out.  How will you get it front of the right buyer with all the competition out there.  And if you happen to get lucky and find a buyer, research shows that buyers of For Sale By Owner offer significantly less money than buyers of a property listed by an agent.  Again the buyer has access to all the information.  They know that you are not paying an agent so they squeeze for that difference and sometimes more.

Don’t get caught up on the dream of saving the commission.  Look at what you will put in your pocket at the end of the day.  Research shows that having the right agent makes it more likely to get sold and more likely to net you more money in your pocket at the end of the day.  Buyers may fool a seller but they will never fool a good agent.

Do: Hire a great agent with a proven track record to market, sell and negotiate for you when selling your home.