Spotting A Great Broker

Posted on: 28 October 2018

Selling a home is all about convincing someone to buy it. Some homeowners, though, unwittingly do all they can to scare potential buyers away with the things they say and/or their behavior. If you want to guarantee you don't get any offers on your home, here are two things you should do.

Stick Around for Showings

Sellers who have real estate agents helping them don't need to stick around for home showings, since their agents are fully capable of performing that task. For one reason or another, though, some sellers decide they want to be there when potential buyers take a tour of their homes. While you may have good intentions (e.g. answering questions posed by buyers), this is a bad idea for many reasons.

You may hurt your real estate agent's sales pitch by offering up unnecessary information about the home or neighborhood. Sure, your neighbor's dog has a bad habit of barking at 3 a.m. every day, but is that really something you need to share during a home tour when you're trying to convince people the property is right for them?

Alternatively, you may give into the age-old temptation to do your real estate agent's job and hard sell the home to shoppers. The problem is what you think are your home's highlights may not be as important to potential buyers as they are to you. That sunroom off the kitchen may make a great play area for children, but that may not appeal to a couple who are childless and plan to remain so.

When it comes to showings, it's best to make yourself conspicuously absent and let your real estate agent, who you're paying, do all the talking. You're more likely to get better results in the long run.

Set the Price Too High

Another way to scare off potential home buyers is to set the sale price too high. You know buyers will negotiate the price, so you may think that setting it at a top-tier amount will help ensure you ultimately get the price you want. Unfortunately, the only thing overpricing your home will accomplish is cause buyers to pass by your home and move on to the one down the road that fits into their budgets better. This can cause your home to languish on the market, which is undesirable since buyers may think it's sitting there unsold because there's something wrong with it and avoid it for that reason also.

If you really want to sell your home, follow your real estate's advice about the listing prices. He or she has access to an enormous amount of data that helps him or her pinpoint the right price to attract buyers and get the house sold.

For more tips on selling a home or, at least, avoiding scaring off buyers, contact a real estate agent.